Codemasters splashes cash on Swordfish Birmingham

As we revealed yesterday, the buyer for the other half of Swordfish Studios has today been named – with Codemasters swooping to acquire Swordfish Birmingham to create its fourth development studio.

The move comes following Activision Blizzard’s July announcement that it plans to ‘realign or divest’ assets unwanted from its merger with Vivendi, and then Nottingham, UK-based Monumental’s announcement it would buy half of Swordfish earlier this week.

Codemasters will turn the office into Codemasters Birmingham, the Britsoft firm’s fourth development resource after Codemasters Studios Guildford, UK (opened last year), Codemasters Studios Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (opened in 2006) and its central HQ base which operates from Codemasters’ corporate headquarters in Warwickshire, UK.

Trevor Williams, founder and managing director of Swordfish Studios, will continue to lead the studio, reporting to Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios.

The studio will create original content using Codemasters’ EGO Engine, which has powered the likes of Colin McRae: Dirt, Race Driver: One, and the upcoming Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising.

“We are committed to growing our studio operations across multiple facilities and increasing the internal capability of Codemasters’ creative resource,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP of Codemasters Studios.

“There is a strong heritage and a compatible skill set, which has enabled us to fast track growth plans and allows for ease of management. Codemasters has ramped up as a UK games development powerhouse with a scalable support infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of the highly versatile EGO Engine.”