Redundancies to Hit Codemasters, New DiRT Game Still in Development

Redundancies to Hit Codemasters, New DiRT Game Still in Development

19
Lee Bradley

British developer Codemasters is to layoff a number of staff, according to the latest reports. The development of the company’s F1 series and an upcoming DiRT title will continue.

Citing “sources close to the studio”, Eurogamer says that 50 jobs are being reviewed, with 30 staff expected to be let go following a 30 day consultation period. Codemastrs employs around 500 staff worldwide.

The redundancies will be focused on staff working at Codemasters’ Warwickshire headquarters. According to the source, programmers and production staff are safe, but designers and artists on the GRID and DiRT series could lose their jobs.

Staff at Codemasters’ Birmingham studio, which focuses on the development of the F1 games, will be unaffected.

Codies is currently working on a new DiRT game with a small team of around 20. That’s down from the 50 or so people who developed GRID Autosport. The studio had hoped to have announced the game by now, but car licenses have yet to be secured.

A Codemasters spokesperson responded to Eurogamer, saying, "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.”

"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.”

Codemasters staff were informed of the consultation period this week. Eurogamer says that senior management are yet to confirm how many people from each department face the axe.

Comments
19
  • Shame to see redundancies anywhere, let alone a developer in Britain. Best of luck to those who sadly are removed.
  • Sad to see people lose jobs. Unfortunately, I have stopped buying CodeMasters products due to major disappointment with their last few games, and DLC policies. In my opinion, they have some of the worst DLC pricing in the entire industry, and they really rely on gouging the customer. Guess that has an impact on sales.
  • Sucks to be the people possibly losing their job. Codemasters make some amazing games and some meh games they really are all over the place.
  • @2 totally agree. The last few Dirt/Grid games weren't up to their standards either, which have hurt their brand.
  • also yes. dirt games have suck after 3 and dlc prices are a joke.
  • they should have made overlord 3 not another racing game >_>
  • I agree. Too much racing, not enough Overlording!!
  • Well put #2. Agree completely.
  • As long as they deliver an awesome F1 game for PS4 thats all i care about but if that fails EA know or at least knew how to make F1 games so maybe they can get that license back
  • They BETTER go back to the DiRT 2 days, or they're going to lose even more fans than they already have.
  • Grid Autosport would have been a money maker if they didn't make it such a terrible terrible grind.
  • In reference to #12, there must be a way to stop "users" with zero forum posts from commenting on articles here! Sick of seeing this rubbish all over the place! Back on topic never good to see redundancies and unfortunately looks like we may end up with as good as a monopoly in terms of video game development and the only things that suffer there are quality and the consumer!
  • Blame the latest F1 game on this :P It was terrible.
  • F1 2014 not on ps4 or xboxone. Boom! That's one big mistake!
  • @15 True
  • @13. So if I dont post in the forums, then I have no say about a game? (Having not seen @12 post) whatever it was. I don't really need to scroll down a bunch of useless topics (to me) and post on each one! I'm here to post my opinion on a Game in the news article. So go get some more forum posts because only 197 is weak! OT. I havent played a codemasters' game in awhile. Still waiting for a great F1 title lol. It is very unfortunate for anyone to lose their job in any industry. Perhaps go back to the less is more way :) none of this overpriced dlc.
  • Shame to see redundancies, but they aren't doing very well at the moment. My friend works at the one in Birmingham, glad for him they won't be affected. @13 What do forum posts have to do with comments on a news article?
  • @17, 18 - @13 was referring to the influx of spam. These are from dummy accounts, created solely for the purpose of spamming threads with advertising. They get shut down, but then another spam account pops up. I agree with @13 - if you required a 5 or 10 forum post count before being able to post in the news sections, it would shut down a lot of the spam. (I know nothing will completely stop spam, but any additional steps that act as a deterrent will encourage the spammers to move on to an easier target on some other site) If people can't be bothered with the forums, personally I'm not sure I would miss their comments in the news threads. This is a great community, get involved!
  • Grid bored the pants off me, to be honest. Grid 2 was better, but I just feel the format needs a massive revamp. Can we do something different with racing games other than starting in a golf buggy in the Pee Wee Cup and working our way up to a Bugatti Rocket Car in the World Series? Maybe some side missions where you moonlight as an Uber driver for extra cash? Or deciding which pose to strike in your TAG Heuer photo shoot?
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