14 DAY TRIAL // Codemasters has revealed that sequels to Operation Flashpoint, DIRT and GRID are on the way, being developed at its Southam studio in the UK. In a recent interview, James Macdonald, senior vice president of production at the company, said that his outfit was involved in many projects across the UK and that it was hiring a lot of developers for these games.
Speaking to Develop, Macdonald described that situation of Codemasters's Britain-based studios, saying that, “We’ve got a major launch with F1 coming up in September and developed at our Birmingham studio, and we hope to draw new IP from there. Our Guildford studio is working hard on Bodycount, and we will be looking to to take that franchise further and further with the addition of more IP.”
The more interesting reveal came when he talked about the Southam subsidiary of Codemasters. “In Southam it’s full Steam ahead with the next iteration in our Flashpoint series, as well as the next Dirt and Grid. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out.” While it was quite predictable that we would a see a sequel for all of these three titles, it is nice to hear some official word on the subject.
The wealth of projects at Codemasters has prompted the company to go ahead and increase it ranks.“We are currently in the middle of a major recruitment drive across all three of those sites. There will be major expansion in that sense over the coming year,” said Macdonalds about the company's aims in the UK.
This comes to quell rumors that have surfaced after Indian multimedia company Reliance Big Entertainment bought a 50 percent stake in Codemasters. They were saying that this would result in many of Codemasters UK studios being closed in favor of Indian developers. In the same interview, Gavin Cheshire, vice president of studios went on to say that, “this is absolutely not the case. There are obviously some ‘strategic’ moves for both partners, but in terms of development at the level we’re at, it’s very much about Reliance investing in our skills and abilities over here in the UK.”