Codemasters shutdowns Guildford Studio, Operation: Flashpoint series possibly dead

C

crimsonheadGCN

Banned
GameIndustry.biz reports that Codemasters has officially closed down the company's Guildford branch, best known for the Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Bodycount titles. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising struggled to grab fans of the original Operation: Flashpoint game (developed by Bohemia Interactive), and Bodycount received quite poor media reception when it released on current-gen consoles this month.
The 66 staff members affected by the closure are being encouraged to apply for positions elsewhere at Codemasters, including at the Birmingham based studio. According to a statement issued by a Codemasters representative, the company is looking to expand its efforts in the racing game genre instead of FPS.

"As Codemasters looks to take greater leadership in the racing category, the company is proposing a studio structure that adds resource and strengthens our best-in-class racing teams."
"The output from the studios on the Warwickshire campus and in Birmingham is on the increase with multiple continuing game series, brand extensions and new racing IPs in production."

Read more at GameIndustry.biz.
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http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/6...ildford-Studio-Known-For-Operation-Flashpoint

Maybe Bohemia should buy back the franchise?
 
crimsonheadGCN said:
Maybe Bohemia should buy back the franchise?
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why bother? they already own the old game, and recently rereleased it as arma cold war assault. so, no content is lost (except for red hammer, which no one misses). the arma franchise name seem to be doing really well, and operation flashpoint has been run into the ground.
 
Nuclear Muffin said:
And the UK gaming industry suffers yet another blow :(
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Yeah, I don't know about that. Given their output, I'm going to say it's for the better, especially from a financial standpoint. Hopefully they all find their way into a new position.
 
CrazedArabMan said:
But what about us awesome console people who want our tactical military shooter :(
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OpFlashpoint on consoles was terrible and you know it. Dealwithit.gif

Dragon Rising has to be one of the worst games I forced myself to platinum in this generation. AI that doesn't follow commands. Enemy AI that can see you from 14 miles away before you can even see them and then shoots you in the head with an M16. Jesus, what a mess. And Red River didn't look to be fixing anything from that.
 
CrazedArabMan said:
But what about us awesome console people who want our tactical military shooter :(
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Exactly. it's an area ripe for this kind of game only reason Dragon Rising sold was because it was offering something in serious short supply on consoles. In fact they were the only ones offering these kind of games. Shame they been whacked. Co-op in the game was always real fun.

Though they did ruin it with Red River. :(
 
Joseph Merrick said:
been a long time since I played it, but wasn't ofp elite ok? hehe. play that consolers. at least if it's backward compatible.
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Bohemia made that port, so yeah...
 
TheSeks said:
OpFlashpoint on consoles was terrible and you know it. Dealwithit.gif

Dragon Rising has to be one of the worst games I forced myself to platinum in this generation. AI that doesn't follow commands. Enemy AI that can see you from 14 miles away before you can even see them and then shoots you in the head with an M16. Jesus, what a mess. And Red River didn't look to be fixing anything from that.
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Actually no, I quite enjoyed the first one codemasters put out despite the bugs and instant deaths from nowhere. It was something I wanted for a while (open world military shooter for consoles) and I thought it had great potential, but of course that got screwed up with red river unfortunately.

Dabanton said:
Exactly. it's an area ripe for this kind of game only reason Dragon Rising sold was because it was offering something in serious short supply on consoles. In fact they were the only ones offering these kind of games. Shame they been whacked. Co-op in the game was always real fun.

Though they did ruin it with Red River. :(
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Yup, co-op was so much fun especially setting up a sniper with a spotter and calling your shots and so on. soooogood.gif

PS: I do have arma 2 but I can't seem to get into it as much after playing a few hours of it even when I *gasp played it with a controller cause I don't care for kb/m. Just didn't seem to grab my attention for some reason. I just hope this genre isn't dead on consoles as I know the audience is there.
 
The Guildford studio may have worked on it but I'm pretty sure the Southam studio was the lead on the Op. Fl. Games. To my knowledge they are still open.

I would like some clarification on this; itd be nice if there are any games journalists out there who could make am inquiry through official channels.
 
CrazedArabMan said:
Actually no, I quite enjoyed the first one codemasters put out despite the bugs and instant deaths from nowhere. It was something I wanted for a while (open world military shooter for consoles) and I thought it had great potential, but of course that got screwed up with red river unfortunately.
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So you enjoyed the fact that the AI was braindead, you could tell them to get on a mounted machine gun to prepare to enemies only to turn around two minutes later and they're off the mounted machine gun and looking at the sky. Really?
 
Neuromancer said:
The Guildford studio may have worked on it but I'm pretty sure the Southam studio was the lead on the Op. Fl. Games. To my knowledge they are still open.

I would like some clarification on this; itd be nice if there are any games journalists out there who could make am inquiry through official channels.
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What I've heard is that Southam's FPS/Action team are just going to be working on racing games from now on.
 
TheSeks said:
So you enjoyed the fact that the AI was braindead, you could tell them to get on a mounted machine gun to prepare to enemies only to turn around two minutes later and they're off the mounted machine gun and looking at the sky. Really?
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Yup, maybe I just have a higher tolerance than you with the game or something, while I did have AI problems like everyone else, I kinda managed to work around them and still had fun with the game and laughed at the brain dead AI at moments. Now co-op is leagues better and is really great with friends but that is another story. Heck, I actually played some missions a few days ago on dragon rising by myself and still had fun with it. Nothing is going to make me turn around my opinion on the game, I truthfully enjoyed the game despite its many flaws.
 
Dachande said:
What I've heard is that Southam's FPS/Action team are just going to be working on racing games from now on.
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Ah thanks. That sounds likely.

Also put me in the camp that appreciated Dragon Rising and Red River, despite their issues.
 
CrazedArabMan said:
Yup, maybe I just have a higher tolerance than you with the game or something, while I did have AI problems like everyone else, I kinda managed to work around them and still had fun with the game and laughed at the brain dead AI at moments. Now co-op is leagues better and is really great with friends but that is another story. Heck, I actually played some missions a few days ago on dragon rising by myself and still had fun with it. Nothing is going to make me turn around my opinion on the game, I truthfully enjoyed the game despite its many flaws.
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Then I guess you really are a Crazy Arab Man. Because doing Mission "Hold the Beachhead" on Hardcore solo is infurating. If the AI doesn't stay on the mounted machine gun, it's basically going to die from the Jeeps leaving you to defend (and fail because OMG THE ENEMY GOT INTO THE BASE. MISSION IS OVER) by yourself.

Oh, wait, that happens on Normal as well because even if you set the AI to "hold this position/suppress this area" because you know the AI is stupid and can't hold a candle in combat and go in by yourself, you'll generally have them die from the enemy.

Not to mention the stupid 14 mile treck you make in the "escort hostage" mission because you can't rely on the AI hostages to get in a vehicle with you since your own AI gets in the vehicle instead of a second one even if you order them to. :|

I swear the AI is so bad it forced me to shoot my AI teammates in the head and do the missions solo because it was better than worrying about carrying three dumbasses that could be bullet shields for maybe two minutes in a two hour mission.
 
Sadly, I think this Guildford studio was doomed from the start. I was all excited for it because it was going to be using Neon engine (back when it was at its absolutely most stunning) for games outside of the racing genre, but Bodycount instantly disappointed at its first shots, and I think there was another game before that which got canceled? So sad it amounted to so little.
 
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