While Codemasters is a fairly big game publisher in the UK and Europe it"s always had problems with distributing its games for the US market. It tried to handle those duties by itself for a while but now Codemasters is partnering with a big US publisher to finally bring its games to the big North American market. Today THQ announced via a press release that it has signed a deal with Codemasters to distribute four upcoming games from the UK publisher to our shores via the THQ Partners program. Codemasters will still handle the marketing of these four games in the US.
The deal begins this week with the release of Dirt 3, the next game in Codemasters" long running off road rally racing games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. On June 7, Codemasters and THQ will team up to another game to the US. It is Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the latest game in the military shooter series (Codemasters has already released the game in the UK and Europe) for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Later this summer, THQ and Codemasters will release Bodycount, an over-the-top first person shooter for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles.
Finally THQ and Codemasters will bring F1 2011 to the US on September 23. This game is the latest in the popular racing sim series for the international road racing series. It will be coming out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles at first (no word yet on a PC version).