Acora and SEGA® Europe Ltd. Boost Partnership with Business Transformation Focused Relocation

Acora, UK mid-market IT outsourcing specialists, today announced the strengthening of its close partnership with SEGA® Europe Ltd, following the successful relocation of development studio, Hardlight Studios. Due to the popularity of its Apple iOS / Google Android franchises, Hardlight Studios needed a new working environment that would enhance the development of the interactive entertainment it is famous for.

Stuart Wright, IT Director of IT & Networks at SEGA Europe Ltd. said, “We’ve been working closely with Acora for many years and its standard of service is always of the highest degree. This project was no exception. Hardlight Studios is responsible for some extremely popular franchises, so work on its current roster of games could not be impacted at all. As a choice partner (of which we have only four), we were confident Acora could deliver time effectively, on-budget and with no downtime. We were certainly not disappointed.”

Working closely with Acora, in just two months SEGA’s staff were relocated from the original Solihull office, which the company had outgrown, to the new Leamington Spa facilities which had been built with Hardlight Studios’ specific requirements in mind.

Hardlight Studios is now able to hire more staff to meet development demands, work on more ambitious titles and most importantly, is now supported by a network focused around high performance, availability and flexibility.

Specific improvements include new underlying infrastructure that can easily cope with the performance requirements of complex video game development, therefore allowing Hardlight Studios to continue supporting popular games like Sonic Jump™ and Sonic Dash™ with little impact to the on-going creative process.

Jide Agbalaya, Systems Administrator Support Technician at SEGA Europe Ltd. continued, “Whenever we work with Acora it is as though the company becomes an extension of our team. They’re easy to work with, are focused on keeping budgets down, flexible and most importantly with a project like this, trustworthy. The tight deadlines associated with gaming mean delivery on-time is crucial, and Acora did just that and more.”

Acora was tasked with completing the relocation with minimal downtime and disruption. Any delay to the project would have had a knock-on effect on SEGA Europe Ltd.’s release scheduling, revenue projections and Hardlight Studios’ reputation.

Even when technology challenges did arise, Acora solved them quickly and efficiently. These included managing the installation of large volumes of cabling, the replacement of existing network equipment, high density testing and the need for the entire office to have perfect connectivity despite difficult building layouts.

David Rabson, CEO at Acora, concluded, “We’re delighted to be one of only four choice partners that SEGA Europe Ltd. works with and we’ve proven that we can meet the demands of the modern technological work place. Out of all the companies servicing the mid-market, SEGA Europe Ltd. chose Acora – that fact certainly says it better than we ever could.”

About SEGA® Europe Ltd.
SEGA® Europe Ltd. is the European Distribution arm of Tokyo, Japan-based SEGA Corporation, and a worldwide leader in interactive entertainment both inside and outside the home. The company develops and distributes interactive entertainment software products for a variety of hardware platforms including PC, wireless devices, and those manufactured by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
SEGA Europe Ltd.’s website is located at www.sega-europe.com.

About Hardlight Studios
Hardlight is SEGA’s third UK based studio whose primary focus is to create high quality and innovative digital content exclusively for the mobile handheld market most notably iOS and Android. The studio has a very clear vision of staying relevant and agile by staying compact, employing the best talent in the industry and working closely with SEGA headquarters. For more information, please visit www.hardlightstudio.com/.