Codemasters to acquire Slightly Mad Studios

Well, they weren't lying about the massive surprise.

As for the announcement itself, if it was a few years ago I would be stoked, but with the way Codies is now it doesn't exactly fill me with hope. I also wonder what will become of Rushy since he went to SMS after Codies let him go (or did he quit? I can't remember).

 

Not even a merger, just a straight-up acquisition. I didn't know Codemasters was big enough to pull off things like this.

 

Wew lad.

 

Interesting and curious about future announcements of this mix.

 

They are partially owned (29%) by Reliance Entertainment, which is a subsidiary of Reliance Group, a billion dollar company. So while I'm not sure if Codies has the funds themselves, they certainly have the connections needed to do it. Plus SMS isn't exactly a giant developer.

 

For me, I don't feel excited nor pessimistic. It's just more "oh, well, this is happening"

 

Most shocking news of the genre in years?

 

A couple of stray thoughts:

- I can already tell Codies is licking their chops on how to best 'monetize' SMS' subsequent DLC.

- I think this can safely make GRID as a series dead. After the latest game bombed hard, and has scathing player reviews, why continue to support a series when you have what is essentially the series GRID wants to be, except in a sim format?

- It's going to be hilarious to see how Codemasters tries to 'muzzle' Ian Bell considering it's a matter of when, not if, he starts to talk out of turn.

I truly feel for Rushy. Imagine being kicked to the curb by Sony, then getting to work at Codemasters on a concept you obviously cared for...only to have it bomb horrifically, have the company you work for do you so dirty in not explaining what that concept was effectively to consumers, arguably get your company murdered only so that Codemasters could get at Evo's weather tech, and then be forced back into contact with Codies like an ex working a wedding as the bartender because the sim racing community is small and Codies probably is trying to get any sort of good will built up after the debacle of DR2.0 and GRID 2019.

 

I'm with @Scaff on this one, not sure how I feel about CM having a say in my favorite Sim.

Maybe they'll just act as a permanent publisher & take their profits without pushing any arcade physics onto PCR.

 

If SMS can retain their independence then this could be great.

 

I've got a bad feeling about this

 

Codies dont do sims so I doubt pcars will stay thr same

 

They have in the past though so this could be a sign they are looking to focus a bit more on that area. SMS would make sense in this case as well since PC is fairly close to what the older TOCA games were. At least, that’s what I hope this is a sign of.

 

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

This article was published by Gary Slater (@AudiMan2011) on November 28th, 2019 in the Gaming category.

 

SMS already asked Codemasters to help them out with in game controls adaptation, this is not even a surprise. Probably SMS alone can't handle it.
To be honest they can't, I bought all their games, and they all not finished and left weird feeling in me, like a mix of frustration and satisfaction at the same time. Only wish them the best, hope unlike EA, CM threat them well.

 

Well damn, they weren't kidding, I wasn't expecting this...

Whatever happens with their games, I just hope PCARS remains a proper sim we all know and love. As long as they provide us players with what we want, or what we're happy with, I'm okay with whatever they plan to do together.

 

So 2 medium devs will now make a good game?

 

Couldn't help but read it like this:
“We are delighted to bring such an incredible racing game developer to the Codemasters family, and this unequivocally establishes us as a global powerhouse in the development of DLC. We share the same passion and vision and our new partnership will accelerate our DLC. With more streaming services coming to market and the next generation of games consoles due in 2020, this is the perfect time for Codemasters to make more DLC.”

 

This could both turn out really good or really bad.

 

What? what about DiRT Rally? F1?

 

At a glance, this is about the only thing that I can see being good about this merger, as it may force SMS to actually give a **** about pad controls out of the box for once, instead of just adding a bunch of descriptors to the settings and hoping people figure it out.

Considering how Codemasters operates now? I seriously doubt it will be any good for the consumer. And it begs the question - now that SMS is apart of the Codemasters fold, and how radioactive the Codemasters name is now after antics from their two previous games have managed to make some noise, do people avoid Project CARS? What happens if that causes people to avoid PCARS and have *it* bomb too? Does Codemasters kill yet another studio because it didn't meet sales goals? There's so many questions to be asked with regards to how Codemasters currently operates - and how it relates to SMS as a once fiercely independent studio.

 

Are... are we suggesting the F1 series isn't a simulator?

Bruh.

 

My only hope is that codemasters doesn't ruin the project cars series.

 

Oh bloody bollocks, and screw Codemasters.

Quite frankly there's nothing other to be said as the next project cars will now come as a demo with 5 cars and 5 tracks for £60, and it'll then cost another £100 in DLC to get the actual finished full game.

 

I can't see how this is good with cosies last few games not being great

 

It was only last year or so (can't remember exactly) the 2 were fighting each other for the F1 licence haha.

 

You think F1 is a sim? Really?