Codemasters, a developer famous for its racing games, has secured the exclusive video game rights to Formula 1, previously held by Sony.
Sony was rumoured to have ditched the official licence after a dispute with the sport's governing body over a "hefty increase" in costs for the deal.
It's basically good news for any non-PlayStation owning gamer, as Codies confirms its intentions to develop the "million-selling" F1 franchise across multiple platforms, including home and handheld consoles, and PC. Previously the F1 games were exclusive to Sony consoles.
Codies is, as you'd imagine, pretty pleased. "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," said a confident said Rod Cousens, CEO.
Codies didn't hint at when its first F1 title will hit, but don't expect to see anything until next year.
This is great news, I haven't played a decent F1 game since F-1 World Grand Prix II on the Nintendo 64 back in 2000.
A what better developer than Codemasters to develop it, DIRT and GRID are both great and I look forward to their first F1 game. Lets hope it's a full 20 players online , with online tournaments and a possible season option.
I hope it also has a true Sim difficulty option as well as an easier arcade handling mode so that it caters for everyone.
I'm sure damage and pit animations will all be amazing... can't wait! I'm sure GRID will keep me happy til then though.
I haven't played a decent F1 game since Formula 1 '97 on the PSone - which was superb. Could be interesting to see what Codemasters come up with, as they certainly have the experience!
Agree with everyone on this topic so far, I never found the Sony F1 games very entertaining so to give Codemasters the licence is great news. They will add a much needed quality to future F1 games.
Great news, glad to see Codies got the licence as they've got a proven track record for good racing games. Lets hope it will use the Ego engine and has a proper simulation mode and not some arcade mode where you can power slide the F1 cars round the track.
What Codemaster need to do is get Geoff Crammond on board. His Grand Prix series of games were outstanding. It has been a LONG time since I have played a decent F1 game.
This is great news, I haven't played a decent F1 game since F-1 World Grand Prix II on the Nintendo 64 back in 2000.
A what better developer than Codemasters to develop it, DIRT and GRID are both great and I look forward to their first F1 game. Lets hope it's a full 20 players online , with online tournaments and a possible season option.
I hope it also has a true Sim difficulty option as well as an easier arcade handling mode so that it caters for everyone.
I'm sure damage and pit animations will all be amazing... can't wait! I'm sure GRID will keep me happy til then though.
DIRT maybe, but GRID? No way. Terrible handling / controls.
There is something really wrong with the GRiD handling. The cars pivot around the centre of the car for some odd reason. Was looking forward to Grid but not anymore and as for F1 games, yawn
This is great news, I haven't played a decent F1 game since F-1 World Grand Prix II on the Nintendo 64 back in 2000.
So basically you haven't played a decent F-1 at all then lol the N64 games were shockingly bad, try F-1 Grand Prix by Geoff Crammond on the PC for the best ever series, the Sony games weren't too bad but certainly were missing stuff. I have good faith that Codemasters can do F-1 fans proud with a decent racing sim...note the word sim Codemasters!
This really is good news. Sony with there ps3 f1 game was back on track as it was a really good console f1 game still not f1 97 level but it was getting there.
Codemasters seem to know what they are doing when it comes to racing games and I'm sure there recent acquisition of segas racing team will be involved in someway. Im hoping that they will do a good job and i think that the damage modeling will be amazing. In truth im just happy ea didnt get it.
And on Grid the cars really are a little weird feeling
After all the speculation and promise based on Grid's graphics and trailers, I have found it to be nice looking, but seriously flawed to play.
The time line replay & retry feature is a pointless exercise that no other respectable driving game should ever bother to attempt to replicate. Car handling is on par with spinning on an office swivel chair and the audio naming system has served only to waste the time and effort of the (possibly alluring) woman hired to conduct the recording (It's a pity we don't get to see her - or maybe not). Grid offers no incentive to persevere and makes me wonder if the Codies would be better off sticking with writing Fruit Machine Simulator clones.
Grid was supposed to be to the XBox 360 what GT5 Prologue is to the PS3 (a graphical feast of driving ecstasy). Graphically it shines brightly, but once inside, you will feel the steely cold touch of Gauntlet's death.
I be thanking the Codies for the demo and returning to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for my racing thrills. Roll on 2009 and Gran Turismo 5 <final> with licensed F1 cars.
Note for Codemaster's F1 license... Must do better.
With Codies expertise in this genre and the recent acquisition of Sega Racing Team, all things considered this should be awesome! Just hope they keep it more sim. than arcade.
thank you Codemasters! the gaming gods have delivered!. Sony has done nothing for that game, they haven't even put the 2007 season, or 2008 season out for gamers. and quite frankly shows how much Sony has gone down hill.
there last F1 game on the PS3 totally BOMBED! selling 250k units worldwide!. with titles selling like that, Sony was killing the license and running it into the ground. now we look forward to seeing the Xbox 360's famous joypads (which are the best for driving games) masters the controls of an F1 game.
Excellent news. Especially as the game will appear on multiplae platforms. And Codemasters have a great history of delivering good racing games, can't see them going wrong here.
I predicted this around 2 years ago - as soon as it was announced that Microsoft were going to be producing the software for the standardised ECU's used in todays F1 cars (started at the beginning of the '08 season), it was fairly clear.
I'm curious as to whether this will have any effect on the F1 cars that were licensed for GT5 - it wouldn't be the first time cars were pulled from Gran Turismo (I vaguely remember Lamborghinis being in GT2 or GT3 prior to release, only to be completely cut) - i may be wrong though. Since Sony have lost the license now, they would have to (re)license every F1 car direct from the manufacturer - which is extremely costly (i think BMW are the only ones who license their 2007 F1 car for free).
Lets just hope it's not as terrible as the PS3 F1 game - far too easy, and came out with the '06 season cars/drivers about 3 weeks after the '07 season begun (meaning the complete failure that is the McLaren MP4-21 was in it with old sponsors, rather than the competitive MP4-22)
thank you Codemasters! the gaming gods have delivered!. Sony has done nothing for that game, they haven't even put the 2007 season, or 2008 season out for gamers. and quite frankly shows how much Sony has gone down hill.
there last F1 game on the PS3 totally BOMBED! selling 250k units worldwide!. with titles selling like that, Sony was killing the license and running it into the ground. now we look forward to seeing the Xbox 360's famous joypads (which are the best for driving games) masters the controls of an F1 game.
Sony didn't have the license so couldn't do the 07 or 08 games.
The ps3 f1 games is probably the best f1 game in many many years. as far as the amount it sold that is going to be related to how many ps3 were actually around at launch. and you must remeber that the ps3 version of the game was released sometime after the same ps2 version. so those numberes really arnt a fair account.
Codemasters should really get Geoff Crammond GP2 was a fantastic game and I still have fond memories of Formula One Grand Prix by Microprose
Codies probably wont sign Crammond... I think the F1 games that codies come up with will most likely be arcade racers and not simulations.
I don't mind arcade racers if they're done well...
In defence of GRID I think a lot of people are going to be upset by it if they go in expecting a full on race sim. If you buy it or try the demo expecting full on car customisation, qualifying, full length races and the like, you're going to be very, very disspointed. If you play it expecting 3 lap arcdae races with lots of crashes and spongy handling, then that's what you'll get...
Codies have never made a proper race sim. Even their original TOCA games were arcade racers pretending to be simulations.
I haven't played a decent F1 game since Formula 1 '97 on the PSone - which was superb.
This is what i was going to mention. This was because Bizarre creations (PGR 1,2,3+4) made this and the original F1 game for the PS1, then for F1 '98 onwards it went to Studio 33 (later becoming Sony Liverpool), whose track record at that time was truly abysmal.
In fact it put me off completely from getting a PS2 and I found my F1 thrills elsewhere on the PC, with the excellent, but often forgotten F1 Racing by Ubisoft, until they too were forced to stop producing the F1 games along with the others already mentioned..
Never took to the Geoff Crammond series as it was always a basic re-hash of all his other previous ones with an extra sheen on top. They just didn't 'feel' or 'look' right to me.
Was a fan of TOCA Race driver 2+3 though, including the excellent online play, so look on with great optimism for this new title. If they also include 'The Chain' to coincide with BBC getting back the TV license, it will top it off for me...
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