News RIP Codemasters

Better EA than 2K, I would think?

Hopefully they manage to preserve their identity and don’t lose a large share of their people to NFS support team status.

I wonder how Slightly Mad Studios feels about this turn of events. They went from working for EA to doing PCARS, then acquired by Codies and are now back with EA. NFS Shift revival incoming?

More than anything, I hope the Dirt series continues. There are plenty of track racing games out there already but not a lot of rallysport or off-road themed ones.
 
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beep boop said:
Better EA than 2K, I would think?
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Under EA they might be overworked and killed in a half a dozen years.
Under Take2 they might be worked to death and left alive as shambling corpse.

Pick your poison.
 
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Maaaaan, as an old uk speccy gamer i remember the Codies humble beginnings punting out budget titles.
So sad to see them go. Hey Codies! If EA offers to take you for a drive to an old deserted quarry... find something else to do that evening!

Nostalgia Painpeko

37967-bmx-simulator-zx-spectrum-front-cover.jpg

 
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beep boop said:
Better EA than 2K, I would think?

Hopefully they manage to preserve their identity and don’t lose a large share of their people to NFS support team status.

I wonder how Slightly Mad Studios feels about this turn of events. They went from working for EA to doing PCARS, then acquired by Codies and are now back with EA. NFS Shift revival incoming?

More than anything, I hope the Dirt series continues. There are plenty of track racing games out there already but not a lot of rallysport or off-road themed ones.
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Unless EA feel rally games and whatever projects Codemasters had going on are worth keeping long term, this is on another body for the cartoon pile. Codemasters will be kept around, then merged then closed. The next dirt/rally game better sell like mad to justify that cost
 
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Codemasters, didn't all their non racing projects flop and the racing ones are very same ish with minor changes from year to year?

But I remember times when Dirt 1 was a benchmark.
 
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fspm said:
Codemasters, didn't all their non racing projects flop and the racing ones are very same ish with minor changes from year to year?

But I remember times when Dirt 1 was a benchmark.
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Have you played any of their recent racing games?

I mean they're all racing simulators (save for the Dirt franchise) so of course they're gonna be largely the same, but the community is happy with it for the most part. Not sure what the point is here.
 
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gabbo said:
Unless EA feel rally games and whatever projects Codemasters had going on are worth keeping long term, this is on another body for the cartoon pile. Codemasters will be kept around, then merged then closed. The next dirt/rally game better sell like mad to justify that cost
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Codemasters (or now EA) is getting the WRC licence in 2023, i see them releasing Dirt Rally 3 and then transitioning over to annual WRC games. So i think we'll be getting F1 and Rally games with the core dev teams for those left intact, as long as they keep selling anyway. If EA sees enough worth/potential in anything else Codemasters does though...
 
fearthedawn said:
Codemasters (or now EA) is getting the WRC licence in 2023, i see them releasing Dirt Rally 3 and then transitioning over to annual WRC games. So i think we'll be getting F1 and Rally games with the core dev teams for those left intact, as long as they keep selling anyway. If EA sees enough worth/potential in anything else Codemasters does though...
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If they're getting the WRC license back, yeah, the DIRT team will definitely be kept around for a while. I don't even know what other original IP codemasters owns or is publishing at this point to comment much beyond that.
 
Bad outcomes both of them but EA was the less bad one (tiny margin)
 
Codemasters' executive director Ian Bell, CEO Frank Sagnier, and CFO Rashid Varachia have agreed to vote in favour of closing the deal that would see Electronic Arts acquire the studio.

Their decision is binding -- even if another company makes a higher bid, they would still have to go with EA. However, the deal could still fall through if EA retracts its offer or let the terms expire.
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www.ign.com

With Codemasters Acquisition, EA Aims to Release a New Racing Game Every Year - IGN

EA hopes that adding franchises such as Dirt, Project Cars, and F1 to its portfolio will let it leverage racing as an annual EA Sports live services offering.
www.ign.com www.ign.com
EA highlighted the motivations behind its pending acquisition, including the desire to increase its presence in racing, with EA CEO Andrew Wilson describing the sport as "one of the few truly global sports" during the company's earnings call.

EA's presentation further outlined Codemasters' IP line-up, which includes owned IP Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid, Project Cars, and upcoming mobile franchise Project Cars Go, as well as licensed IP F1 and upcoming licensed games for World Rally Championship beginning in 2023.


Later in the earnings call, COO Blake Jorgensen praised the viability of F1 racing in particular as a global franchise currently gaining further traction in the US, suggesting that EA hopes to become the go-to publisher for racing games more broadly, saying the genre is "one of the best growth opportunities there is."

"On top of the fact that the Dirt Franchise, the Grid franchise, all of their franchises are incredible games, but none of them are actually taking advantage of a large publishing organization and the marketing muscle that we are able to deliver. And we think that has growth to it. Not to mention, the talent that can continue to help our Need for Speed business or our Real Racing business could be very powerful. So we know it is not a FIFA-sized business, but we know there is an incredible opportunity to own essentially all the driving business there is."

Wilson added that EA also sees an opportunity with Codemasters' titles to incorporate further live service elements, saying that "F1 plus live service plus our marketing muscle is a profound opportunity."

This comes alongside a further statement from Wilson during the earnings call, stating EA's intent to expand EA Sports into different types of sports, with more announcements planned "in the weeks and months ahead." Wilson added that this includes "at least one new experience" launching next fiscal year -- which begins April 2021.
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It's nice to see they don't want to kill off all the IP right away (give them a couple bad years, maybe by 2027), but good god do they also make it seem like they're going to keep them alive in the most soulless way possible. Good for EA investors, bad for anyone who didnt want quality to drop and MTX/gambling elements to go way, way up.
 
I can see "Ultimate Garage" coming soon where the actual driving part of the game is secondary to Top Trumps type card gacha for example.
This statement in particular gives me chills... "...but we know there is an incredible opportunity to own essentially all the driving business there is."

I really, really hope i'm wrong but only time will tell.
 
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