The inside track on EA’s acquisition of Codemasters

From Develop: "It’s one of the biggest players in the industry, but EA has never been highly acquisitive, and by modern standards it’s positively reticent when compared to many. The home of FIFA has focused instead on its existing stable of huge franchises – with the only major acquisition of the last ten years being its 2017 move for Respawn Entertainment for £315m.

It came as something of a surprise then, when late last year EA outgunned strong competition from Take Two to secure Codemasters for an eyebrow-raising $1.2bn (£860m), some 14 per cent above Take Two’s bid."

[DJStotty]

"EA's acquisition of Codemasters: "We think it’s a opportunity to bring two great companies together"

All i hear is

"We think this is a great opportunity to milk another franchise for all it's worth, add in some MT's, and then close the studio and throw it in the "done" pile"

[phoenixwing]

agreed. I already feel EA is near ready to close down bioware if their next new games aren't blockbuster sellers.

[NeoGamer232]

Why do you think any business mergers/takeovers happen?

They certainly don't think, "Hey, we want to become less profitable, charge less MTs, and have more of our games compete with each other in the marketplace"

Facts are mergers / acquisitions, are pretty bad for consumers no matter how you slice them. Any merger or acquisition gives one company more control of the industry / market segment and they are usually done to save costs. EA probably looked at this said, "Codemasters has great racing games and are locking up the racing market outside of GT and Forza... Let's take them over, and since racing games are pretty much a solved problem in gaming, we will own that market outside of first party studios"

[Relientk77]

EA has ruined sports games and turned them into casino simulators. Now they are going to ruin the racing games they own.

[StoneyYoshi]

Yeah, I'm waiting for them to announce a F1 Ultimate Driver mode or some crap lol.

[Blank]

You jest but it’s in the parameters of reality.

[Notellin]

If you liked Codemasters games, you won't like them much longer.

[NeoGamer232]

I actually think EA looked at the last few NFS games and said, "We F---ed up". Then, said, "what can we do?". Codemasters at the same time realized their only profitable gaming stream is racing games and that limits their growth.

So, it is a good company match. I will wait and see if EA takes Codemasters to a crappy place, or they give Codemasters NFS and Burnout and Codemasters re-energizes them. Dirt and Dirt Rally are good, Grid is good, F1 is good.... Would love to see a Codemasters version of NFS and Burnout.

[mch2011uk]

"Two great companies" After Codemasters who is the other one?? 🤔

[kevinsheeks]

Welp code masters is done

[CobraKai]

RIP Codemasters. All EA really wanted was your F1 game.

[badboyz09]

99% sure this was just to keep Take-Two away.

[Germaximus]

Another developer to be ruined. Who in their right mind would join EA? so stupid

[mattyhaxxx2]

Another one of my fav game companies sent to the grave

[CosmicTurtle]

Do EA now own Dizzy the Egg?

[VTKC]

Oh great. Codemasters were great with Dirt and Grid Race Driver games. But not anymore once the cancer of games that is EA gets hold of them. Farewell Codemasters. You had a great run with your games. They were very good.

[Knightofelemia]

RIP Codemasters anybody who joins EA is either jumping ship, getting fired, or the studio is closed after EA picks over the dead body. How Bioware is still a float surprises me most of their staff left, their last two games failed Anthem and Andromeda surprised EA has not turned off the lights or restructured the company yet.

[Spenok]

**Typical EA Doom and gloom comment!! "They're going to destroy all the racing games! Just like they did with Respawn... oh wait... no, not them. Like with Hazelight Studios games! Crap..."

Okay, serious hat on now.

Has EA been perfect? Absolutely not. Am I upset about games like Anthem being horribly managed and canceled? You bet, I had SUCH high hopes for the game. Have they shut down studios before? That's a rhetorical question...

But what major publisher HASN'T? Literally, every other one has shut down studios we don't think they should have. Ubisoft, Activision, Capcom, Bandai-Namco, Square-Enix, Microsoft, etc and so on... and yes, even Sony has (damn you for shutting down Zipper!!)

The point is... well... you can figure it out, and then downvote me instead because it's easier to hate then think critically :)