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Codemasters was presented with the Grand Prix accolade at the Develop Awards last night.
The firm, which celebrates 25 years of business in 2010, is a respected firm at the heart of Britsoft.
As one of the founding firms of the UK games industry – formed in 1985 by brothers David and Richard Darling – it has worked on numerous plaforms as both a developer and publisher.
Today it runs a huge UK operation, which includes three studios, and has an outsourcing studio in Kuala Lumpur. Its key game output of recent years include Colin McRae: DIRT and Race Driver GRID. It famously co-developed its next-gen engine, Ego, in collaboration with Sony as well. Its next games, a Formula One racing game and action title Operation Flashpoint, are hotly tipped for success when they arrive later this year.
And in recent years the firm also grew its team by ‘saving’ staff left out in the cold by local studio closures – it recently purchased Sega’s aborted Racing Studio and Swordfish.
The Grand Prix prize is chosen by the Develop team and is the final award presented at the ceremony, handed out at the event’s climax.
“We are honoured to receive the Develop Grand Prix Award – it’s a testament to the creativity, technical expertise and hard work from everyone at Codemasters,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP of development at Codemasters.
“We’ve strengthened our business to take advantage of the changing landscape of games development. With DiRT, GRID and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising we’ve turned long-standing IPs in to multi-award winning, reinvigorated and successful franchises.
"In the EGO Engine, we’ve created award-winning multi-genre, multi format technology. With Formula One we are creating new gaming benchmarks for the world’s most exciting motor sport.
"We’ve grown our Studios operation, adding Guildford and Birmingham sites to our long-established Warwickshire facility. We have continued to attract the best people and they’re creating brand new titles – the best is yet to come.”
Click here for all our coverage of the Develop Awards, including the full winners list and more
