Dundee sports games developer claims football first after inking global deal

A Dundee-based games developer has inked a global publishing deal for what is being billed as the world’s first real time, player-versus-player football management team game for mobile devices.

Dundee-based sports video games developer Digital Sports Arena has agreed a global publishing deal with Playstack.

Digital Sports Arena (DSA) said it had secured a publishing deal with international games group Playstack for its latest creation, GameDayLive.

The game was developed by the Tayside firm in partnership with Hyper Luminal Games, and is set for a global launch during 2021.

Digital Sports Arena comprises a Bafta award-winning team of games industry executives who previously developed the successful Championship Manager mobile franchise for Square Enix.

Bosses said GameDayLive was differentiated from legacy football management games like Championship Manager, Top Eleven and Football Manager as it is aimed at more casual players – a fast-growing market segment in mobile gaming.

The global mobile games market was valued at some $77 billion (£57bn) in 2020 and it is estimated that it will grow to more than $100bn by 2023.

Sean Tracey, chairman of Digital Sports Arena, said: “DSA is excited to have its first developed game signed up by the London-based international gaming publishers Playstack, specialists in mobile handheld games.

“We look forward to working on this exciting collaboration in 2021 and the opportunity of bringing the game to the mobile gaming marketplace. Special thanks goes to our development team and Hyper Luminal for helping to achieve this significant milestone.”

Harvey Elliott, founder and chief executive of Playstack, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Digital Sports Arena and their innovative new football management game – GameDayLive.

“Playstack is constantly on the look out for new games that can cut through in the busy app stores and truly engage players, and we are confident that GameDayLive has all of the right ingredients for success.”

Kevin Grainger of Eos Advisory, one of DSA’s investors, added: “DSA was the first investment Eos made as a new angel syndicate back in 2015. Whilst our investment focus has now evolved into early stage ‘deep science’, Eos had belief in DSA and their vision for a new type of casual football management game from the start.”

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