Ladies and gents, start your engines! Codemasters is really into the racing scene nowadays. After taking over the SEGA Racing studios and the DiRT and GRID racers, the company has now secured the exclusive rights to Formula 1.


Codemasters has secured the exclusive video game rights to Formula 1. In a worldwide licensing agreement with Formula One Administration Limited, Codemasters will develop a new generation of the multi-million selling Formula 1 game franchise across multiple platforms.

Codemasters Studios, creators of genre-leading racing titles DiRT and GRID, will lead the design and development of official FIA Formule One World Championship games for console, handheld and PC.

"Formula 1 is ambitious in expanding its reach with more circuits planned beyond recent additions in the Middle East and China," said Rod Cousens, chief executive officer, Codemasters. "It is also ambitious in expanding its reach via technology. The digital communities that computer and video gaming creates will play a key role in further growing the Formula 1 audience and connecting them globally. As a world-leading creator of driving games, this alliance with Formula 1 is the jewel in Codemasters' racing crown and creates an undisputed segment champion. Formula 1 has gone with the best, the segment leader. It has gone to the home of the EGO Engine for quality; it has gone to the company that can host Formula 1 Online, to the company that is streaking away from the pack."

"Codemasters' success and recent innovations in the racing game space makes the company more than appropriately tuned for the challenge," said Chris Deering, chairman, Codemasters. "The combination of Formula 1's new momentum of expansion and Codemasters' contemporary technology and past experience is the breaking of a new dawn for the sport, on the track and on the HD game screen."

The FIA Formule One World Championship games will be developed using the evolution of the award-winning EGO Game Technology Engine, Codemasters' highly versatile cross-platform middleware technology. Its advanced graphics and physics technology brings an unmatched cinematic quality and realism to interactive entertainment.

The EGO Engine is currently being deployed in the creation of GRID, the latest in Codemasters Studio's international circuit-based racing series, set to be a landmark release when it launches on June 3.

Codemasters expects the first game based on the FIA Formule One World Championship to launch in 2009.