Sports specialist, er, Sporty Group has acquired Sociable soccer from Tower Games. 

No figure has been put on the deal, which is the company's first foray into the video games space.

Sociable Soccer is the spiritual successor to Tower's Sensible Soccer franchise, which was led by creative director Jon Hare (pictured). He will still continue to spearhead development under the new regime. 

“I am very proud of my games and business legacy," Hare said.  

"It is no mean feat to have run two independent games studios generating numerous successful original IPs spanning five decades and to have now sold both businesses while continuing to develop best-selling games with fans around the world. In recent years, game development and publishing has become more complex than ever and the landscape ever more competitive, making it harder for titles to find their audience. Bringing our talented development team under the Sporty umbrella allows us to continue to focus on what we do best, designing and creating hit games for as many platforms and gamers as possible. To be able to do this safely in the knowledge that we have a highly successful, growing sports entertainment conglomerate behind us makes Sporty the ideal partner for us as it will allow us to build better games and expand our audience."

Sport Group VP of biz dev Gregory Parsons added: "As we continue to enhance and diversify Sporty Group’s overall portfolio, we have been considering adding a football video game to the Sporty ecosystem. As part of this process, we have investigated a number of opportunities in the sector. Once we sat down with Jon and his team it was clear that we shared the same ambitions and we were only too happy to bring them into the Sporty family. We have great plans for the future of Sociable Soccer and view this as just the beginning of a journey."