Perhaps with all the puns intended, Codemasters is spinning off its Dirt franchise into something a tad more flashy. Dirt Showdown has been announced, coming to the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in May 2012. The game eschews its traditional features for arcade-style fun, including modes like demolition derby and stunt driving.

Codemasters promises this isn't the new direction for the series, simply a detour, as the company is said to "return with a renewed focus on simulation in Dirt 4."

Watch: Dirt Showdown announcement trailer »

Codemasters signalled the return of cult favourite egg Dizzy yesterday, sparking intense conversation in a small subset of middle-aged British men. Surely Codies wouldn't turn Dizzy into an FPS? Or a Facebook game? Not... an MMORPG? Perhaps a new Dizzy-led handheld platform?

Today, the publisher revealed it's an 'HD' remake of Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk for iOS and Android devices.

Watch: An HD egg in motion »

Codemasters has announced plans to publish a new title under the Dizzy brand, a move sure to excite nostalgic Europeans with fond memories of the 48k Spectrum, while also prompting scores of Americans to wonder, "Who the heck is Dizzy?"

Read more: Eggsellent news »

Codemasters is "proposing to retire" its internal studio which developed the recently-released destruction-happy FPS Bodycount. It's part of a shift to strengthen its racing game offerings, the English developer and publisher has said.

"As Codemasters looks to take greater leadership in the racing category, the company is proposing a studio structure that adds resource and strengthens our best-in-class racing teams."

Read more: Multiple new racing IPs in development »

A Codemasters/AMD promotion which awarded new video card purchases with a free code for Dirt 3 was compromised over the weekend. Although this sort of promotion isn't unusual, the promotional codes were apparently stored on an unsecured webserver, meaning that for the past few days, anyone who found the address could view (and pilfer) them.

Read more: Dirt 3 Steam codes stolen »

Do you hate the world? The demo for Codemasters' destruction-mad shooter Bodycount might not let you outright end everything and put us all out of our unending misery, but it will let you smash up a small virtual corner of it. The demo launched today on Xbox 360, and "will follow" for PlayStation 3.

Watch: A peek at the demo »

If you have any sort of Codemasters account, you might want to start changing your passwords. The developer and publisher has announced that its website was hacked last week, and user data compromised.

On Friday, June 3, a mystery hacker got into the Codemasters.com website, gaining access to the Codemasters EStore, Codemasters CodeM database, and other sites. Codies says that "As soon as the intrusion was detected, we immediately took codemasters.com and associated web services offline in order to prevent any further intrusion." Over the next days, it launched "a thorough investigation in order to ascertain the extent and scope of the breach," and the news isn't good. Read more »

[Update] This giveaway has now ended. Winners will be selected and notified later this week.

[Original Story] This week's Shack Giveaway is a big one, totaling nearly $1000 in swag. The giveaway, sponsored by Intel and brought to you by Codemasters and Shacknews, asks users to create their own Operation Flashpoint: Red River trailer using Intel's Operation Flashpoint video masher website.

There is one grand prize up for grabs: an Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500k processor, Roxio PC Game Capture software, and a copy of Operation Flashpoint: Red River for PC from Intel.

Read more »

Codemasters released a new trailer for Dirt 3 today, and announced a "Superteams Pack" as a pre-order bonus. The pack unlocks four exclusive teams, which gives you early access to 14 cars without having to earn them with good old-fashioned elbow grease. It also unlocks the Rockstar Transworld Clash, Oakley Pro Invitational, Nixon Gold Series, and Monster Energy All Star Showdown events.

The next annual instalment of Codemasters' Formula 1 racing series is in development at its Birmingham studio and headed for a September release, the publisher announced today.

As well as the standard PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions, there'll be "bespoke" versions of F1 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS and Sony NGP, "each designed to take advantage of the new platforms' unique capabilities." The PC edition will be a Games For Windows Live title. Read more »

Codemasters' rally racer Dirt 3 and its battlefield shooter Operation Flashpoint: Red River are slated for release "between 1st April and the end of June" in 2011, the developer and publisher's CEO Rod Cousens has told Eurogamer.

Read more »

A new entry in the 'Operation Flashpoint' tactical shooter series is due in 2011, developer and publisher Codemasters announced today, "built around four player co-op online play."

Operation Flashpoint: Red River ventures into Tajikistan with an "epic campaign" pitting the US Marine Corps against the Chinese PLA. Read more »

Developer and publisher Codemasters today formally announced Dirt 3, the latest in its racer series, after revealing it with a televised trailer over the weekend.

"Dirt 3," Codies says, "will boast more cars, more locations, more routes and more events than any other game in the series, including over 50 rally cars" from the past fifty years plus "more than double the track content" of Dirt 2. On an artistic level, racers will be able to "express themselves in Gymkhana-style showpiece driving events." Read more »

Gavin Cheshire, VP of studios for Codemasters, has confirmed in an interview that the company is working on new entries for DiRT, Race Driver: Grid, and Operation Flashpoint.

DiRT 2 was released in September 2009, while Race Driver: Grid was released in June 2008. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, the first in the series not developed by Bohemia Interactive (ArmA, ArmA II), was released in October 2009. Read more »

India-based multimedia company Reliance Big Entertainment has acquired a fifty percent stake in video game publisher and developer Codemasters, MCV reports.

Reliance's gaming division, Zapak Digital Entertainment, has now been paired with Codemasters, which has produced such games as Formula One, DiRT, Overlord, Race Driver: GRID, Operation Flashpoint, and International Cricket 2010. Read more »