One of the world’s biggest publishers of video games is on its way to buy the world’s biggest racing game developer. And if you’re wondering why Electronic Arts would be interested in Codemasters, it’s about the annual potential.
More specifically, it’s all about Formula 1. EA held an investor call yesterday and a deck issued along with it. On pages 15 and 16, the publishing giant addresses the Codemasters acquisition in the finest detail. One of the reasons for the takeover is that Codies will enable EA to give new races annually, and we know that major publishers love their annual franchises.
Formula 1 is currently Cody’s only annual series, one he’s progressing annually since 2009 after taking over licensing rights from Sony. After a few rocky years, the franchise has blossomed into a critical and commercial darling – something EA is very aware of, as the publisher cites a Metacritic score of 88 for the latest version. F1 2020, right there in his slideshow.
The rise of F1 as a gambling industry reflects the growth of F1 as a sport during the 2010s. In 2019, the sport Reaches 1.9 billion viewers – the most global since 2012 – although unique viewers have dropped slightly. Of course, it was before the pandemic, which saw F1 racing revenue drops 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. Would you ever envision it under Bernie Ecclestone?
Anyway, all this makes F1 the perfect fit for EA Sports. The publisher can count on F1 every year, just as it can count Madden and FIFA, plus F1 enjoys significantly more critical acclaim than these franchises (Madden 21 sits at 63 on Metacritic, while FIFA is 74.) The conditions are ripe for a microtransaction-laden F1 Ultimate Team mode, which you just know EA is trying to work. I look forward to packing a Nick Heidfeld of 80 in total in a card package I spent $ 5 on.
G / O Media can get a commission
There is even more annual potential for racing in the wings waiting for EA, as Codemasters aims to deliver its first licensed world championship title by 2023. The profit potential here will definitely not be as great as with F1, which worries me a bit. The Dirt Rally crew working on a fully licensed WRC experience is a race made in heaven, the kind that racing and fans have been waiting for forever. Kylotonn, who continued to produce WRC games until Codies took over, delivered solid titles on his own, though the studio could not really drive the technical envelope that Codemasters and EA could do with their composite resources.
Except for F1 and WRC, Dirty will continue on its two-pointed arcade and sim mode, judging by the slide. There are also Grill and Project motors – two track races that are in danger of stepping on each other’s toes these days, especially if Project Engines 3 unlike his predecessors, he made an arcade twist.
It is unclear what the EA acquisition could yield for what titles these respective studios hold in Codies. I do not have to point out that EA has a history of interfering with its in-house studios. Crave for speed was one of its worst victims. Ghost Games has, in my opinion, developed a promising return to forms with 2019s NFS Heat, just for EA to snatch the series away and give it back to Criterion for the next version; Criterion already lost NFS when it was first cast for Ghost. Burnout’s the inclusion in the presentation is particularly soul-stirring, as in thirteen years there has not been a new entry in the franchise.
So there are still many, many questions to be answered here, and we will probably not see the true consequences of this acquisition in the market for a few years. EA will soon be hosting a supergroup of legendary racing game development talents – I pray they use it effectively, but most of all, patient.