Long renowned UK based developer Codemasters, best known for releasing autosport based games such as Dirt, GRiD, and the F1 series, appears to be in trouble- the studio, it has been confirmed, was just hit by a round of layoffs, with 50 jobs being reviewed, and as many as 30 of those slated to go.
“As Codemasters continues its programme of strategic realignment in line with market changes, the company has reviewed its current structures to focus on areas of increased importance and decrease resources in areas where work requirements have been reduced,” a company spokesperson told Eurogamer.
“As a result of this review, a small number of roles have been proposed as being at risk of redundancy. Those in potentially affected roles are now involved in a consultation period to discuss the proposal. The proposal does not affect the on-going production of titles in development and no projects have been cancelled as a result of the proposal.”
I’d love to tell you that games you are looking forward to, such as the new Dirt game, won’t be affected by any of this, but then I would be lying, as it has been confirmed that the team working on that game has been reduced to just about 20 people- which is, incidentally, far less than the number of people who were working on Grid Autosport. Codemasters assures us, however, that work on that game is continuing uninhibited.
The studio currently has at least two games in the pipeline- the next generation version of F1 2014, slated to release some time in the first half of this year, and a new Dirt game. We will keep you posted.