Developer The Chinese Room has announced that it has gained its independence from parent company Sumo Digital. According to IGN, The Chinese Room has said that the studio will be headed up by Ed Daly, who has served the studio as its director. The deal itself was facilitated by Hiro Capital – a venture capital firm.
“The Chinese Room is a huge British success story that has rightly been recognised as a unique creative force capable of competing on the world stage,” said Hiro Capital partner Spike Laurie. “From hiring British people to making games set in the UK, they’ve been one of our foremost creative studios and now they are once again in charge of their own destiny while remaining British.
“We are at risk of overlooking these creative gems and letting them be sold to overseas corporations,” Laurie continued. “That is a travesty for the $5.5 billion British gaming industry which has a world-renowned reputation. We need to nurture this talent and support it through difficult times, because it is one of our leading creative exports.”
The studio has also stated that Sumo Digital was looking into selling The Chinese Room to a private equity firm. It is also worth noting that the studio’s former parent company had previously announced that it would not be continuing its work on original franchises. Rather, it plans to focus “exclusively on development services for partners”.
“This management buyout allows us to scratch the creative itch of continuing to work on new, original intellectual property, but also to partner with other studios on other projects when they fit in with our vision,” Daly said. “This is what we are doing and we want to carry on doing it, so we’re happy to carry on in this vein.”
As part of this announcement, The Chinese Room has also confirmed that it is working on two new IPs in development. These projects, it is worth noting, are completely separate from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, the publishing of which is being handled by Paradox Interactive.
Sumo Digital had announced its acquisition of The Chinese Room all the way back in 2018. At the time, the studio had agreed to be acquired by Sumo Digital because it was facing a difficult decision in light of its closure back in 2017.
The most recent release by The Chinese Room was its recent horror title Still Wakes the Deep. The game, released back in June 2024 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, also got its first story DLC—Siren’s Rest—just last month. For more details about the horror game and its DLC, check out our reviews of Still Wakes the Deep and Siren’s Rest.
In our review, we gave the base game a score of 7 out of 10. We praised its engaging story and well written and voiced characters, while also criticising how it wasn’t able to take full advantage of its setting and for being a bit too straightforward and simplistic. As for Siren’s Curse, we gave it a score of 5 out of 10.
