EA’s plan to acquire racing game factory Codemasters may have been one of the smartest purchases that the company has ever made. With the UK powerhouse producer in its pocket, EA not only has access to IPs such as Formula 1, Dirt, and Grid, it has actual talent that it can trust with its own racing game properties as well.
With most of the heavy work done behind the scenes and all the paperwork signed, the only barrier right now for EA’s new acquisition is for the sale to pass muster with the relevant antitrust authorities who’ll have the final say on whether the deal can go through or not. It’s likely to still happen, and EA’s very keen to start having an annual racing game hit the scene once the deal is done.
In EA’s Q3 earnings call this week COO Blake Jorgensen seemed very keen on the F1 franchise in particular, as well as EA being the default name in racing games across the world, saying the genre is “one of the best growth opportunities there is.”
On top of the fact that the Dirt Franchise, the Grid franchise, all of their franchises are incredible games, but none of them are actually taking advantage of a large publishing organization and the marketing muscle that we are able to deliver. And we think that has growth to it. Not to mention, the talent that can continue to help our Need for Speed business or our Real Racing business could be very powerful. So we know it is not a FIFA-sized business, but we know there is an incredible opportunity to own essentially all the driving business there is.
EA big boss Andrew Wilson also added that EA sees an opportunity with Codemasters’ titles to add more live service elements, saying that “F1 plus live service plus our marketing muscle is a profound opportunity.” The $1.2 billion EA acquisition of Codemasters is just one of several big deals that have taken place over the last couple of months. Microsoft dropped a staggering $7.5 billion on Bethesda’s daddy Zenimax, getting all the kids in the custody agreement, and this week saw Embracer Group snap up Gearbox for $1.3 billion.
Last Updated: February 4, 2021
cloudzn
February 4, 2021 at 02:15
I knew it, as soon I read the title i knew these greedy bastards will do some kind of heavy monetization
GreasySpoon
February 4, 2021 at 03:54
Truly a sad day for any F1 game fan
Gr8_Balls_o_Fire
February 4, 2021 at 06:07
As soon as I heard about this I thought the very same thing. They will destroy this company as well.
cloudzn
February 4, 2021 at 06:21
Despite being proven wrong that live services isn’t what gamers want, EA refuses to change their greedy stance and it’s frustrating
Gr8_Balls_o_Fire
February 5, 2021 at 02:49
Their metric for performance is profit. And they’ve never been more profitable since live services came about. It will only change when consumer habits change, unfortunately.
Gr8_Balls_o_Fire
February 4, 2021 at 06:07
F1 is going to become FE in the virtual world as well.