Gaming: What does EA Sports Purchase of Codemasters mean for the F1 franchise?

Video game developer EA Sports recently completed the $1.2 billion takeover of rivals Codemasters, the makers of the successful annual F1 racing games, as well as the Dirt Rally and Project Cars series.

EA Sports, however, haven’t been as successful in the racing games with the Need for Speed franchise, focusing instead on the big franchise games such as FIFA and Madden NFL.

EA, in a statement, said this deal would mean; “Our teams will be a global powerhouse in racing entertainment, with amazing games for players on every platform, and we can’t wait to get started.”

“[The] Racing fandom continues to grow worldwide, and the franchises in our combined portfolio will enable us to create innovative new experiences and bring more players into the excitement of cars and motorsport.“

This is a very good thing to happen, because of EA games history of excellent graphics and with the know how of Codemasters, the F1 games have a potential to be bigger and better than ever.

It originally looked like 2k games franchise Take Two would take over. Another major global sports games brand, 2K games have WWE and NBA games coming out on a yearly basis, although they currently do not have any racing games and this market uncertainty could explain the lack of follow through from their investors.

On the other side of the coin though, Codemasters has prided itself on its quality over quantity approach with its other motorsport games, such as DiRT and Project Cars.

Valued at £1.2 billion, the acquisition from EA has been a major investment and one they’ll expect financial return from. While this is unlikely to affect the company’s cash cow F1 game as significantly, it could raise questions over the future of GRID / DiRT and a move to either make these yearly releases, introduce further DLC features or scrap entirely.

So in all we wait with eager anticipation for the next DiRT, Project Cars or F1 game to see what EA have managed to do to improve, adjust or maybe even ruin the popular racing games that we love. Only time will tell.