Codemasters Acquires Project CARS Developer Slightly Mad Studios - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 April 2020 / 3,120 Views
Codemasters has acquired Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios for $30 million in an upfront fee. The entire team at Slightly Mad, 150 employees, will be making the transition.
The publisher will pay $30 million upfront. $25 million of that is in cash and $5 million is in stock. An earnout clause over a three year period could take the value much higher. The maximum earnout is $166 million, but the financial analyst Liberum expects the actual amount to be $67.9 million.
“Codemasters' acquisition of SMS will create a global leader in the racing genre," said Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier. "Their focus on AAA quality and the passion that they put into everything they create mirrors our own. Both companies have a number of world renowned, successful franchises along with exciting product development pipelines, supported by leading IP and some of the best talent in the gaming industry.
"The enlarged Codemasters will have greater scale and reach, diversified, predictable revenue streams and the opportunity to bring outstanding entertainment to a far wider audience. We welcome Ian and his team to the Codemasters family and can't wait to start working together to create the future generation of racing franchises.”
Codemasters has been developing racing games since they opened their doors in 1987, while Slightly Mad Studios was founded in 2009. They are not for developing the Project CARS franchise.
Slightly Mad Studios currently has three games in development. The games are mobile game, Project CARS Go, a game based "a Hollywood blockbuster movie franchise," and a third that is an IP owned by Slightly Mad.
Thanks GamesIndustry.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Best deal ever.
This feels like a good match
So no console from slightly mad studios, bunch of liars.
Were they making a console?
How were they lying? They announced the project in January and then said in May that two major investors jumped off and that the console now has a "questionable future".
Maybe this way they can make a good game =p Project CARS 1 felt much lower than promises.
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