Electronic Arts to acquire Codemasters and empower the racing category

An agreement has finally been reached for Electronic Arts’ acquisition of Codemasters. The acquisition costs $1.2 billion. Electronic Arts’ plan is to enrich their racing catalog, a genre in which Codemasters has much expertise to share.

The agreement between the two companies has closed after reaching a whopping US$1.2 Billion. It’s expected to be completed in the first quarter of calendar 2021. Racing franchises such as Need For Speed are supposed to receive a slight enhancement, with a strong possibility of giving birth to new ones, hoping to reach and satisfy the vast fan base of this genre.

Codemasters has the technical expertise in Formula One and DiRT (considered to be one of the most realistic rally racing games), which further satisfies EA’s inquiries. Electronic Arts’ CEO Andrew Wilson stated the following:

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. Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment. We have admired Codemasters’ creative talent and high-quality games for many years

With the full leverage of EA’s technology, platform expertise, and global reach, this combination will allow us to grow our existing franchises and deliver more industry-defining racing experiences to a global fan base. We are pleased that both our Boards of Directors are recommending this transaction, and we look forward to welcoming such an exciting and talented team to the Electronic Arts family.

The acquisition will remain in power unless another video game publisher decides to sweep in at a later stage. There have been multiple “last-minute bids,” which wouldn’t surprise us at all if it happens this time too. Codemasters is a renowned game developer with tons of knowledge in racing video games and an experienced developer lineup.