Two weeks ago Sony announced that they would be closing Evolution Studios, sadly bringing to an end a fifteen year legacy and closing the book on some excellent racing games. That’s not to be the end of Evolution though, with Codemasters announcing today that they are bringing Evolution as a whole into their small family of studios, with Evo’s co-founder Mick Hocking becoming VP of product development for Codies as a whole.
We can't wait to start work with @Codemasters on a new racing IP! Keep following myself & @PhenomEvolution for news. https://t.co/qwdVTNCGPY
— Paul Rustchynsky (@Rushy33) April 11, 2016
It’s a quite remarkable and unexpected turnaround to preserve the Evolution team, with a view to creating a new racing game IP as their previous series remain in the hands of Sony. This was a deal purely between Codemasters and the team at Evolution,
Speaking to GameIndustry.biz where this was announced, Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier said, “We want the team to remain to remain the team that they are […] Of course we will share stuff, but we would like to make sure they retain their identity and stay together as a team to do what they’re good at. What we don’t want to do is bring in a team of 50 people and start having some work on one game and some on another, on existing IP. The whole point is to keep their DNA and build a new game.”
Source: GameIndusty.biz
PoorPaddy89
That’s pretty awesome news. Good to hear that it’s turned around for them. I enjoyed a couple of the MotorStorm games and need to get around to DriveClub having bought the Plus pass in the sales.
TSBonyman
Brilliant news, Evolution get to continue as their own entity, Codemasters add to their racing-centric stable and going multiplatform means everyone can enjoy the results.
badger3078
Great news.
Temascos
That’s bloody fantastic news, Codemasters are the big racing publisher so they’ll be a good fit there. It’s a shame that Driveclub is unlikely to get any more big updates, but for the sake of the careers of the people there its brilliant.
bunimomike
Couldn’t agree more. Talk about a theoretical match made in heaven. The pedigree of both should put the “new” Evo team in the best position possible going forward.
camdaz
Fantastic news. My two favourite developers working together should produce a great new racing IP.
ron_mcphatty
Great news! Two excellent racing game studios merging, what more could we ask for?
Stefan L
Ice cream?
Tuffcub
Hugs
ron_mcphatty
Alright, Codevolution and ice cream and hugs, that’s all pretty amazing, we couldn’t possibly ask for more than that, right?
Tuffcub
Please please please do an arcade racer. Codies all ready have two teams working on serious sim games, Motorstorm-in-all-but-name pls!
Avenger
No.
Pixel_nme
Yes.
grannyscroggins
Also yes.
Jag
Holy moly I didn’t see this coming! Good on Codies for coming to the rescue, I’m glad to see someone’s keeping the racing genre alive!
hazelam
you know what i’d love to see?
a new Insane game, or 1NSANE as it said on the cover.
that game was awesome.
get them working on something like that.
anyway, great news for the team over at Evolution.
Avenger
A new IP sounds very interesting, though I’d personally like to see them try their hand at an F1 game because i think they could ace it.