Codemasters Accuses Ex-Exec's Studio Of Poaching Employees, Secrets

UK-based Codemasters is accusing a studio established by a former executive of stealing its employees and trade secrets for competitive advantage in the racing arena. In High Court docs first discovered by the UK's Daily Mail, the DiRT and F1 developer says that former CEO Nicholas Wheelwright founded a new studio, Playground Games, and poached Codemasters employees with access to trade secrets. The company alleges that the new studio gained a 12-month head start on the development and marketing of certain games, which would assumedly compete with Codemasters' in the racing space. Wheelwright founded PlayGround Games in 2009, alongside another former Codemasters exec, Trevor Williams. The employees they allegedly enticed from Codemasters "constituted a ready-made top-rate racing games development team," says the suit. It added: "Between them they had some 100 years of experience in creating, developing and producing first-class computer racing games."