EA CEO: Codemasters Acquisition Isn't About Turning Them Into Just Another EA Studio - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2021 / 1,399 Views
Electronic Arts (EA) earlier this year acquired video game publisher and developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion. The publisher is best known for the racing franchises Dirt, F1, Grid, and OnRush. They also secured the rights to the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and also owns Project Cars developer Slightly Mad.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson in a new interview with MCV said the plan with Codemasters isn't to indoctrinate them into another EA studio, but is about its "amazing, creative talent" and to give them access to EA's resources.
"Similar to Respawn, our orientation isn’t to come in and take over Codemasters; our orientation isn’t to come in and turn Codemasters into another Electronic Arts studio; our orientation is around the provision of opportunity," said Wilson.
"This industry is all about amazing, creative talent. And we see little upside in the indoctrination of that amazing creative talent. But we do want to provide them access to the things that we get by virtue of our position in the industry."
"At Electronic Arts we have this amazing cupboard of IP …and of technology, an amazing cupboard of marketing breadth, depth and reach on a global basis, and an amazing network of players," Wilson added.
"And so the way we’re thinking about this, and it’s how we worked with Respawn, it’s more about handing Codemasters a set of keys to the cupboard, and they can come and take what they need from that cupboard, but they get to continue to be who they are, because that’s what made them special in the first place."
Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnie added, "We are launching our first game together with [F1 2021], which will be an EA Sports game. We can immediately see the impact of that and it’s a very positive one… And by the way, I don’t think EA would have agreed to put the game under the EA Sports banner, if they didn’t think it deserved it, the fit is there."
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.
More Articles
The fact they have to mention this bothers me.
They didn’t have to, but people keep saying they will ruin the studios they buy, so they issued such statement to calm the worry-mongers.
Their past history doesnt do them any justice, cannot blame the fans for thinking it. I am glad they are acknowledging it, however lets see how it goes in the near future.
Yeah, pretty sure they just bought them to secure all those racing licenses to themselves. That and to get more sources for annualized microtransactions.
Why do I never believe anything EA says?
Cause you can't handle the truth
EDIT: Gosh why the downvote ? I was quoting A Few Good Men
Usually that is the truth yes. XD
Sure boss.
EA ur full of shiet,
Just leave respawn entertainment alone and let them do their shiet,
Just like code masters pls we don't want another visceral games
They bought a studio with great talent. Get them to make great new games in their actual genre and we'll see. That or we'll find out when the F1 Contract ends.
Haha this
Essay Pro