Electronic Arts has announced an agreement to acquire Codemasters, the UK-based game developer and publisher of racing games. EA will pay $1.2 billion and plans to complete the acquisition in the first quarter of calendar 2021.
The ambition behind the deal is to enable further growth and success for Codemasters’ and EA’s racing franchises. Codemasters has several hit series under its belt including Formula One, DiRT, DiRT Rally, Grid and Project Cars. EA is known for its Need for Speed franchise, as well as mobile game Real Racing.
Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category. 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. 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.
Gerhard Florin, the Chairman of Codemasters
This acquisition agreement with EA signals a sudden change in Codemasters’ previous plans to be acquired by Take-Two Interactive, which was offering around $870 million.