Rumor: Codemasters' American branch suffers lay-offs, going completely dark soon

If you only go by review scores and word-of-mouth, Codemasters had a pretty great 2009.

But money makes the world go 'round, and - according to a source that spoke with IGN - poor sales have the publisher retreating from America's portion of the globe.

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

Franchises like Overlord and Dirt apparently performed below expectations, forcing Codemasters to "focus on their internal studios" at the expense of their American office. So far, the marketing team's been cut loose, with the whole subsidiary next on the chopping block.

Codemasters, meanwhile, isn't commenting on the whole mess, but we're sure we'll have some sort of official word sooner or later.