Actua Sports

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Actua Sports is a British sports video game series created by Gremlin Interactive in the mid-1990s. It was known for its early 3D graphics and motion-capture players. The name Actua was meant to evoke Sega’s Virtua games.

Key titles and highlights:
- Actua Soccer (1995): The first game, famous for its full 3D players and 44 national teams. It was a big UK seller. In 1997, Actua Soccer: Club Edition added Premier League teams.
- Actua Soccer 2 (1997): Also known as Fox Sports Soccer ’99 in North America. It included more leagues, a team creator, and motion capture by real players; Alan Shearer appeared on the cover.
- Actua Soccer 3 (1998): Featured 25 leagues, about 450 teams and over 10,000 players, plus improved graphics and motion capture.
- Actua Golf (1996): The first non-football title; released on PlayStation and Sega Saturn. It had mixed reviews.
- Actua Golf 2 (1997): Also released as Fox Sports Golf ’99 in North America; PC and PlayStation versions with mixed reviews.
- Actua Golf 3 (1998): Released on PlayStation; scored similarly to its predecessor.
- Actua Golf 4 (cancelled): Plans for a fourth golf game were scrapped after Gremlin was bought by Infogrames. It was released later in Europe as PGA European Tour Golf (1999) and in North America as PGA European Tour for Nintendo 64.
- Actua Ice Hockey (1998): The official Nagano Winter Olympics hockey game for PlayStation and Windows.
- Actua Ice Hockey 2 (1999): PS/Windows release; NHL license was dropped and the game was renamed Gremlin Hockey League (GHL).
- Actua Tennis (1998): Used motion capture of real players; featured commentators Sue Barker and Barry Davies; released on PlayStation and Windows.
- Actua Pool (1999): Also known as Pool Shark; a Nintendo DS port appeared in 2007 as Underground Pool in North America, but it wasn’t part of the Actua lineup by then.
- Actua Poker (cancelled): A planned Facebook game announced in 2013 but never released.

After Gremlin was acquired by Infogrames, the studio continued making sports titles under Infogrames Sheffield House, including PGA European Tour Golf, UEFA Challenge, Slam Tennis, and Premier Manager 2000, before the studio closed in 2003. Premier Manager titles continued under other publishers, and some Actua games were later re-released by Zoo Digital Publishing as Zoo Classics.

There was a later attempt to revive Actua with Actua Poker via Kickstarter, but the project never released.