Long-running UK-based games developer Codemasters is looking at adding better esports functionality into its racing games.
The studio started out in the ’80s, producing some of the industry’s early 8-bit games, and over the past decade it has really grown its reputation in the racing game genre with brands such as DiRt and the official F1 license.
Codemasters is currently hiring for the position of Esports Manager and Senior Esports Designer.
The Esports Manager will be required to work on the games’ esports strategy, oversee the budget for this and ‘deliver new features to enhance the esports experience’.
They will also ‘liaise with the licensor and third parties to determine commercial and practical responsibilities for the esports events’, hinting that the next F1 game will have a heavier esports focus.
The Senior Esports Designer will look after balancing the game’s esports and competitive game mechanics, and represent the game at events.
The F1 game series has not yet embraced esports. In fact, the racing game genre has struggled to make a mark on esports in a big way.
There have been Forza, Project Cars and Formula-E tournaments, but viewer numbers and interest are far away from the big leagues of CSGO and League of Legends.
However, motorsport manufacturers are looking at this area closely. McLaren recently announced a World’s Fastest Gamer esports initiative. For more information on this, check out Esports News UK’s special behind-the-scenes report from McLaren’s HQ.
There’s also Gran Turismo Sport coming this year and a host of other titles that may have a bigger focus on esports.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
