Codemasters Working On Its “Most Ambitious And Biggest” AAA Game

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A part of me wonders if its Operation Flashpoint, considering the market and appetite for mil-sims, especially on console, is growing larger, and EA could probably blow everyone else out of the water with its resources and funding, while also not stealing sales away from Battlefield. The launch and interest in Insurgency: Sandstorm's release on consoles (however buggy and busted it was at launch) certainly can make claim that it's a genre with untapped potential from big name publishers.
 
sirjim73
You've all got it wrong. I'm guessing it's a collaboration with No Man's Sky where you get to race F1 cars on 5 quintillion different planets 🤣
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Packaged with the constant sense of Deja-vu? "2 secs Ted, another band of super-heated rain has just swept in again, can Bottas keep it on the tr- NO, he's off into the barrier again!" "Oo eh, lets hope the man-eating flytrap doesn't notice him..."
 
awaite85
Was just wondering if they were done after the Pcars 3 thing.
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Well given that pCars 3 was pretty much finished by SMS before Codemasters bought them, no, not even close.

Biggest and most ambitious is intriguing. I can’t see that it will be a new IP, likely the next Dirt or pCars game I should think, pCars 4 will be the first under Codemasters ownership so maybe it points to that. Who knows.
 
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MagpieRacer
Well given that pCars 3 was pretty much finished by SMS before Codemasters bought them, no, not even close.

Biggest and most ambitious is intriguing. I can’t see that it will be a new IP, likely the next Dirt or pCars game I should think, pCars 4 will be the first under Codemasters ownership so maybe it points to that. Who knows.
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I thought it might be related to their first WRC game? I'm guessing they might start working on that next year towards when they get the licence (in 2023?)

Although it might still be a little early for that, but they've got a lot of stages to prepare and cars to model.
 
sirjim73
I thought it might be related to their first WRC game? I'm guessing they might start working on that next year towards when they get the licence (in 2023?)

Although it might still be a little early for that, but they've got a lot of stages to prepare and cars to model.
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Yeah that's definitely a possibility, if they want to match the current WRC games in terms of content, at a AAA level then that is going to take time.
 
I don't think is WRC, Codemasters Chesire are the devs that did Onrush and Dirt 5. Wouldn't the Dirt Rally 2.0 team be more suitable to work on the WRC games or both of them are the same team?
 
T0MMY3688
I don't think is WRC, Codemasters Chesire are the devs that did Onrush and Dirt 5. Wouldn't the Dirt Rally 2.0 team be more suitable to work on the WRC games or both of them are the same team?
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Codemasters Cheshire is also predominantly made up of the remnants of Evolution Studios (minus Rushy and couple others) who made every WRC game on the PS2. With WRC 2 and 4 being particularly excellent highlights. So I don't think its far fetched to think that Cheshire would be heavily involved in the WRC project given their direct experience with the WRC license.
 
MagpieRacer
Codemasters Cheshire is also predominantly made up of the remnants of Evolution Studios (minus Rushy and couple others) who made every WRC game on the PS2. With WRC 2 and 4 being particularly excellent highlights. So I don't think its far fetched to think that Cheshire would be heavily involved in the WRC project given their direct experience with the WRC license.
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the WRC license got confirm months after Dirt 5 announcement, I kinda think DR2.0 team is more likely to be working on that all the while but is the DR2.0 team working on Grid Legends?

As much as I enjoy Dirt 5, a WRC game using the parts of Dirt 5 sounds like a nightmare to me.
 
T0MMY3688
the WRC license got confirm months after Dirt 5 announcement, I kinda think DR2.0 team is more likely to be working on that all the while but is the DR2.0 team working on Grid Legends?

As much as I enjoy Dirt 5, a WRC game using the parts of Dirt 5 sounds like a nightmare to me.
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There’s no way the WRC game is going to be pulling anything from Dirt 5. That thing is gonna be evolved from DR2.0 for sure.

I just feel with how anticipated it’s been for Codemasters to get the WRC license, they’re gonna throw everything at it to get it right, the KT ones do a lot right and I wouldn’t blame Codemasters for wanting their lost experience rally teams building it, I can imagine it will be both the Dirt Rally studio and Cheshire working together on the game. That doesn’t always mean they’re solely working on one project, Grid legends isn’t too far from being finished and the first WRC game from CM is expected 2023 so that gives plenty of time for multiple studios within CM to do their thing.

Could be way off the mark of course but that’s how I see it. The WRC series like I say is going to be hugely anticipated given Codemasters rally history.
 
MagpieRacer
There’s no way the WRC game is going to be pulling anything from Dirt 5. That thing is gonna be evolved from DR2.0 for sure.

I just feel with how anticipated it’s been for Codemasters to get the WRC license, they’re gonna throw everything at it to get it right, the KT ones do a lot right and I wouldn’t blame Codemasters for wanting their lost experience rally teams building it, I can imagine it will be both the Dirt Rally studio and Cheshire working together on the game. That doesn’t always mean they’re solely working on one project, Grid legends isn’t too far from being finished and the first WRC game from CM is expected 2023 so that gives plenty of time for multiple studios within CM to do their thing.

Could be way off the mark of course but that’s how I see it. The WRC series like I say is going to be hugely anticipated given Codemasters rally history.
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I think D5 team coming as support to the DR2.0 team is most likely but I doubt the "most ambitious and biggest" project is the WRC project, either a new IP or Dirt 6. They did talk about how the Dirt franchise is getting split/cared by 2 studio and going for 2 different directions last year:

 
T0MMY3688
I think D5 team coming as support to the DR2.0 team is most likely but I doubt the "most ambitious and biggest" project is the WRC project, either a new IP or Dirt 6. They did talk about how the Dirt franchise is getting split/cared by 2 studio and going for 2 different directions last year:

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Not sure it’ll be Dirt 6, I think that series has almost run it’s course and save for a massive reboot can’t see it being that. But yeah either WRC or something else is likely. It is still expected that DR3 will release before their first WRC game so that makes complete sense to be honest.
 
MagpieRacer
Not sure it’ll be Dirt 6, I think that series has almost run it’s course and save for a massive reboot can’t see it being that. But yeah either WRC or something else is likely. It is still expected that DR3 will release before their first WRC game so that makes complete sense to be honest.
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A proper reboot on numbered Dirt will be pretty ambitious too but I hope for a new IP. If not a reboot to the numbered Dirt games to be closer to Motorstorm Pacific Rift will be great too.

As for DR3, I think it might merged into the new WRC with DR2.0 team leading it. Will be nice to have classic content alongside the brand new hybrid WRC cars, something like WRC10 now.
 
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The more I think about this, the more I think that Codemasters & EA are building a title to compete with Forza Horizon - that is, a highly social open world racer with some role playing elements. That franchise is HUGE, enormously popular/lucrative and ripe for a competitor (beyond the Crew which isn't much of a success). My initial thought, and probably the most marketable version of this new IP would wear the Need For Speed name, but it seems that EA has made some assurances to Criterion that series is theirs:

Rather than hustle to push the next Need for Speed out the door, when it might get lost or cannibalized by a Codemasters release around the same time, Criterion’s capabilities would be better spent on Battlefield, Miele said. But, she stressed, Criterion Games will return to work on Need for Speed — the series is not being shut down, taken from the Guildford, England studio, nor given over to Codemasters, which is two hours away in Southam. The next Need for Speed will also launch on current and previous generations of PlayStation and Xbox, Miele said.

“They own the Need for Speed franchise; that’s why they managed the remaster,” Miele said. “Anything that’s happening within the Need for Speed brand, they are responsible for, or things come through them to ensure that they’re on board with it.”
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That last qualifier does seem to allow for the possibility that Codemasters could have a hand in a future NFS title, but I'm not sure.

Burnout could be a contender, but I don't think that game's concept is similar enough to the Forza Horizon formula for it to be a competitor. So that could mean a reboot for Burnout with a much bigger focus on realism, but that's so far removed from Burnout that keeping the title is kind of pointless.

With Grid Legends coming soon, and the name Grid so specific to circuit racing, I doubt they would make an open world Grid.

I don't think Fuel had enough of a following to re-use that name, and I doubt they would do another post apocalyptic open world racer, but maybe. (Interestingly, the Trademark for Fuel is still live and is in EA's hands now, per the US Trademark office, so maybe?)

Is there room for a third Dirt game? Not sure that would make sense.

EA still owns the trademark for Speedhunters, which could be nice title for a new racing IP.

Ultimately, if it's not a NFS title or a Burnout title, I'd bet on a brand new IP.
 

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