Codemasters Asks for Money from Former Bodycount Developers

The developers who were employees of the now closed down Guilford studios of Codemasters have been asked by the company to return a part of their paycheck that was apparently awarded based on a miscalculation.

The company sent the employees letters that said each final paycheck contained an “overpayment” and asked for the sum to be returned and then threatened those who were not ready to do so with legal action.

Semi Essessi, who is one of the developers affected by the decision, has stated, “Everyone had received a bit extra and after lots of pub discussion the overriding opinion was that they had seen sense and decided to pay us all bit extra to keep us quiet about just how illegally the studio had been running.”

Employees thought that the extra payment was linked to a re-evaluation of the overtime payment policy of Codemasters, which was previously questioned.

Essessi says that the working conditions at the Codemasters Guilford studios violated the European Working Time Directive because the company did not allows the employees enough rest time after long work shifts.

Codemasters has not officially answered the allegations but has stated that it was in dialog with the fired developers and that it has not yet launched any legal action in order to get the money back.

It’s not clear whether the company can take back money from its former employees but it seems that at least some of those targeted are not willing to pay and will try to expose the hard working conditions at the company.

The Guilford studios was shut down after the launch of Bodycount, a first person shooter video game that failed to be successful commercially or critically.

Long working hours and crunch periods have become a standard of the video game development cycle and a number of employees are seeking to fight this state of affairs and get better working conditions.