Codemaster sues rival for poaching staff

[BettyBoy]

Codemaster sues rival for poaching staff

Codemasters has accused Playground Games - the studio set up by former Codemasters executives Nicholas Wheelwright and Trevor Williams - of poaching its staff.

In a legal writ filed at the High Court last week, the British publisher alleged that Playground lured away key development staff to gain access to confidential information.

The company believes that Playground targeted the employees because they could help it develop a new racing game, which has reportedly been offered to Microsoft and Sega.

Alongside Williams and Wheelwright, Codemasters has named a total of 15 former employees in its legal challenge.

"Those employees constituted a ready-made top-rate racing games development team," claimed the filing.

"Between them they had some 100 years of experience in creating, developing and producing first-class computer racing games."

Codemasters - which publishes racing franchises Colin McRae: DiRT and Race Driver: GRID, along with the F1 series - is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.