Codemasters has announced its acquisition of the Birmingham branch of developer Swordfish Studios.

Monumental Games had purchased the Manchester branch of Swordfish earlier this week. Swordfish's last project was 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, the game which sees the popular rapper invading the Middle East.

A former property of Sierra Entertainment, Swordfish was being sold by Activision Blizzard following the Vivendi Games merger, which saw the publisher shedding several studios and properties in order to streamline its operation.

Codemasters notes that it will be putting its new studio to work immediately on its "development operations," though it is unknown what project the developer has been tasked with.

Those anticipating 50 Cent action can rest easy: the game was recently picked up by publisher THQ, and is scheduled to hit stores worldwide in early 2009.

MMO technology creator and CyberSports contractor Monumental Games announced today that it has acquired half of 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand developer Swordfish Studios from Activision, marking the second ex-Vivendi studio to be sold off this week.

The studio was one of the many that Activision Blizzard hoped to sell after the Vivendi Games merger, with Swordfish's 50 Cent game among those dropped from the company's publishing slate as it did not fit with Activision's sequel-centric plans.

Monumental picked up Swordfish's 26-person Manchester branch for an undisclosed sum. The fate of the Birmingham office is not yet known, though publisher THQ has signed on to release 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand early next year.

"The Swordfish team is one of the very few developers worldwide to have fully solved the hugely complex issues involved in running and managing the XLSP (Xbox Live! Server Platform) server environments for online console gaming," explained Monumental CEO Rik Alexander.

"This knowledge base will help to consolidate Monumental's position as the market leading online game developer."