Sports Interactive Limited

Overview

Sports Interactive Limited is a company based in the United Kingdom which develops sports management games. In addition to Football/Soccer, SI's stable of games includes management sims for other sports including Baseball and Hockey.

The company was initially founded by Paul and Oliver Collyer in Islington, North London, United Kingdom, to create their own games. The founding year was 1994 although it did not become a "registered" company until 1995.

Before establishing their own company, the brothers had programmed their first game European Championship, which became the first Championship Manager, inspired by Addictive Games' Football Manager. Even though Domark Ltd. published the game and changed the name, the Collyer brothers held the rights to the programming codes. Thus, the company was able to continue with the successful series and profit from it even after Eidos acquired the name when it acquired Domark. Under the Eidos banner, new Championship Manager games were released each year.

The first game developed by the company entity was Championship Manager 2, released in September 1995. When Sports Interactive changed publishers to SEGA in Feb. 2004, the "Championship Manager" name could no longer be used. The name "Football Manager" name was revived in 2004 with the release of Football Manager 2005.

In April 2006 Sports Interactive was acquired by Sega Holdings Europe Ltd. The company operates as a subsidiary of SEGA and retains legal rights to the brands and logos.

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