Codemasters, the developer behind recent Formula 1 game titles on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo and mobile is set to be acquired by Electronic Arts (EA), in a deal worth $1.2 billion (£900m).
Codemasters, a UK-based games developer, is best known for its F1 titles as well as its DIRT and GRID franchises, with a heavy focus on racing games.
Just last month it was in talks to be sold to Grand Theft Auto creators Take Two Interactive in a deal which valued the company at £750m ($970m), but it seems EA entered a bidding war, pushing the price up to $1.2bn.
EA has reached an agreement to pay £6.04 in cash per share and if the deal gets the go-ahead, it’s expected to be completed early next year.
“Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category,” commented Gerhard Florin, Chairman of Codemasters.
“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.”
Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, added: “We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans.
“Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment.”
EA is the second largest games developer in the world and published a variety of predominantly sports-based titles including FIFA, Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NASCAR.
When the story broke last month of the Take Two deal with Codemasters I was perfectly comfortable with that, and felt it would secure the future of some of my favourite games. With this EA involvement I am rather less enthusiastic. My experiences with their games, driving or otherwise, have ranged from disappointing to downright appalling.
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