F1 2011 Codemasters to continue as a racing game developer only?

[Bram Hengeveld]

Codemasters closes their Guildford based development studio according to GameIndustry.biz most recently responsible for the shooter Bodycount.

According to the press release below they will now focus on racing.

"Codemasters' future product development strategy will see additional studio resource invested to extend its world-class racing portfolio. The company is increasing the size of existing development teams at its on-campus studios in Warwickshire (DiRT, GRID, F1 Online, Central Technology/EGO) while forming a further team to work alongside the F1 2011 team at its Birmingham studio on a new racing title.

In line with the strategy, the company is proposing to retire from its facility in Guildford, most recently responsible for the shooter Bodycount. If progressed, the move will affect 66 Guildford studio personnel; staff are now involved in a consultation period to discuss the proposal.

As Codemasters looks to take greater leadership in the racing category, the company is proposing a studio structure that adds resource and strengthens our best-in-class racing teams. The output from the studios on the Warwickshire campus and in Birmingham is on the increase with multiple continuing game series, brand extensions and new racing IPs in production. Both the Warwickshire and Birmingham studios have won BAFTAs for their critically acclaimed, multi-million selling titles and the company is adding resource to ensure they constantly over achieve in this competitive sector.

Codemasters envisages that it will continue to have a number of open positions within the Racing and Online studio teams at Codemasters' campus in Warwickshire working on Dirt, Grid, F1 Online and with the F1 team in Birmingham, which is being expanded to house a full second team working on a new racing IP. In the event that staff working within the Guildford site are affected by the current proposals, they will be encouraged to apply for suitable positions on campus and in the Birmingham studio."

 

[Paul Lock]

Can a mod move this to the general chat forum please.......... haha


Oooh taxi!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I think this could be relevant to CM's F1 titles. I am not sure though if CM still has the license for the 2012 season.

 

[Paul Lock]

Was just jesting.

I dont think there is a 2012 licence to have until the real teams sign up for the real 2012 season.

 

[Ash Kendall]

I think they have the 2012 license. It's 2013 onwards, from when the new Concorde agreement needs to signed.

 

[Paul Lock]

I think I was more shocked to read that CM didnt only do driving games. I mean - Bodycount? Hmm, must have missed that one like!

 

[Robin Chung]

Interesting move, means they're abandoning things like Operation Flashpoint hmmm

 

[EIF]

I never played Operation Flashpoint but it seems they abandonded it as a soon as it launched. Bodycoutn has been universally panned by critics and gamers. CM seriously need to get their act together. Even their driving games haven't been very good since the good old TOCA and McRae days. Dirt3 and F1 2010 were so lightweight it's not even funny.

 

[Scott Webber]

I think this could be relevant to CM's F1 titles. I am not sure though if CM still has the license for the 2012 season.

Stephen even said in a interview they don't have a license for it yet as the teams haven't even agreed to a new concorde agreement, but then in another interview he said there get back to working on F1 2012 (early plans ofcourse)

so as far as im aware they have no license as of yet to produce a F1 2012 title, i may be wrong ofcourse


To be honest CodeMaster's needs new management, for them to even let their worker's bring out games and not even support their loyal fans is shocking, they are not known for bringing out alot of patches if any at all for some games, their shooting games just fail, they are a racing studio and should focus on that only as they are pretty good at it.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

They will have to spectacular change the game if they do though. Otherwise F1 is turning into the FIFA series where you have to pay a full game price for one new move each season

 

[Scott Webber]

They will have to spectacular change the game if they do though. Otherwise F1 is turning into the FIFA series where you have to pay a full game price for one new move each season

I agree, a very valid point, maybe there put in Dedicated servers next year with 24 players and admin tools?

wait we're talking about Codemaster's here they will never do that. never have never will which is a massive down side to CM.

 

[Oli Peacock]

Bit off topic but im pleased there still working on DiRT and GRID(i know its not a sim, but i like the crash model )

 

[Jan Köhler]

Stephen even said in a interview they don't have a license for it yet as the teams haven't even agreed to a new concorde agreement, but then in another interview he said there get back to working on F1 2012 (early plans ofcourse)

so as far as im aware they have no license as of yet to produce a F1 2012 title, i may be wrong ofcourse

As far as I know, one side (either CM or FOM) has an option to vote for/against a 2010 F1 game, I just don't know who.
The concorde agreement for 2012 is signed by all teams, even the race dates are set already.

For 2013 there is no agreement and it is not set in stone that there will be one. In fact, the team association (don't remember their name, all teams except HRT are in) is maybe planning to run the 2013 on their own, but the information is very vague at the moment, so it's just guesswork.

(Sorry for the little OT)

 

[Gareth Squires]

As far as I know, one side (either CM or FOM) has an option to vote for/against a 2010 F1 game, I just don't know who.
The concorde agreement for 2012 is signed by all teams, even the race dates are set already.

For 2013 there is no agreement and it is not set in stone that there will be one. In fact, the team association (don't remember their name, all teams except HRT are in) is maybe planning to run the 2013 on their own, but the information is very vague at the moment, so it's just guesswork.

(Sorry for the little OT)

The teams always say there going to start their own Championship and it never happens. I thought that they just didn't have the rights to F1 2012 yet (and definitely not from 2013 onwards)? I think Bernie would have to be a major idiot to not give up the license for another year, especially if the Reviews keep rolling out as they are. But you never know with Bernie.

Anyhow I would be kinda glad if they dropped their other non-racer titles because I think Codemasters make excellent racing games (and not so excellent FPS') and that it would be fantastic to have even more ideas go into the (hopefully) up coming F1 games then I think it will be, by a country mile, my favorite game out on the market. Lets just hope in doesn't turn into a yearly update franchise.