Codemasters sues rival for â??staff snatchingâ??

Codemasters is embroiled in a legal dispute with rival local racing studio Playground Games.

The Dirt 2 outfit accuses Playground Games of hiring key Codemasters staff, and thus, trade secrets.

Playground Games opened at the start of 2010, having been established by former Codemasters CEO Nicholas Wheelwright.

Wheelwright previously said The Midlands studio wanted to hire about 20 staff.

Now Codemasters claims in a High Court writ that Playground Games head-hunted and hired key employees with access to trade secrets and confidential information.

Codemasters accuses that the move will give Playground Games a head start of about 12 months in developing and marketing games.

“Those employees constituted a ready-made top-rate racing games development team. Between them they had some 100 years of experience in creating, developing and producing first-class computer racing games,” read the writ, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

The legal dispute continues.