EA buys racing game maker Codemasters

A bulk of the racing game market is set to be under one roof in California

Amid a pandemic, people are home more than usual, across the globe. Thus, video game sales have spiked, near 25% more than the previous year.

Codemasters is known for a wide range of racing games releases. They put out Grid (TOCA), Dirt and Rally games. Since 2016, they’ve released racing games exclusively.

But, Codemasters claim to fame is their F1 franchise. The companies most F1 recent release was F1 2020 which came out in July 2020.

Electronic Arts collected $5.15 billion in revenue for 2018. The company is based in Redwood City, California.

EA has a wide range of racing games as well. Need for Speed and Real Racing to name a few.

Following 2009, EA lost the rights to the NASCAR franchise. The discontinued the brand due to budget cuts. Their last release on the topic was NASCAR Kart Racing in 2009.

Take-Two Interactive had expressed interest in purchasing Codemasters. They agreed to a deal of $970 million. However, the sale wasn’t completed.

Now, EA is set to acquire Codemasters in Q1 2021. The deal comes at $7.98 a share, with an estimated total value of $1.2 billion.

Codemasters Dirt 5 screenshot
Codemasters Dirt 5 screenshot

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“We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson says in a statement.

Wilson added, “Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment.”

The deal places a huge chunk of the racing game industry under one roof.

“Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category,” says Codemasters chairman Gerhard Florin.

“The Board of Codemasters firmly believes the company would benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources and extensive global scale — both overall and specifically within the racing sector.”

Florin added, “We feel this union would provide an exciting and prosperous future for Codemasters, allowing our teams to create, launch and service bigger and better games to an extremely passionate audience.”

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EA | Codemasters

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