Bodycount Creator To Leave Codemasters News

Stuart Black, the Creative Director on Bodycount, is due to leave the Codemasters Guildford studio that's developing the game before it gets released early next year.

According to a Eurogamer report, Black is scheduled to leave the studio in October, while accompanying speculation from the report alleges that "post-E3 fallout" is responsible for Black's decision to depart from Codemasters.

"Having created a great vision and direction for Bodycount, Stuart has decided to move on after three years with us," said Codemasters Guildford's Studio Manager, Adrian Bolton. "He will see out his design role until October and, through the transition period, will continue to work with the talented development team that will take the game through to completion."

Prior to his work on Bodycount, Black had previously spearheaded a 2006 FPS game for EA titled 'Black'. Tom Gillo, who worked on the game and then moved to Codemasters with Stuart Black as Boydcount's Executive Producer, has apparently left the Guildford studio already.

It's certainly not the most reassuring news for those of you who were eagerly awaiting Bodycount. On the other hand though, with Bodycount scheduled for release during the first three months of 2011, it's likely that the game will be more-or-less complete by the time Black is due to leave.

Typically, the last few months of a game's development are primarily spent polishing code to iron out bugs and glitches, while PR teams also have to demo near-final versions of the code to media in order to build-up publicity. In other words, the bulk of Black's work designing the project will be complete by October. Codemasters has already clarified that Black's departure won't affect Bodycount's release date.