Former Codemasters execs heading up Sega Hardlight

The former creative director of Codemasters’ Southam studio is heading up Sega’s new Hardlight studio, Develop can reveal.

Sion Lenton has taken up the position of studio manager, and has joined the founder and studio director Chris Southall, who previously worked as CTO for Sega Europe and Codemasters.

Based in Solihull Sega Hardlight is focusing on the development of digital titles for handheld devices such as iOS, Android and Windows.

Lenton said the developer’s previously announced "unique action adventure" for PS Vita is currenly on hold whilst it "figured out the best way to bring it to market".

The studio will develop its own original titles as well as leveraging Sega’s wide array of IP, and will work across a variety of genres.

As well as working on its own titles, Hardlight has provided support for a number of Sega titles such as Sonic Unleashed, Empire: Total War, Bayonetta and Vanquish.

“We have no plans to limit ourselves to one genre, our ethos is more exploration of ideas and finding mechanics that we feel will stimulate and excite our users,” said Lenton.

“We have a huge box of toys to play with and we’ve only just begun to play with them, we are starting fairly small, leveraging Sega IP and as former console developers, learning about making games in the digital space. As you see our roadmap develop, you’ll see some more surprising & delighting uses of Sega IP, as well as original IP.”

The developer currently houses 21 permanent staff, with some of them from the original Sega Rally team and Sega’s R&D division.

The Solihull division will also use a number of contract staff to develop various tiles on short cycles of four to eight months.

You can read our interview with studio manager Sion Lenton for more information.