Veteran UK developer Codemasters has suffered a spherical of layoffs following the launch of racing video games F1 23 and EA Sports activities WRC.
Codemasters proprietor EA confirmed the redundancies in an announcement issued to IGN, though didn’t disclose the variety of workers affected.
“Our enterprise is continually altering as we attempt to ship superb video games and providers that preserve our gamers engaged, related, and impressed,” an EA spokesperson stated. “At instances, this requires the corporate to make small-scale organizational adjustments that align our groups and sources to satisfy evolving enterprise wants and priorities. We proceed to work intently with these affected by these adjustments, offering acceptable assist all through this course of.”
EA purchased Codemasters, greatest recognized for the racing franchises Grid, F1, and Grime, in 2021 for $1.2 billion. On the time, EA boss Andrew Wilson stated he needed to let the corporate retain its identification with out an excessive amount of exterior interference. Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia left quickly after, and Codemasters, together with Mission Automobiles developer Barely Mad Studios, was made part of EA Sports activities.
Then, in Could final 12 months, EA merged the event workforce at Codemasters Cheshire with Guildford-based Criterion Video games to create one giant growth studio to work on Want for Velocity Unbound, which struggled to seek out an viewers. Codemasters Birmingham continued to work on the Method 1 franchise.
This 12 months, Codemasters launched two racing video games which have struggled to seek out industrial success: F1 23, which got here out in June, and EA Sports activities WRC, which launched in November. Codemasters holds the official licence of the World Rally Championship, and WRC is the studio’s first rally recreation to have the official WRC licence since 2002’s Colin McRae Rally 3. IGN’s WRC assessment returned a 6/10. We stated: “EA Sports activities WRC looks like an ideal racing recreation attempting to combat its means out of an unfinished one.”
The layoffs at Codemasters include EA’s racing recreation franchises floundering. With the Want for Velocity sequence a far cry from the glory days of the mid-2000s, the Burnout sequence useless, and Codemasters’ licensed titles failing to maneuver the needle, the way forward for racing video games on the writer is unclear.
The layoffs additionally come at a very tough time for the online game trade, notably within the UK. Codemasters is only one of quite a few UK online game corporations which have endured monetary issues in 2023. Frontier Developments, which can be going by means of a spherical of redundancies, issued a buying and selling replace after Realms of Spoil gross sales flopped. Worms maker Team17 has issued a revenue warning and is making workers redundant. IGN just lately reported on important redundancies set for Sega-owned Artistic Meeting after the cancellation of extraction shooter Hyenas. Elsewhere, Fall Guys developer Mediatonic was stated to have been “decimated” by layoffs triggered by mum or dad firm Epic Video games, creator of battle royale Fortnite.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.