Sega acquires Two Point Hospital developer Two Point Studios
A healthy prognosis.
Sega has announced that it's acquiring Two Point Studios, the British developer behind Two Point Hospital - last year's enormously enjoyable, thoroughly charming spiritual successor to classic business sim Theme Hospital.
The now 17-strong team at Two Point Studios, which is based in Farnham if you're at all interested in tangental geographic trivia, was formed in 2016 by Gary Carr, Mark Webley, and Ben Hymers. All three previously worked at Lionhead Studios (known for the likes of Fable and Black & White), while Carr and Webley were both once part of legendary British developer Bullfrog Productions, the studio responsible for Theme Park, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper, Magic Carpet, and Syndicate, among other incontestable classics.
Two Point Hospital, of course, drew heavily on Bullfrog's work, sprucing up Theme Hospital's much-loved formula with all sorts of mod-cons. The end result was a critical and - according to publisher Sega - commercial hit, and the newly announced acquisition is down to that successful partnership. Two Point Studios will join other developers under Sega's wing, including Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive, Relic Entertainment, and Amplitude Studios.
According to Sega, Two Point Studios has several "exciting unannounced projects" in the works, and more news on those will be shared soon. "We're looking forward to executing the next phase of our plans as we continue to evolve Two Point County", teased Webley - echoing earlier comments from the developer, prior to the launch of Two Point Hospital, that it hoped to expand on the game's world, revisiting familiar characters and places, in future titles.
What those titles might be, though, is anyone's guess. The tycoon genre has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence in recent times - already bringing us management games focussed on theme parks, dinosaurs, hospitals, prisons, schools, supermarkets, and more, not to mention Frontier's upcoming Planet Zoo - so it'll be interesting to see what Two Point Studios opts for next. Personally, I'm hankering for a modern-day take on developer Mucky Foot Productions' cult classic spaceship sim Startopia (which Carr also worked on).