While Take-Two was initially cleared to acquire Codemasters in late 2020, EA ultimately outbid the publisher. Now, with the racing game studio under its belt, EA hopes to be able to have a new racing game out annually.
During EA's quarterly earnings call this week, CEO Andrew Wilson explained that part of the motivation behind acquiring Codemasters was to increase the publisher's output in the racing genre, calling it “one of the few truly global sports”. EA Sports titles tend to bring in the most money for EA, although it has faltered in racing games lately with Need for Speed garnering less and less interest each year.
With Codemasters under EA's umbrella, EA now has access to several new racing IP, including Dirt, Dirt Rally, GRID and Project Cars. With this boost, EA hopes to be able to churn out a racing game every year moving forward, just as it does with other sports franchises.
EA announced that it would be acquiring Codemasters earlier this year, after swooping in and outdoing Take-Two with a $1.2 billion offer.
KitGuru Says: Do you think EA's annual racing game plan will pay off? At the very least, it'll be nice to see Need for Speed take a break for a while so EA can focus on its other racing IP.