Around 50 jobs are reportedly at risk at British developer Codemasters, with the next DiRT game apparently suffering a delay.
Codemasters has confirmed that a staff review is currently underway, with a ‘small number’ of roles under the risk of redundancy.
Rumours of the layoffs first emerged via website Eurogamer, which suggests that around 50 jobs are in danger, out of a global total of 500.
The review is apparently focused on the company’s Southam headquarters, specifically its brand and IT departments. Inside sources suggest that designers and artists working on the GRID and DiRT teams are the most at risk.
Codemasters has insisted that, ‘The proposal does not affect the on-going production of titles in development and no projects have been cancelled as a result of the proposal’.
However, Eurogamer’s sources claim that an as-yet-unannouced DiRT game is being delayed, not least because the company has not yet tied down all the car licences necessary. The game was apparently due to get an Early Access style release in February.
The team working on the new game has allegedly been downsized, although apparently DiRT always has a smaller team than the GRID franchise.
As the UK’s last major independent developer (in the old-fashioned sense of the concept) Codemasters has struggled to adapt to the new generation of consoles and has not yet released any games on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4, including last year’s F1 game.
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