Electronic Arts outbids Take-Two, Now owns Codemasters

Gaming giant Electronic Arts just became that much larger. The publisher released a statement about the acquisition of Codemasters for a cool US$1.2 billion. The news comes after Take-Two previously tried to buy the British game company.

Codemasters are living legends among Europe’s game companies. The company’s history dates back way back to 1986. Naturally, during the 34 years, dozens upon dozens of games launched through the doors of the studio.

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.

But there’s one genre, in particular, that’s synonymous with Codemasters. Racing games. Titles like Colin McRae Rally, TOCA Race Driver, Grid, Dirt, and a vast number of Formula 1 games helped build that image.

That’s not to say there are no games from other genres. Codemasters also created the action-RPG Overlord series. On top of that, they also tried that hands at military-fps with Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising & Red River. But it’s the racing prowess that really stands out.

So, how fitting then that EA now owns the company. EA is famously-known for their own annual sports titles like FIFA, Madden, and so forth.

With Codemasters, EA now has a very powerful and talented racing arm as well. EA also pointed towards that rationale in their press release. Will we soon see a Need for Speed games created by Codemasters? Time will tell. But it certainly would make a lot of sense.

In the meantime, Take-Two is left empty-handed. The parent company of GTA creators Rockstar Games initially tried to buy Codemasters. Both parties even released press releases that the deal would go through in the first quarter of 2021. EA made sure to foil those plans.