Codemasters denies US office is set to close

Responding to an IGN rumour this morning, Codemasters UK has denied its US office is to close, but has confirmed that three marketing staff have been laid off.

The "US office remains open and operational" and will "not 'soon close,'" a rep told VG247 by email this morning.

In a fuller statement, the rep said:

“As many organizations have in the past year, Codemasters has reassessed the scale of its North American office and is returning to a core sales and publishing operation that will receive significant support from our distribution partners.

"In light of this restructure, six staff have been let go from the US commercial team, three from marketing; we recognise and thank them for their efforts during the past year. Codemasters’ office in Burbank CA remains operational under the management of Bill West and we look forward to a focussed relationship with our distribution and marketing partners going forward.”

Citing a "source," IGN said overnight that Codemasters "will soon close the subsidiary down", and had laid off a "marketing team of about ten people".

The site quoted its source as saying, "They got a lot of money injected into the company a few years back and had some big plans to open up the US office, but it didn't really work out like they wanted it to with the games over here. They had good intentions with titles like Rise of the Argonauts -- just not the right teams."

The company established its US office in 2006, saying in 2007 it had "aggressive plans" for growth in the US.