UK publisher Codemasters is to acquire the Birmingham studios of fellow British developer Swordfish Studios, in a deal with Activision Blizzard.

The Manchester studios of Swordfish Studios were acquired yesterday by massively multiplayer online developer Monumental Games. The Birmingham studios are currently working on 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for THQ.

Swordfish Studios as a whole was acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005, but was disowned along with a number of other assets by Activision Blizzard after its merger. The financial terms of Codemasters’ acquisition were not disclosed.

The developer will now be integrated and managed as part of Codemasters' larger network of studios, with Swordfish Studios founder and managing director Trevor Williams reporting to Gavin Cheshire, vice president of Codemasters Studios.

Swordfish will create unspecified "original content" using Codemasters’ proprietary EGO Engine, as used in Colin McRae: DiRT, Race Driver: GRID and the forthcoming Operating Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. The two companies previously worked together on sports titles such as Brian Lara International Cricket 2005 and Jonah Lomu Rugby.

"We are committed to growing our studio operations across multiple facilities and increasing the internal capability of Codemasters’ creative resource," said vice president Cheshire.

"There is a strong heritage and a compatible skill set, which has enabled us to fast track growth plans and allows for ease of management. Codemasters has ramped up as a UK games development powerhouse with a scalable support infrastructure that allows for rapid deployment of the highly versatile EGO Engine."