Codemasters recently acquired former Activision Vivendi developers Swordfish Studios, the Birmingham-based games development house that created 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.

The new studio will become Codemasters’ fourth major development hub, joining studios in Guildford (UK), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and its headquarters in Warwickshire, UK.

Codemasters new Birmingham Studio will be led by the studio founder and managing director Trevor Williams, with the Swordfish Studios development team being integrated into Codemasters.

Swordfish Studios will carry the Codemasters Studio imprint and will create original content using the company’s EGO engine (used in Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID). Interestingly enough Swordfish and Codemasters have worked together before, on games including Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 and Jonah Lomu Rugby.

“We are committed to growing our studio operations across multiple facilities and increasing the internal capability of Codemasters’ creative resource,” said Gavin Cheshire, VP, Codemasters Studios.

“There is a strong heritage and a compatible skill set, which has enabled us to fast track growth plans and allows for ease of management. Codemasters has ramped up as a UK games development powerhouse with a scalable support infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of the highly versatile EGO Engine.”