Why Codemasters Shows The World How To Run A Game Development Company Properly

Amid all the recent gaming drama with delays to Project Cars and the failed launch of Driveclub, it’s only right to turn our attention to something positive. Who better than Codemasters to remind us all that we can still get top notch games which are delivered with a professional service?

The UK game developer and publisher has been putting out some of our favourite titles for years like the F1 racing series, plus the DiRT and the Grid games. Their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction has put them among the best in the industry.

The well-known F1 games are released each year with the same cars and drivers that compete in real life. They are games that experience few technical issues and have great graphics and physics. Even if you don’t get excited about their release each season, the one thing you have to admit is that they are consistent. You know that you will get your money’s worth when you purchase the newest in the series, and the game will properly reflect the changes to the sport (rules, cars, drivers).

Next year’s effort - F1 2015 - will be released earlier than in previous years, and updates will be available to deliver new content as the season progresses. Codemasters’ approach is to take an established series and making evolutionary changes to keep it relevant and enticing.

It hasn’t always been a breeze for Codemasters. With the release of Grid: Autosport, gamers were disappointed in poor AI and the lack of choice for cars. The studio turned its focus to fine-tuning handling characteristics and developing a wide variety of events to race in different Autosport genres. They also encouraged players to purchase the ‘season pass’ where they would receive new DLC including cars each month, and to join a race club to face new challenges each week.

The game has not taken off as quickly as the F1 series titles, but is building a good reputation. Regular updates provide fixes for problems voiced by the community as well as new features like Oculus Rift support. Check out the video above of the latest DLC, The Drag Pack.

Earlier this year gamers were extremely upset by the re-release of the Colin McRae Rally game. Customers who bought the game under the impression that it was a re-mastering of the original version on Playstation were disappointed to find out that it was a mere port of the mobile game released at the beginning of the year.

Codemasters took immediate action, stating: “At Codemasters, we care about our customers and pride ourselves on listening to our community. We understand that some people who bought Colin McRae Rally on Steam are upset and feel that it isn’t the game they thought it would be…. Furthermore, as an act of good faith, we have worked with Valve to enable anyone that bought the game to claim a refund.” Sure, a move like this lost the company money, but it kept gamers believing in the integrity of the studios. The gesture should be a lesson for other studios (cough Evolution cough) on how to keep a fan base.

What we want from a studio is high-quality games, lots of fresh content, and to have complaints handled professionally. It’s a tough job, but we have to give Codemasters some credit for doing all these things and making it look easy. While we wait patiently for the studio to break the news for DiRT 4, tell us what you think. What kind of relationship have you had with Codemasters?