Codemasters Cheshire

Codemasters Cheshire is a UK game development studio based in Runcorn, Cheshire. It is part of the Codemasters group of studios owned by Electronic Arts, Inc. and currently operates under the shared name Criterion.

It was established as Codemasters EVO, a division of Codemasters when it was still independent. It was formed in April 2016 following Sony's confirmation on 22 March 2016 to close the development studio Evolution Studios. Codemasters hired a large part of Evolution to form Codemasters EVO. The division's first release was the team based arcade racer Onrush in 2018 as a game building on the spirit of the MotorStorm series Evolution was known for. In July 2018, one month after the release and following disappointing sales numbers, a large portion of the staff was laid off, including director Paul Rustchynsky, and it was turned into a support division for other Codemasters titles.

This eventually changed as around 2020 the studio was renamed Codemasters Cheshire and they became developers of the arcade racing game DiRT 5 (2020).

On 14th December 2020 Electronic Arts announced the acquisition of the entire Codemasters company for $1.2 billion, including this studio.

On 12 May 2022, Electronic Arts announced to have integrated the development team at Codemasters Cheshire into Criterion Software, to work on a new game in the Need for Speed series. Both divisions keep a separate office, but operate under the Criterion name, with both reporting to vice president and general manager Matt Webster.