Codemasters, the developer and publisher of acclaimed videogames including Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID, was honoured at the 2009 Develop Industry Excellence Awards winning the coveted Grand Prix Award. The ceremony was held last night in Brighton, UK, as part of the Develop Conference 2009.

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards are presented by the respected trade journal Develop (www.develop-online.net) and are the only peer-voted awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of the UK and European game development industry. The highly prestigious Grand Prix Award is bestowed on the company felt by Develop to have contributed the most to the games medium in recent times.

“We are honoured to receive the Develop Grand Prix Award. It’s a testament to the creativity, technical expertise and hard work from everyone at Codemasters,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP Development, Codemasters.

“We’ve strengthened our business to take advantage of the changing landscape of games development. With DiRT, GRID and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising we’ve turned long-standing IPs in to multi-award winning, reinvigorated and successful franchises. In the EGO Engine, we’ve created award-winning multi-genre, multi format technology. With FORMULA ONE we are creating new gaming benchmarks for the world’s most exciting motor sport. We’ve grown our Studios operation, adding Guildford and Birmingham sites to our long-established Warwickshire facility. We have continued to attract the best people and they’re creating brand new titles - the best is yet to come.”

Develop editor-in-chief Michael French commented “2009 was the biggest and best Develop Awards by far and in bestowing Codemasters with our Grand Prix Award we recognise and celebrate their world-class heritage and long-term success. Titles created by Codemasters Studios consistently demonstrate landmark technical achievements and deliver a guarantee of quality to gamers. That Codemasters’ development operation has grown and added two further studio facilities to its existing base is great news for the development community and industry as a whole.”

It would be hard to find another publisher within the European development community that could rival Codemasters consistent delivery of recognisably entertaining videogame releases, and Electronic Theatre would like to offer our congratulations to the Warwickshire-based team.

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