EA to buy racing game developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion

[Jet_ski]

Summary

Electronic Arts reached an agreement on Monday to buy U.K. racing game developer Codemasters in a deal worth $1.2 billion. The deal upstaged a previous transaction agreed between rival publisher Take-Two Interactiveand Codemasters. The firm had agreed to acquire Codemasters for £726 million ($971 million) only last month.

 

Quotes

Quote

The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, EA added.

 

My thoughts

It’s ok guys, everyone from Codemasters will quit their EA job after a while and we will buy games from their future employers. I’m sure the MBAs at EA will innovate newer ways to ruin Codemasters’ games!

 

Sources

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/12/14/ea-to-buy-racing-game-developer-codemasters-for-1point2-billion.html

[suicidalfranco]

random card based progression system coming to a Dirt Rally title near you

[minibois]

while this worries me, I think there are already a bunch (maybe too) DLC packs for Dirt Rally 2.0, so what could EA possibly add to that?!
wait, I shouldn't say that.. this could go very wrong.

[Delicieuxz]

They were in talks with Take-Two for a bit. Interesting that they didn't reach a deal and have now sold to EA.

 

CM has been dead, quality-wise, for a long time - ever since (and including) DiRT 2, IMO, with an exception for DiRT Rally (which was still far from a polished and fleshed-out game). I already didn't expect anything great from them, and being bought by EA certainly doesn't raise my expectations.

 

The best thing, IMO, would be if they would get out of the way for other developers, like KT Racing, who have been showing they can do what CodeMasters hasn't been able to for ages. Sadly, the WRC license will go to CM as of 2023 and until 2027. Just as KT was proving themselves to be the new top rally developer. I don't look forward to 4 years of uninspired, unambitious, bland-looking, content-lacking rally games from CM. I hope CM will become a lot better than they are under EA, but that sounds like a far-reaching thing to expect.

 

I hope KT Racing will get at least another couple rally games out in 2021 - 2022.

[Spindel]

Maybe EA could focus on getting Digital Illusions to make Motorhead 2 instad. 

 

Motorhead is one of the arcade racing games I have the fondest memories of. 

[Delicieuxz]

I wonder how CM could be worth $1.2 billion. Outside of the F1 series (which I haven't paid attention to) their games have all flopped on PC since 2017's DiRT 4. DiRT 4, DiRT Rally 2, GRID (remake), DiRT 5 all initially, and for a long time after their releases, bombed in performance and reviews on Steam - though, DR2 started getting sales and positive reviews on Steam after it went on repeated heavy discounts (80% or so off from a variety of sources and on Steam itself).

 

Maybe the games did a lot better on consoles.

[Arika]

Add them to the EA graveyard.

[givingtnt]

The F1 series bout to go sinalla on us..

 

Not that they don't already make the same game every year..

 

 

[CTR640]

They call themself "Codemasters" and brings out half-assed games? EA can fuck it up much more tho like premium offroad wheels for $9,99 or waterproof and dustproof IPX67 engines for $59,99 lmfao!

[Fasterthannothing]

O great EA (Everything's Awful) buying a company and making a game worse

[rcmaehl]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

Add them to the EA graveyard.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

And nothing of value will be lost.

[RejZoR]

Looks like EA milked Need for Speed franchise to its limit. Just look at this year's release. A garbage reheated re-release of NFS Hot Pursuit 2010. Prepare for Need for Dirt: The Speed release next year. And then they'll be milking Codemaster's franchises to death and dump them on the pile and dissolve their teams and integrate them into their mass milking projects.

[GoodBytes]

I can't wait for the day-1 DLC to access the game settings panel, and "start game" game option... which of course can only be purchased via red crystals. Which is only aquirable via a surprised mechanic system by using blue crystals. If you buy on the next 3min, you can get 100 blue crystals for 9.99! Amazing deal. You need 500 Blue Crystals to start playing.

 

Oh the price of the game is 80$ US, of course.

 

Don't forget to get the season pass to get exclusive  content like Track Selection screen with 2 tracks to pick from!

[cj09beira]

another studio to be consumed by EA, shit, haven't played their games in a while but i truly loved the original GRID, it had the best drift experience i ever had

[Bombastinator]

Every game EA touches turns to garbage and dies.  Apparently this means the dirt franchise is about to go belly up.  Are there any other Fran hoses code masters does that are also still functional but therefore about to die as well?  Any old franchises codemasters did in the past EA might try to resurrect?

[JZStudios]

6 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

random card based progression system coming to a Dirt Rally title near you

The Crew like micro-upgrades.

 

6 hours ago, Delicieuxz said:

They were in talks with Take-Two for a bit. Interesting that they didn't reach a deal and have now sold to EA.

 

CM has been dead, quality-wise, for a long time - ever since (and including) DiRT 2, IMO, with an exception for DiRT Rally (which was still far from a polished and fleshed-out game). I already didn't expect anything great from them, and being bought by EA certainly doesn't raise my expectations.

 

The best thing, IMO, would be if they would get out of the way for other developers, like KT Racing, who have been showing they can do what CodeMasters hasn't been able to for ages. Sadly, the WRC license will go to CM as of 2023 and until 2027. Just as KT was proving themselves to be the new top rally developer. I don't look forward to 4 years of uninspired, unambitious, bland-looking, content-lacking rally games from CM. I hope CM will become a lot better than they are under EA, but that sounds like a far-reaching thing to expect.

 

I hope KT Racing will get at least another couple rally games out in 2021 - 2022.

D2 and D3 were great though.

Hold up, you're going to go in for Kylotonn? Everything they've done outside the past 2 titles has been terrible and was very poorly received. Them and Milestone.

 

That being said, DR was a low budget title released in early access for like $20. CM as a company refuses to replace/remake their decade old Ego engine from the start of the 360 era. That's why it looks so lackluster, they're trying to duct tape it all together and it's just spilling water. It's why the stages are so short, the physics are wonky, and there's only one car on track at a a time. I legit thought CM was going bankrupt, then they bought Evo Studios who made a new engine and IP which flopped so hard no one's heard of it and I don't think it even got the PC port. Then they bought SMS. I have no idea where CM got their money from.

 

EA did just decide to send NFS back to Criterion after pulling them back out of the nothing support role they've been, probably looking to cash in on name recognition, after shuttering Ghost and Black Box. Unless EA pairs CM with them (They are all UK based) I don't know what EA's plans are since they're very uninterested in racing games. I wonder how SMS feels being back under EA again.

[JZStudios]

2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Looks like EA milked Need for Speed franchise to its limit. Just look at this year's release. A garbage reheated re-release of NFS Hot Pursuit 2010. Prepare for Need for Dirt: The Speed release next year. And then they'll be milking Codemaster's franchises to death and dump them on the pile and dissolve their teams and integrate them into their mass milking projects.

They shuttered Ghost and are resuscitating the corpse of Criterion to move forward. It's still going to take a year or two, but given how long Criterions been on life support I have no idea how big it is or how many of the originals still work there. Frankly I'm shocked anyone would sell/work for EA anymore. It's a guaranteed studio closure.

 

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, JZStudios said:

They shuttered Ghost and are resuscitating the corpse of Criterion to move forward. It's still going to take a year or two, but given how long Criterions been on life support I have no idea how big it is or how many of the originals still work there. Frankly I'm shocked anyone would sell/work for EA anymore. It's a guaranteed studio closure.

 

Wasn't a lot of Ghost's staff former Criteron staff after the Burnout days anyways?

 

Although, I'm not sad about Codemasters ending up in EA's court anyways. People have been bitching about them falling for the past decade, at least this might give them a reason to bitch about them now.

[RejZoR]

1 minute ago, JZStudios said:

They shuttered Ghost and are resuscitating the corpse of Criterion to move forward. It's still going to take a year or two, but given how long Criterions been on life support I have no idea how big it is or how many of the originals still work there. Frankly I'm shocked anyone would sell/work for EA anymore. It's a guaranteed studio closure.

 

Everyone was raving about Criterion team returning to NFS franchise and I was like, they literally didn't do anything notable. And they make all NFS games with same cookie cutter approach. Open world, no story, nothing notable on the map, just points where you initiate the races. And that's it. Burnout Paradise was so boring because of this and all the NFS branded games were just renamed Burnout Paradise, really. I've entirely lost faith in NFS franchise after NFS Heat which was promising and then they just left it to rot after just 3 months after release. Absolutely pointless night time mode, stupid boring grinding day time races, moronic cheating cops and after you complete the campaign, game has zero incentive for you to continue. If night mode had global pursuit leaderboards and I'd probably still be racing around. Conversion of heat points into cash would also salvage it as you wouldn't be forced to grind for money in dull and boring day time races. And so they just left a game that's actually not that bad and could be one of the best NFS games in recent decade just to fall flat on its face because of disinterest of EA to actually make a good game. They are totally and utterly clueless and disconnected from how to make a game that's exciting for a while and people stick around for actual gameplay and not just showcasing their whatever vinyl designs.

 

Just imagine NFS Heat with Route Editor (players could paint a route on the existing world and they'd share that with others to race on) and all the times on those would be tracked by AutoLog (route time tracking so friends can compete with each other without having to actually race at the same time). This would generate almost endless amount of content for a NFS game. Yet they still haven't done it. I was raving about such feature for years and in the meanwhile Forza has included this already! I loved making tracks in Stunts, I loved making tracks in Re-Volt, I loved making tracks in Crashday. It was just so damn fun creating and racing on them. But nope. This year it was a crappy "remaster" if NFS Hot Pursuit 2010 and next year probably we'll see another NFS with same garbage cookie cutter approach as used in all Criterion games. Yawn. Totally not excited about it. Might just play NFS The Run again just for the sake of beautiful journey across USA...

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I can imagine it now... F1 2021, basically the only car that comes with the base game is the underwhelming Williams FW43. The Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ is going to be one expensive DLC. 

[Delicieuxz]

43 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

The Crew like micro-upgrades.

 

D2 and D3 were great though.

Too casual and focusing on the wrong things, for me. And the great environmental design disappeared after D1 and CM never got it back.

 

43 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

Hold up, you're going to go in for Kylotonn? Everything they've done outside the past 2 titles has been terrible and was very poorly received. Them and Milestone.

Outside of the past 3. WRC 7, 8, and 9 are great, and they keep improving. They've shown they can consistently make great rally games now, and they've been doing much better than CM has since who-knows-when.

 

43 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

That being said, DR was a low budget title released in early access for like $20. CM as a company refuses to replace/remake their decade old Ego engine from the start of the 360 era. That's why it looks so lackluster, they're trying to duct tape it all together and it's just spilling water. It's why the stages are so short, the physics are wonky, and there's only one car on track at a a time. I legit thought CM was going bankrupt, then they bought Evo Studios who made a new engine and IP which flopped so hard no one's heard of it and I don't think it even got the PC port. Then they bought SMS. I have no idea where CM got their money from.

 

EA did just decide to send NFS back to Criterion after pulling them back out of the nothing support role they've been, probably looking to cash in on name recognition, after shuttering Ghost and Black Box. Unless EA pairs CM with them (They are all UK based) I don't know what EA's plans are since they're very uninterested in racing games. I wonder how SMS feels being back under EA again.

I don't think that EA has had their Microsoft / Phil Spencer moment where they realize that being shit actually harms their business and that it's worth not being shit and is even a very good business idea to not be shit.

 

CM has been dying for a long time. I don't think they even get big enough budgets to make a decent game with anymore. Like you said, DiRT Rally was a low-budget title - and most of everything CM have done since then seems to not amount to what a full and polished product should be.

 

I'm guessing that CM has been starved of budgets since ages ago, and that it's because most of their releases haven't been performing very well for years now that the company is being sold.

[Vanderburg]

The F1 games have been pretty garbage for a while now. In fact, it closely resembles the Madden franchise at this point, so it's probably an appropriate acquisition. 

[D13H4RD]

I like how everyone's implying EA would kill Codemasters. 

 

Codemasters has been dying for a while already. The GRID reboot was mediocre and DiRT 5's direction has been rather controversial, and yearly F1 releases doesn't help. DiRT Rally's their only saving grace. 

 

If anything, EA would only put them out of their misery. 

[xAcid9]

Can't wait to spend $10k on Tommi Makinen legendary card and another $10k on his Evo in Dirt Rally 3.