Codemasters shutting down Bodycount developer

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 14th 2011 9:30AM

Codemasters is preparing to close down its Guildford studio, which was responsible for Bodycount. The shuttering will affect the 66 employees, who were informed today about the 30-day consultation shut-down period (based on the studio's size), required by UK law.

"As we look to take greater leadership in the racing category, Codemasters is proposing a studio structure that adds resource and strengthens our best-in-class racing teams," a company spokesperson said in a statement. Those being laid off are being "encouraged" to apply for positions at Codemasters' Warwickshire HQ (Dirt, Grid, F1 Online) and the Birmingham studio, which is working on a new racing IP.

Bodycount's "poor design choices and lack of any compelling moments" didn't sit well with us, nor with critics in general, and earned it a Metacritic score in the low-50s. The game premiered in 36th place on the UK charts two weeks ago, then disappeared. It's a IP that's not likely to be heard from again.

Source: Eurogamer, Develop

Tags: bodycount, Codemasters, guildford-studio, layoffs, microsoft, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (49)

Wow...they didn't pull any punches there.. did they?

Well body count did suck

Not exactly a surprising turn of events. Bodycount bombed very badly, and developers have been shuttered for much less (Bizarre Creations springs to mind).

@Histeria Dont remind me, If there is one video game series that i miss it's project gotham racing.

Well bodycount demo did completely suck feel bad for everyone that wasted there money on it

@Crzycracka

I feel bad for 60+ that lost their jobs... But yeah that game was pretty bad.

@whylekat
same, I knew the game was bad after playing the demo. Damn, I'm sorry for 66 employees losing their jobs over that. They should of had some testers trying out the game first.

Boohoo

The game was clearly not good but I still feel bad for the developers. I'm sure nobody there wanted to make a bad game so seeing such poor reviews was already bad enough, and now getting fired - it just sucks.

@2late2die

Honestly. It really does hurt to see them hurt.

@Shadowbender

Not really. They did a shitty job and they got fired for it.
If I did my job that shitty, I'd be fired too.

Generic shooter is generic. Can't say I'll miss the "franchise", but it's always bad to see people in the industry losing their jobs :S

Kind of sad when, in this day and age, ONE bad game can destroy a developer.

@hami83

Okay, okay. Everyone stop, pause. I think I've seen you in the comments before, and yet I have failed to tell you that you bear the best avatar/profile pic ever. Just saying.

@Shadowbender Lol. Thanks!

I wasn't feeling a single ounce of hype beneath my skin for this one. Simply. Too. Generic.

I played the demo and i thought. Meh i played worse ! but this is not worth $60 so it will be in the Bargain Bin in the coming months ( especially a Door Crasher here In Gamestop in Canada ) when it's REAL CHEAP, I'll buy it.

I wonder ... if this was .. say a $20 PSN game, i wonder what it would get for ratings from Joystiq and others.

This game had some of the worst reviews I've seen, and I don't know anybody that bought it.

I love the way you say "which was responsible for Bodycount".

The way I interpreted that reminded me more of an angry mom or dad asking which of their kin broke the vase. "Which of you are responsible for this mess!?"

We are gathered here today to mourn the passing of Codemasters Guildford, responsible for Bodycount...

...wait. Why is this a funeral?

Be a little more sympathetic guys, no developer sets out to make a bad game also these are people with families that are now out of work in this horrible economy.

@bxgt

nobody TRIES to make a bad game, but sometimes, quality is very low on the list of priorities. see: movie tie-ins.

i still feel kinda bad for them though.

Rarely did I say, but that game was a piece of shit. Sad for the workers, who typically can find jobs pretty easily at other companies, but this is a performance driven thing.

lol

I have heard some good things things about this I'm all up for something different but there where no ads on tv in the uk for this most people I know didn't know any thing about this game.

If you actually took the time to give the game a play through you may find as I did that its not "that bad", Ok its not the best FPS out there but at least it had a storyline, Unlike other "generic" FPS like M.A.G for example.. The AI were awful though!!

Anyway it's a shame that 66 people may be out of work though, Hopefully some of the programmers will be moved to other studios..

As for the comments about the Demo Sucking, Who serioulsy takes note of pre-release demo game play FFS, Its unfinished code to give a glimpse at the product,.

@Lucky48 Well My comments were about BodyCount and as you'll see my other comment about MAG was an just an example, that's why I didn't mention other generic FPS's such as Battlefield and CoD games.. The sad thing is that any FPS that's released now is always compared to Call of Duty Games.. and that's not good for the industry.. Likewise the fact that too many gamer's think that anything mentioned on commercial sites such as Joystig etc is gospel, instead of trying out games and judging whether a game is good or bad themselves, they rely on one employees view..

The sad thing is, if they didn't include the stupid "leaning aim" mechanic, and had fixed up some of the core gameplay, such as making the controls a lot smoother, it would have been a decent bargain bin title for those who just wanted to blast some stuff. Sure, it wasn't great, but from the demo I could tell that with some extra work it would have at least been a fun romp. Alas, twas' not Bodycount's fate.

The worst part about this is, coming off as a semi-sequel to BLACK (which was much better), this game is going to fall into complete obscurity. It won't even end up becoming one of those cult favorites.

Oh well..

The first I hear of this game is the studio is shutting down because the game is bad.

The game, it kind of slipped under my radar. I'd heard a few references to it but I didn't know it had already been released. They had pretty much no media coverage or hype. Given the game was apparently terrible, I guess that's not as bad as some great games that don't get publicity behind them.

It's sad to see that so many people lost jobs but these kind of studios tend to be full of freelance contract workers who have the contacts to get jobs elsewhere if they don't choose to go for jobs in other Codemaster studios. Either way, I wish them well. Nobody likes to have their work criticised to such an extent. It can't be easy.

I guess the only real silver lining is that Codies have decided to concentrate on what they do best, racing games. Something they excel at already. They're going to need more employees if that's the case.

I didn't even know Bodycount was out yet.

I hope this warns all the developers out there who are still making FPS for this generation consoles... (Had enough)

It would've been news if they actually continued with this game.

It's sad that people are now out of a job, but good riddance. The last thing the industry needs is more studios pumping out generic, unfun FPSs.

What's even more sad is the fact that half the studio probably knew that the game was going to be ass, but some clueless guy higher up in the manager forced them to do it. Now the game comes out, the prophecy proves true, and they fire everyone.

I'd like to see more studios fire the top directors of a game rather than entire studios. Since, you know, usually it's the directors who are at fault for churning half-baked crap, since it's their call at the end of the day.

@PointlessPuppies

The stupidity of all this too is when a bunch of people can see the road down to hell, and yet, are forced to march down that way.

The demo was a bad idea. It pretty much told me not to buy this game. Do developers not play their own games?? I'm sure these people know the difference between a great game and a sucky one. If I worked there, I'd be looking for a job knowing that this game would be coming out.

they should've just fired the people who changed the game completely from what was hyped when joystiq previewed it at first (when stuart black was attached).

The Bodycount demo was one of the worst I've ever played. It was beyond bad.

That's a chance you take in the gaming industry. If the IP would have been good, then they probably had a gold mine. All you can do is move on, learn from your mistakes and try again.

Had they not removed Stuart Black, I feel this game would have been better. However, this was the most generic game I've ever played.

Big surprise there.......NOT

It's always a bit sad when things go awry for game companies. I'd hate to be sitting on the knife's edge where the success of a single project could put me into the unemployment line.

Jeez. Really sucks, but you kind of have to wonder who thought it was a good idea to put out a rather anonymous and uninspiring shooter in a crowded shooter market.

They should've spent more time polishing the game and less time making sassy, over produced videos.

Jokes aside, I really hate it when developers get the axe like this. I'm sure they're a talented bunch, they just missed the mark.

no surprise Bodycount was obviously rushed out before it was done I rented it through gamefly the controls are ok but the design, stupid computer AI and the going back and forth on the map was very annoying as well.

I rented this last night around 9pm, finished it at 1 am. Shooting was solid, good for killing 10 or 20 minutes, and it looked nice in most parts, but alot of the game was lacking any reason to play it.

Codemasters just needs to go away. Anything they do fails.

LOL i live in guildford,i knew EA and lionhead where here but codies as well?

This game was so bad, I quit the demo before the end.

Bodycount

Codemasters shutting down Bodycount developer

Reader Comments (49)

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:33AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:38AM Crzycracka said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:42AM Histeria said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 10:22AM bxgt said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:42AM Crzycracka said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:30PM whylekat said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 6:47PM echerringtonYAHOOCOM said

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Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:55AM hami83 said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 10:04AM Shadowbender said

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Posted: Sep 14th 2011 9:59AM Shadowbender said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 10:11AM HardBoiled2009 said

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Posted: Sep 14th 2011 10:23AM Enosoma said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 10:24AM Exu said

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