One of the world’s largest video game publishers is on track to acquire the world’s largest racing game developer. And in case you’re wondering why Electronic Arts would be interested in Codemasters, it’s all about the annual potential.
More specifically, it’s all about Formula 1. EA loved yesterday and released a deck of cards in conjunction with it. On pages 15 and 16, the publishing giant discusses the acquisition of Codemasters in detail so far. One reason for the acquisition is that Codies will “enable EA to release new racing experiences every year,” and we know that major publishers love their annual franchises.
formula 1 is currently Codies’ only annual series, one that has been developed on an annual basis since 2009 after it acquired licensing rights from Sony. After a tough few years in its beginnings, the franchise has grown into a critical and commercial darling – something EA is well aware of as the publisher quotes a Metacritic score of 88 for the latest release, F1 2020right there in the slideshow.
The emergence of F1 as a gaming entity reflects the growth of F1 as a sport throughout the 2010s. In 2019 is the sport reached 1.9 billion viewers – the most global since 2012 – although the number of unique viewers dropped slightly. This was, of course, before the pandemic, which saw F1 racing revenues are declining due to non-existent ticket and hospitality sales in 2020. The growth of F1’s social media channels has helped broaden the sport and it now has a TikTok, if you can believe it. Could you ever imagine that under Bernie Ecclestone?
All this makes F1 the perfect match for EA Sports. The publisher can count on F1 every year, as he can count Madden and FIFA, and F1 enjoys significantly more critical acclaim than those franchises (Madden 21 sits at 63 on Metacritic, while FIFA sits at 74.) The conditions are right for a microtransaction-laden F1 Ultimate Team mode, which you know EA is trying to train. I’m looking forward to unwrapping an 80’s Nick Heidfeld overall in a card pack that I spent $ 5 on.
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More annual racing game opportunities await EA as well, as Codemasters aims to release its first licensed World Rally Championship title by 2023. The profit potential here certainly isn’t going to be as huge as it is with F1, which has worried me a bit. The Collect dirt The crew working on a fully licensed WRC experience would be a match made in heaven, the kind that racing games and rally fans always crave. Kylotonn, which will continue to produce WRC games until Codies takes over, has already delivered solid titles in its own right, although the studio can’t really push the technical boundaries the way Codemasters and EA should be able to with their pooled resources.
Besides F1 and WRC, Soil will continue in its dual arcade and sim mode, judging by the slide. There is also Grid and Project Cars – two circuit racing series that are in danger of treading on each other these days, especially if Project Cars 3 went for an arcade slant, unlike its predecessors.
It’s unclear what the EA acquisition could mean for the titles these respective Codies studios are in the works. Needless to point out, EA has a history of meddling with its internal studios. Need for speed has been one of its worst victims. Ghost Games developed what was, in my opinion, a promising return to form with 2019’s NFS Heat, only for EA to rip the series off and return it to Criterion for the next release; Criterion was already lost NFS when it was thrown to Ghost in the first place. Burnout inclusion in the presentation is particularly crushing as there has not been a newcomer to that franchise for 13 years.
So yes, there are still many, many questions to be answered here, and we will probably not see the true impact of this acquisition in the market for a few years. EA will soon be home to a supergroup of legendary racing game development talent – I pray they use it effectively, but most importantly, patient.