How much do you think the latest Codemasters games have cost to develop? A game like GRID you would have thought would cost at least £10 million. In fact GRID only cost about £6.8 million to make according to this MCV report.

According to Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens GRID is expected to make around £32 million in total, more than enough to recoup those development costs. With Operation Flashpoint 2 also expected to cost less than $20 million to make times ahead look good for Codemasters with their low-cost, high-gain approach to the industry.

In additional Codemasters news it has emerged (via RPS) that Overlord II is currently in development. A followup to the demonic minion mastering havoc ruling game from 2007 the new game, coming 2009 will feature new minion mechanics, bigger battles and the Roman Empire.

I have enjoyed the past two racing games from Codemasters, I found DiRT and GRID two highly enjoyable racing games. However on word earlier this year about the team acquiring the F1 license I became quite nervous about what direction Codies would take the new game. I feared that a continuation of the arcade stylings of their previous two games would have a negative impact on the F1 game, however word has reached me (via Kotaku) that Codies are intent on creating a game totally different to DiRT and GRID.

In a post on the F1 Game forums the GRID Executive Producer had this to say:

GRID and DiRT are aimed at an arcade audience and they do that very well. F1 has different requirements and will get a completely different treatment from our in-house team, including full on sim options, physics, rules and regs etc. We will also have arcade requirements catered for as well. How this will be split we do not know yet, but split it will be

Which is certainly good news for all of us die-hard F1 fans who are looking forward to some good ole F1 action!

I feel that I need to follow up and update yesterdays post regarding Codemasters, GRID and Steam.

First off GRID is not going to be the first Codemasters title to appear on Steam. Currently Overlord and Clive Barker’s Jericho are present and available on Steam. It did take some searching to find them, but at least it is good to see that Codies already have a Steam presence.

In an update directly concerning GRID becoming available on Steam, another Community Manager has come forth with information. This time jigglybean reveals that Codies are currently “chasing the details regarding Steam and will make a post once we know more information.”

So bear with both Steam and Codemasters, I am sure that soon enough we will see GRID on Steam.

While there has been no official confirmation yet (email sent to PR, no response as of yet) it is seeming ever more likely that Codemasters is coming to Steam. Both the FAQ for Race Driver GRID and a post by Rich Tysoe the GRID Community Manager mention that GRID will be coming onto Steam.

The latter post says that GRID will be available on Steam today, the same day that GRID is released in the US. It also states that it will be a worldwide Steam release. So no region locking from Codemasters then it seems. Expect clarification on this later today.

The Codemasters FAQ for Race Driver: GRID has been put online and provides an interesting insight into the balance between the Arcade and Simulation aspects of the game.

Some big things come out in this FAQ and that is that this is much more of an Arcadey game than previous Codemasters racing games have been.

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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.