Merseyside computer games firm sold to industry giant Sony for £16m

Sep 25 2007 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

THE owners of a Runcorn-based computer games company have sold their business to industry giant Sony for £16m.

Martin Kenwright and business partner Ian Hetherington completed the deal late last week. The pair will be leaving the business.

Evolution Studios, founded eight years ago, saw turnover race through the £10m mark this year as its principal game, Motorstorm, topped the computer games charts in the world's three biggest markets.

Motorstorm is the best-selling game sold with the PlayStation 3 games console, launched last year. PlayStation3 was launched in Japan and the United States before Christmas and in Europe earlier this year.

Motorstorm is an off-road driving game based on Motor Rallying that made full use of the key advance that PlayStation3 offers compared to its predecessor PlayStation2. The game’s graphics fully utilise the enhanced processing power of Playstation3. The mud that the off-road vehicles drive on is churned up and remains rutted each time the game is played. It means no two sessions are the same.

The game was launched after a period of sustained publicity and promises. One pre-launch claim was it would use true physics – cars would overturn when they were meant to.

Mr Kenwright established Evolution Studios in 1999 with the help of former Psygnosis founder Mr Hetherington, shortly after Mr Hetherington sold the Liverpool-based business to Sony. Mr Kenwright had previously run another business, Digital Image Design, which produced a flight simulation programme.

As well as being sold as a computer game for the general market, a version was sold to the military for training purposes. Mr Hetherington's contacts proved invaluable in helping the business grow.

Liverpool-born Mr Kenwright, cousin of Everton owner Bill Kenwright, held a 75% share of the business, earning him £12m from the sale. Mr Hetherington held most of the rest of the shares. The sellers were advised on the disposal by Liverpool law firm Halliwells.

Sony said the Runcorn facility would be maintained and added that there would be no jobs cuts following their acquisition. The Runcorn studio will be managed by staff at Sony’s Wavertree Technology Park site.

billgleeson