I read yesterday somewhere that Sony was giving up on the F1 licence as Bernie Ecclestone the F1 ringmaster was demanding too much money for it. I instantly hoped that Codemasters would pick it up. Codemasters are famed (by me) for their racing games with GRID soon to be their newest addition.

Now CVG reports that Codemasters have indeed picked up the F1 licence and, unlike Sony are intending to take the F1 franchise to all home consoles and the PC.

Previously Sony had kept their F1 games limited to Sony consoles, a move which greatly limited the potential for massive sales of a game based on such a popular sport.

Rod Cousens, Codemasters CEO told CVG the following:

“As a world-leading creator of driving games, this alliance with Formula 1 is the jewel in Codemasters’ racing crown and creates an undisputed segment champion.”

Expect more information to come out later this year with plans for a new F1 title to coincide with the 2009 season opener in Australia.

That says it all doesn’t it, Codemasters love their racing games and they also love to drift! I myself am not a big fan of drifting, it is a very Need for Speed sensation and is one I just don’t like in a serious racing game. Though if Codemasters like it then so be it.

Not much else to say really apart from the fact that if I was to make another Codemasters related news post it would be entitled ‘Codemasters Love To Play Queens of the Stoneage Mixes!’.

Codemasters are great at making racing games, we have seen series’ such as Colin McRae and TOCA emanate from them and soon we will see GRID appear. To add to their impressive resume of racing games and work they have acquired UK-based Sega Racing Studio, the team that was behind Sega Rally Revo and which was closed earlier in the month by Sega.

Rod Cousens, chief executive of Codemasters had this to say about the takeover to Next-Gen.biz

“In seizing this opportunity, we have created additional resources to escalate our plans in the racing segment,

“We hope to welcome more than 40 people to the company and we have enjoyed the full co-operation of our friends at Sega in making this happen. It is good business for Codemasters, an exciting prospect and there will be more to come as we are not content to stand still.”

Can we expect to see another racing game get put into development while GRID is finished off, or will this new team work on GRID? I myself wouldn’t be surprised if they started work on a new rally game in the same vein as Colin McRae DIRT.

One thing we can say though is that Codies sure do love to race!

Codemasters Online has announced a new gaming event known as ‘Connect 2008′ which is due to be held in Birmingham’s Omega Sektor on March 14-15.

Connect is Codemasters Online’s premier 2-day community event uniting players across the globe from all of our MMORPG games including:

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach
RF Online
Archlord

This is sure to be an exciting event giving gamers an excellent chance of seeing these games up close and personal.

According to GameSpot:

In addition to sampling the latest Codemaster Online games, Connect 2008 will include giveaways, merchandise, and, according to the publisher, “opportunities to meet the teams behind all of the games and get involved in round table discussions, Q&A sessions and future game content presentations.”

So keep your eyes on the Connect 08 website for all the latest information.