Codemasters is growing. They’ve acquired former Activision Vivendi developers Swordfish Studios, and consequently have a new Birmingham site to add to their network. As you might know, they already have bases in Southam, Guildford, and slightly further afield in Kuala Lumpur…
Codemasters’ New Birmingham Studio to be led by Swordfish Founder Trevor Williams.
Friday, 14th November 2008 (10am UK TIME) – Facilitating an accelerated expansion of its development talent base, Codemasters® today announced it has reached an agreement with Activision Vivendi to take over Swordfish Studios, the Birmingham-based games development house. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal brings immediate additional resource to Codemasters’ development operations. Under the terms of the agreement Swordfish Studio’s development team will be integrated and managed as part of Codemasters’ network of studios. Trevor Williams, founder and managing director of Swordfish Studios, will continue to lead the studio reporting to Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios.
Carrying the Codemasters Studios imprint, the studio will create original content using the company’s proprietary EGO Engine, the technology behind racing hits Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID and is currently powering the highly-anticipated Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.
“We are committed to growing our studio operations across multiple facilities and increasing the internal capability of Codemasters’ creative resource,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios. “There is a strong heritage and a compatible skill set, which has enabled us to fast track growth plans and allows for ease of management. Codemasters has ramped up as a UK games development powerhouse with a scalable support infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of the highly versatile EGO Engine.”
With a 15-year heritage, Swordfish is a past recipient of Best UK Studio in the Develop Industry Excellence Awards and Best Company in the TIGA Awards. Swordfish and Codemasters have partnered previously for the development of hit sports titles Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 and Jonah Lomu Rugby. Most recently Swordfish led the creation of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for Vivendi.
The Birmingham studio becomes the Codemasters’ fourth major development hub and joins established operations Codemasters Studios Guildford (UK), Codemasters Studios Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and its central base which operates from Codemasters’ corporate headquarters in Warwickshire (UK).
Codemasters continues its recruitment drive for development talent in all studios locations, details of positions are available at www.codemasters.com or email recruitment@codemasters.com
Why is “TIGA” the acronym for The Independent Games Developers Association? Surely it should “IGDA” or “TIGDA”.
I wonder if either of those is a rude word somewhere in the world, or maybe “TIGA” sounds more aggressive.
One of the “roar” deals the organisation is seeking to address, and one it should be praised for, is the campaigning it undertakes on behalf of its members by lobbying the UK Government for the Games (Developer) industry to get similar advantages to those given to the British Film & TV sectors.
Before all industries can be treated equally (so that Games Developers can also qualify for ’state aid’ tax incentives, for instance), the games sector has to be a seen as a “cultural industry” under European Union laws.
Perhaps Codemasters have acquired the remainder of Swordfish Studios following the sale of their Manchester operation to Monumental Games (who described themselves as “the UK’s fastest growing developer of middleware technology for Massively Multi-Player Online gaming and Virtual Worlds”) to focus on new intellectual property to expand the Codemasters portfolio into genres previously untouched by the Company.
I hope they continue to develop titles such as the Spring 2009 release “Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising” as this was sounding like a very worthwhile addition to both the PS3 & Xbox 360 “shooter” titles.
[ /blog/2008/09/image-metrics-and-codemasters-team-up-for-operation-flashpoint-2/ ]
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Nov 14, 2008 @ 9:23 pm
Maybe they’re just big fans of Winnie The Pooh?
Comment by JohnSketch — Nov 15, 2008 @ 3:23 am
Sounds like an act of desperation. Their recent releases have been rubbish, to put it mildly. “Fall Of Liberty” or whatever it was called, felt more like a short PS2 shooter, than an epic PS3 release. Which it could’ve been, had they actually invested in the game properly.
I think Codemasters should be spending more money per title and work on less titles, rather than ‘wasting’ it on another studio.
It’s either that or it could be that they’re going to give up releasing games and focus on middleware from now on.
Comment by Zed Zee — Nov 17, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
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