If you've been following the gaming news recently, you'll know that there has recently been a series of developer takeovers, some small, some larger. Well, here's another one. Codemasters, known most for their popular racing games Colin McRae: DiRT, and more recently, Race Driver: GRID, have announced that they will be purchasing Birmingham based developer Swordfish Studios.
Swordfish Studios were the developers of Brian Lara International Cricket 2005, as well as 50 cent: Blood on the Sand, and lately, the PS3 port of World in Conflict. Codemasters cited "the studio will create original content using the company's proprietary EGO Engine, the technology behind racing hits Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID".
Perhaps it seems a little unusual to buy into a studio that's never developed, or even worked on, racing games, but Codemasters want them to do just that, in a move they hope will "add further strength in depth to our development side". The financial details were not disclosed, but questions will be raised no doubt, after all, what would a company that focuses on racing/driving games want so much from a company who has never had worked on such genres?
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see the result of Codemasters' latest purchase, in yet another developer buyout. Not many details have been given away, other than that the studio will be using the 'EGO' engine, which means that they are most likely going to either assist Codemasters with current driving games, or working on a separate game to accompany their current range.
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