OutRun dev making "bleeding edge" game

OutRun and Virtua Tennis developer Sumo Digital is working on a "bleeding edge" game for a "big hardware company", Eurogamer has learned.

The Sheffield studio's big project is "probably a year and a half" from release, but it's got unannounced games in the works for SEGA that are due out next year and in 2012.

"I would say if you've been a Sumo fan, if you like the products that we do, then you're not going to be disappointed in the future," James North-Hearn, CEO of Sumo parent company Foundation 9 Entertainment told Eurogamer.

"What do I mean by that? What I mean is, the kind of products you would expect Sumo to produce are the products they're working on now.

"If you look at the kind of products Sumo has done in the past, arcadey, handheld, racing, we're still there. We're doing some great work. They're doing one project that's very bleeding edge, that's probably a year and a half still from market, but when it comes out people will appreciate it's very different - that's being sponsored by a big hardware company.

"So we're working on some stuff that's a way out. But we continue to work very closely with SEGA and we hope to have some more products coming out with SEGA. We've got some stuff due out in 2011 and some in 2012. One hopes people will recognise them as very SEGA and Sumo-type products."

Sumo is perhaps best known for its work on the OutRun arcade racing series for Japanese publisher SEGA.

It developed downloadable game OutRun Online Arcade for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, Outrun 2 for the Xbox, Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast and Outrun 2SP for the PlayStation 2.

More recently it released Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, Formula 1 2009, the PSP version of Split/Second: Velocity and Virtua Tennis 2009.

Unfortunately for OutRun fans, Sumo is not working on a new game in the iconic series.

"We're not working on another OutRun game," North-Hearn confirmed. "That's the truth. I think it's a pity because I bloody love it. Maybe there will be another OutRun, I've got no idea. At the moment we're not currently involved in another OutRun product, but there may or may not be one somewhere else in Japan.

"The stuff we're currently doing, most of it is new titles. I think it's already been announced that we're going to do some more Doctor Who downloads – interesting exercise."

But of course Sumo is making a racing game?

"Yes. Yes, we are working on racing products, for sure."

For SEGA?

"I'm not saying who for. I said for sure."