Stuart Black will be stepping down from his role as Creative Director at Codemasters this October. The company are avoiding reports of a fallout.

Black – the man behind PlayStation 2 shooter Black, funnily enough – has been working on Bodycount, an FPS due out early 2011 on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Eurogamer were today told by Codemasters that he’s “got all his design work to do but he’s going to finish before he leaves the team to complete the game, which takes him though to October.” Black has been at Codemasters for three years and his decision to leave has come out of the blue, but he is known to be an outspoken individual. Eurogamer are claiming the decision is the result of a “post-E3 fallout”.

Codemasters have so far played down these reports while Black himself has yet to comment. Adrian Bolton, the studio manager at Codemasters Studios Guildford had this to say:

“Having created a great vision and direction for Bodycount, Stuart has decided to move on after three years with us. 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.”

Codemasters have also played down fears that changes in the team will affect the development of Bodycount which is still on course for an Q1 release next year.

[source: Eurogamer]