[Bob]

Codemasters have done a relatively good job with the F1 license for the past few years, unfixed game bugs and other player annoyances notwithstanding. That being said, if and when the F1 games license comes up for review, perhaps it could be split.

The very successful (but in my view mediocre, if I may digress) Call of Duty franchise has two developers, Infinity Ward and Treyarch, with development duties alternating between the two studios. This is primarily to allow for annual releases, but has the added effect of yielding two distinct takes on the same formula from two differing schools of thought.

Imagine if the same principle were applied to the F1 license. Codemasters shares the license with another developer, perhaps EA, with both parties taking turns at making the annual F1 game. (For example, Codemasters produces F1 2015. EA does F1 2016. Work on F1 2017 reverts to Codemasters. EA handles F1 2018.)

I acknowledge that this scenario is extremely unlikely, but should this concept be adopted, we could see numerous benefits:

– Each studio now gets two years to work on its designated iteration of the game, giving more time for developers to achieve higher production values, testing features, fixing game glitches before release, and implement various new technologies, tasks which would be too time-consuming under the current system.

– Games for successive years will no longer simply be “minor tweaks, plus better graphics”, but instead two differing gameplay concepts implemented by two different developers of distinct design philosophies.

– Healthy competition provides greater incentive for developers to come up with new gameplay innovations. Since games alternate between the two developers, sales will not be diluted.

[JamieFranklinF1]

@Bobthevulcan – It would be an interesting concept, but I could never see it happening. For starters, I don’t think EA would ever share a license, but if we moved on to a different company, then it would still pose the threat of having one game significantly better than the other, which would then split the audience, and I very much doubt that the companies would interact and share knowledge of how they managed to code certain elements of the game.

For now, I’m happy with what Codemasters have done. It could have been better, but you could say that about anything. I’m sure 2013 will be a good game again, but I’m more looking forward to how Codemasters get on with with F1 2014, which is likely to be on the next-gen of consoles. I’d actually be more than satisfied if Codies just polished off 2012, to make a neat and tidy game for 2013, and put a lot of focus into getting 2014 to be superb – Mercedes style ;)

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