THE BUZZ: Codemasters is no more. It will now be known as Codemasters Racing.

The publisher has announced that it will be rebranding itself and will only focus on the development of racing games, including F1, GRID and DiRT.

Development on the Operation Flashpoint and Bodycount franchises will be ceased.

“Racing is the absolute razor focus for all titles currently in development and those slated for future development across the studios in Warwickshire and Birmingham,” a spokesperson told Eurogamer. ”The focus is an exclusive one, there are no other genre properties in development at this time; racing is everything. We are also increasing headcount across the operation, which currently employs around 700. We are expanding the teams by a further 100+ development positions, which are opening over the course of the year across the sites.”

EGM’s TAKE: Let’s face it, Codemaster’s most popular titles were always in the racing genre. Sure Bodycount and Operation Flashpoint enjoyed moderate success, but nowhere near what DiRT has. Hopefully, now that the team is concentrating solely on a single genre it can create even more amazing experiences. We’ll see the first next month in the shape of DiRT: Showdown, which will be followed by F1 2012 later in the year, and at some point GRID 2. Things are looking good for the U.K developer.

What’s your favorite Codemasters title? Let us know in the comments below.