Codemasters to use Exit's Photon for online titles

Codemasters has signed a multi-title deal with Exit Games to use its Photon Engine in the development of new multiplayer, browser based titles including F1 Online: The Game.

"We are extremely honoured that Photon was chosen once more by an AAA publisher and studio," said Exit Games CTO Christof Wegmann.

"Codemasters has developed and published so many stunning games and now the company's next online game titles will all be powered by our Photon engine. I think it really proves that we are on track with Photon to become the leading network engine not only for Unity projects, but on all platforms."

Exit Games specialises in engines for network games, and Codemasters joins a list of clients that includes OpenFeint, Walt Disney, Square Enix, Konami and Bigpoint.

Photon is especially designed for MMOGs and first person shooters, and Exit Games claims it's the only network engine that combines UDP (RUDP), a C/C++-based core, and server that is extensible in C#.

"We chose Photon for three reasons: first it provides us with proven, rock-solid and scalable technology. Second: we were really impressed by their team," added Bryan Black, technical director of online at Codemasters.

"We told them what we needed and they put together a fantastic demo which gave us a lot of confidence. That was really convincing. However, in the end, the price tag must fit as well, so the final reason was their competitive pricing."

Codemasters recently told GamesIndustry.biz that it intended to close its action and strategy studio in Guildford to concentrate on its racing franchises, which includes Dirt and F1.