Probably related to the Rushy announcement. More at the link:

Landmark deal sees ex-Sony team join Codies to form "UK racing powerhouse"

At the end of March, just two weeks after Microsoft shut down Lionhead, the UK development scene was struck another blow. Sony was closing the doors of Evolution Studios: the studio behind WRC, Motorstorm and DriveClub. Fifteen years of top calibre racing pedigree was to disperse, and although Sony expressed regret that many of the talented staff from the Liverpool outfit wouldn't be taking up its offer of relocation, there was nothing to be done.

Except, this time, there was. Today, Codemasters has stepped in with an unprecedented deal to keep the team together and working on new projects, bringing Evolution Studios as a whole into the fold and making it a part of the Codemasters family. Most of the staff, including co-founder Mick Hocking, will be joining Codemasters as a separate team, working together from the same offices to produce brand new IP for the British racing specialist. Previous IP remains in the hands of Sony, but Hocking and his team will, essentially, continue Evolution Studios' work under new ownership.

"We want the team to remain to remain the team that they are," Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier told GamesIndustry.biz. "We want to benefit from everything that they've learned as a team together, we want them to create their own games. Of course there will be synergies, of course we will share stuff, but we would like to make sure they retain their identity and stay together as a team to do what they're good at. What we don't want to do is bring in a team of 50 people and start having some work on one game and some on another, on existing IP. The whole point is to keep their DNA and build a new game."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-04-05-evolution-studios-joins-codemasters-hocking-becomes-vp-of-product

this is actually great news, i hope they keep their engine and tools. Driveclub was a technical marvel.

Awesome. Hope they get to work on a spiritual successor to Motorstorm.

@OP - Change title please. Ex evolution employees joins code masters. It's different.

That's the headline from the site. The whole team are there.

"We've always had a great relationship with Sony and it's been a real privilege to be involved in the development of tech and new platforms with them. We worked on some great IP together and it's been a very amicable parting of ways. We've still got a great relationship and PS4 is definitely going to be a key part of our strategy going forward, so we'll be maintaining those relationships. So I think it's all been handled really well, by both companies. It's very positive. We're very happy to be able to go forward and work on multiple platforms and work on new IP here. Sony will still be getting the output from our studio, certainly for our next game, which we hope will be really successful on PS4."

That's a good move from Codemasters.

Since they changed their focus to just racing sims, they can now keep doing realistic F1 and Rally games while the new team can do more arcade games, allowing them to expand their overall audience.

And since the new team is already used to work together, they'll be able to start developing games from the get go.

I was always wondering what happens to developed in-house engines when studios close - does Evolution now has the rights to it or Sony...or they both have?

"We've made a job offer to all employees and I'm happy to say that most of them have accepted and are joining us. We're only hiring employees, we are not taking any of the IP or the technology. It's purely the people we are after"

Ah, thanks. Well I guess they can fairly easily recreate similar tech to DriveClub's when they start their project for Codemasters.