When Rod Cousens took the helm at Codemasters in 2005, he meant what he said about driving growth in the U.S. market with content geared for the American consumer.
More than half of Codemasters' 2008 U.S. line-up will be created by in-house teams or development studios based in the U.S., including Spark Unlimited, inXile Entertainment and Liquid Entertainment. The line-up features games that span hard-core, casual and online content across next generation platforms, PCs and handheld devices.
The company's 2008 content strategy is heavily grounded in sports, entertainment properties and game genres that are popular among U.S. consumers. For example, the company's cornerstone, home-grown title for next year – GRID – pays homage to America's most popular spectator sport: auto racing. GRID comes from the development team behind Codemasters' award-winning off-road racer — DiRT — which was named "Best Driving Game" by the 2007 Spike TV Video Game Awards.
"Over the past two years, we've shifted our content strategy to become more aligned with the U.S. market. We hand-picked the most talented U.S. developers and made significant enhancements to Codemasters Studios and its proprietary middleware, the EGOâ„¢ Engine," said Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters. "We saw the new strategy start to pay off this year with a 332% jump in U.S. sell through and specific success with DiRT and Overlord. Next year we will make an even greater impression on the U.S. games business."
Titles for 2008 that have been announced include:
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty: a post-World War II first-person-shooter based on a "what if" scenario of a Nazi invasion of New York City and occupation of America (Developer: Spark Unlimited – the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows — Q1 2008)
Emergency Mayhem: Frantic driving game based on emergency missions in a colourful cartoon-style city. (Developer: Supersonic – Wii — Q2 2008)
Hei$t: Action/driving game with complex bank robbery/getaway scenarios set in San Francisco, circa 1969. (Developer: inXile Entertainment – PLAYSTATION 3 system, Xbox 360, Games for Windows – Q2 2008)
GRID: All-new racing game based on the multi-million seller Race Driver series. (Developer: Codemasters Studios – PLAYSTATION 3 system, Xbox 360,Games for Windows- Q2 2008)
Rise of the Argonauts: Paradigm shifting role-playing game based on the epic story of Jason as he searches for the Golden Fleece. (Developer: Liquid Entertainment – PLAYSTATION 3 system, Xbox 360, Games for Windows – Q3 2008)
Dragonology: Magical interactive story from the book based on the the study and conservation of dragons. (Developer: Kuju/SixbyNine – Wii 3D Action Adventure, Nintendo DS Interactive Book – Q4 2008)
Wizardology: Story based on the book that was allegedly written by Merlin himself and full of spells and magical information. (Developer: Kuju/SixbyNine – Wii 3D Action Adventure, Nintendo DS Interactive Book – Q4 2008)
Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising: Military simulator meets first person shooter in a fictitious conflict with the potential to erupt onto a global scale. (Developer: Codemasters Studios – PLAYSTATION 3 system, Xbox 360, Games for Windows – TBD)
The company expects to unveil additional titles in the 2008 line-up over the next three months.