Our games tip rises 42% in 7 months

VIDEO game specialist Codemasters is another British company to have defied the prevailing economic gloom.

Best known for its F1 series, Codemasters is behind several other racing car games, such as Project Cars, Dirt and Fast & Furious. Lockdown left many people with time on their hands and gaming proved a useful distraction. Sales rose across the industry as gamers twiddled consoles for hours on end, with high-quality titles particularly popular.

These are the types of game that Codemasters focuses on, and chief executive Frank Sagnier said last week that trading had been exceptionally strong in recent months so results for the year to March 2021 would be significantly ahead of expectations.

Sagnier admits that recent sales are less turbocharged than when the lockdown was at its peak, but the group is still selling more games than before the pandemic started.

Some people who never played before have discovered the joys of gaming. And old-timers have turned back to past car racing favourites. The latest Formula 1 title, F1 2020, was launched at the start of last month and has proved extremely popular, with top scores from gaming enthusiasts.

Fast & Furious Crossroads, unveiled ten days ago, has also made good initial progress.

Gaming groups tend to make most of their money from new titles, so Sagnier’s optimism is encouraging, particularly as Codemasters still has two more two big games to launch this year – Project Cars 3 and Dirt 5, coming out later this month and in October respectively.

After last week’s trading update, analysts expect a 57 per cent increase in sales to £120 million for the year to March 2021, with profits soaring 63 per cent to £30.6million. No dividend is scheduled, but the company is accumulating cash, and payouts may be on the cards as the business expands.

There is plenty of potential for further growth. Warwickshirebased Codemasters bought Fast & Furious developer Slightly Mad Studios in November last year and integration has gone well to date.

But the deal should yield many more opportunities over the next year or two.

Traded on: AIM Ticker: CDM Contact: codemasters.com or 01926 816000