It appears that UK publisher Codemasters has decided to ditch the action genre all together. After how poorly both Operation Flashpoint: Red River and Bodycount performed last year, the publisher is looking to put all focus on taking over the racing genre in Europe. In an interview with Eurogamer, Codemasters has announced it will now be shipping future racing titles under the label Codemasters Racing, though the company will still remain under the Codemasters name.
“Racing is the absolute razor focus for all titles currently in development and those slated for future development across the studios in Warwickshire and Birmingham … The focus is an exclusive one, there are no other genre properties in development at this time; racing is everything. We are also increasing headcount across the operation, which currently employs around 700. We are expanding the teams by a further 100+ development positions, which are opening over the course of the year across the sites.”
It’s nice to see a publisher actually announcing the ‘creation’ of jobs after a major change up, but it looks like Bodycount will never see a sequel… shocker. However, fans of the Operation Flashpoint series will probably be sad to see the franchise end, at least for now. Don’t hold your breath though, between the DiRT, F1, and GRID franchises and 800+ employees, it seems we are more likely to see a number of highly polished racing titles over the next several years at the very least.
DiRT Showdown will launch with the new Codemasters Racing label as well as a new community portal, Racing Net. The new community site will be for all of Codemasters’ racing titles and allow players to set up challenges for each other or team up to unlock in game rewards. DiRT Showdown will release next month for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Now, we have a moment of silence for Operation Flashpoint; at least, the fans will. Where ever they are, probably playing ARMA.
