Codies CEO: Traditional publishing's the "model of the dinosaurs”

Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has revealed that due to Reliance Big Entertainment's 50 percent stake in the firm, it can now focus more the digital end of the company and become a contender for larger publishing and development  houses.

Speaking with MCV, Cousens believes that Reliance's $81M in market capital along with it's experience in the MMO, online casual and mobile gaming markets, secures the "longterm future" for Codemasters and it's digital space.

“A traditional games publisher with a distribution infrastructure is no longer the model. It is the model of the dinosaurs,” he said. “We have positioned ourselves well for the future.

"We’ve focused on franchises that are proven. We have an online infrastructure that companies far bigger than ours haven’t got – which has been extremely beneficial in terms of our alignments with Reliance. And we are now addressing emerging markets.

“I think all of those aspects are points that other companies have yet to address. This deal secures the longterm future of Codemasters.

"Staff at Codemasters can walk around with their heads held high, and no-longer consider themselves this small unknown.

"Those that have sat in the fast lane to date, move over.”

It's been suggested that Reliance's deal with Codemaster will see IPs like Dirt, Grid and Cricket become new online and mobile titles alongside the console and PC offerings, so don't be surprised when that happens.

Currently, the firm has Bodycount and DiRT 3 in development.