Codemasters looks to possible US studio acquisitions

In an interview with GameDaily, Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has said his firm is looking to drive its activity and sales growth in the USA via working closely with American developers.

On discussing the big investments Codemasters has received from Balderton Capital and Goldman Sachs, and the recent strong sales success of its Colin McRae DIRT title in North America, Cousens said: "In order to give yourself the best chance of success in the US marketplace is to work with US developers creating US content for the consumer."

He added: "The main thing is to look for high quality, very creative development studios, and I want to be a magnet for emerging talent; I want to be a talent friendly company and hopefully we’re extremely responsive. If you drew analogies to other forms of entertainment over the recent years you’d look at Miramax, New Line, Pixar, etc. and one day I’d like to have a conversation with you to say that we’ve emulated some of the great things that they’ve done in the form of video games."

Cousens said that the firm could acquire or found new studios in America, but was overall looking to work with good talent in general: "I would say that we’re on the lookout for talent, be that in the form of strategic acquisitions or the creation of development studios or just simply being an outlet for talented developers in the US who want to come to a company that is showing a commitment to create original IP and to be innovative in its output, or innovation as you guys say over there."