February 11^th, 2005 (12:30pm) - Sega has revealed that the company is looking to establish a UK development studio in central England that will focus on the development of racing games based on old and new Intellectual Properties (IP).

“The racing genre is a consistent high performer within the video games market and Sega has some of the most prestigious and exciting racing IP,” said Guy Wilday, Sega of Europe head of Senior PD consultant.

Wilday also mentioned that this new racing studio’s focus would be the development of racing games for the next generation of home consoles.

“Due to the current state within the console cycle, the major focus for this studio will be next generation titles,” he explained. “The studio will concentrate on innovative new iterations of existing franchises and on the development of new game IP, not ports of existing franchises.”

At the current time Sega is in the planning stages of selecting the premises for the development facility as well as building the core development team. A recent job ad for the new development studio mentions that accepted applicants can look forward to developing next gen installments of popular Sega franchises including Sega Rally and Crazy Taxi.

“There was an opportunity for us to capitalize on the potential by working with the very best people in the industry to move these franchises onto next-gen technology.”