It’s been a big year already for Codemasters, which has already seen a number of its racing titles launch including the most recent high profile game,DiRT 5. The offroad racing game has been a hit with critics,pulling in stellar reviewsthanks to its impressive visuals, solid controls, and wealth of content available on day 1. Outside of releasing games, Codemasters has also seen a lot of interest in being acquired by other companies thanks in large part to its current successes within the racing sector.
Just 1 day after reports indicated thatElectronic Arts was getting involved in the bidding to acquire Codemasters, the company announced that it has reached an agreement with the Board of Codemasters to acquire the studio. The deal places a value on Codemasters at $1.2 billion and gives EA access to major racing IPs such asDiRT,Project Cars,Grid, and the annualF1series to name a few. The deal is expected to finalize in the first quarter of calendar 2021.
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The news may come as a shock to many not only for the relative speed of this deal getting done, but the fact that just last monthTake-Two seemingly announced it had reached an agreement with the Codemasters boardof governors to buy the studio and its IP for a little less than $1 billion. Without much traction or updates in the past month, the board announced its decision to withdraw its recommendation on the Take-Two offer and instead go with EA. No reason was given but the new EA deal places a higher value on Codemasters, so the switch may be financially motivated.
Gerhard Florin, the Chairman of Codemasters, reiterated the benefits of this deal for both companies as EA and Codemasters strive to “lead the video game racing category.” In addition, Florin went on to say that the board firmly believes thatCodemasterswould benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources, and global scale as a company and in the racing sector which would allow the teams to create, launch, and service bigger and better games.
EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, echoed similar thoughts with bringing both companies together to create “amazing and innovated new racing games for fans.” Wilson admited that the company has admired Codemasters' creative talent for many years and with EA’s technology and global reach now powering these experiences, Wilson believes that their brands will not only continue to grow but deliver better experiences to fans overall.
The move, on paper, appears to be a good one as Electronic Arts is well known for a number of major racing franchises including its biggestNeed for Speed. Naturally, fans have already begun wondering what a series like that could do under a development studio like Codemasters. With the Codemasters Cheshire studio being primarily made up of formerEvolution Studios members who worked on games likeMotorStorm, perhaps the long dormantBurnoutfranchise could finally see new life as well.
