Electronic Arts Bids $1.2 Billion for Ownership of Codemasters

In November 2020, Codemasters reached an agreement with Take-two, who is the publisher of the very famous Grand Theft Auto and 2K, for ownership in return. A month later, EA reaches out on media to confirm that they’re ready to pay a whopping $1.2 billion! Whether Take-two is ready to outbid EA is yet to be confirmed, but unlikely due to their budget. Compared to Take-two, EA’s net worth is about twice as much and therefore ready to bid much higher. 

So, why is EA bidding over a billion dollar? Codemasters is vastly known for the successful racing games since the 1980s. Throughout the years, we’ve seen mega titles such as Dirt and F1. Then we have legendary games such as GRID. With all the titles together, Codemasters have managed to make a great profit over the past few years. According to media, Codemasters best selling games altogether raised the total revenue due to the on-going pandemic. During this year’s lockdown, the studio saw a significant shift towards digital channels because greater parts of the society were closed, including physical stores. The number of active daily users increased to around 800,000.

F1 2019 Esport in China attracted 1.6 million viewers

With that said, the number of players is still expected to grow over the next 5 years, and so will Esport. The company hopes to generate revenues from sponsorship as the market continues to develop. The first F1 Esports China Championship last year attracted 1.6 million viewers in total and could easily reach 2 million viewers in near future. Codemasters’ titles are growing rapidly in terms of number of players and, as many people predict, Esport is the future. Codemasters offers a great F1 tournament that is still rising in popularity. In the end, EA would easily be able to regain the money, but these are long-term goals.  

Take-two was supposed to own Codemaster by the beginning of 2021, however, we’re waiting for Take-two to leave their response. With their bid of £725 million, they need to bid twice as much, compared to previous bid, to surpass EA.