Force India
Codies CEO Rod Cousens sheds more light on the Reliance deal, and explains why it's so important for the company
Codemasters has occupied an interesting position in the publisher line-up in the past few years, with standout genre franchises such as DiRT and GRiD, action successes including Operation Flashpoint, niche products like Ashes Cricket and the online division running games such as Lord of the Rings. But it's been a tricky place in the market to hold down, and with tough economic conditions and increasing competition, the company has faced some tough decisions about its future.
But yesterday the publisher announced that India-based Reliance ADA had taken a 50 per cent holding in the company, a move which simultaneously secures it financially while opening up platform expertise and growth market penetration. Here, CEO Rod Cousens explains more about the new partnership, and what it will mean for the business.
We're not providing information to that extent at this stage. You'll appreciate that it's very early days with a new partner - I also believe it's the first stage of ongoing support - so we won't be disclosing any financial information at this stage.
The agreement is what I meant by ongoing support, but the arrangement in terms of the 50 per cent share-holding has been concluded.
We'll go through a process where both companies will sit down, they will evaluate their strategic directions and so forth - determine the collaborations that both can bring to bear, and ultimately agree on the plan going forward.
That will then drive, as you'd expect, subsequent investment and opportunity between the firms.
Reliance was not the only suitor. People have danced with Codemasters for a while - it's attracted attention, and coming out of the second half of the last calendar year, following the success of Ashes Cricket, Operation Flashpoint and so on...
If you take the performance of the company in the UK, where we increased our market share to about 5.6 per cent I think - at a time of high competition in the market - there was a lot of visibility drawn towards us.
In saying that, you have to contemplate the future of the business, the interest in the digital side, high-growth markets such as India and Asia - Codemasters has been well-positioned, it's punched above its weight in the online side, so the strategic partner coming out of those markets is a huge boost.
It gives us, as a company, an advantage in accessing those markets with someone like Reliance and their strength against some competitors that are far bigger than us that lack the strength in those territories.
If you look at our line-up too, we've developed a game like Cricket - well, the number one sport in India is cricket, so there's a great opportunity there. Formula One, as the second largest sport in the world, is intent on opening up those markets - and with a partner like Reliance, for whom F1 is a significant attraction for them, there's a lot we can do.
Plus there's Dance Factory, and with the whole Bollywood angle and dance TV that exists in the country, that means that within our catalogue are a number of franchises that lend themselves to that market, and indeed the Asian market overall.