EA is trying to buy Codemasters out from under Take-Two

Take-Two's attempted takeover of Codemasters has been interrupted by Electronic Arts. According to Sky News, EA has put up a bid higher than Take-Two's £725 million, or $960 million, bid for Codemasters. Codemasters is the publisher of the popular F1, Grid, and Dirt racing game series.

Though both are titans in game publishing it's not clear whether or not Take-Two will make a counter-offer. Take-Two publishes Rockstar's Red Dead and Grand Theft Auto series, while EA is a giant of licensed games and sports series. Despite their size, EA's total market capitalization is roughly twice that of Take-Two.

Codemasters is best known in recent years as a publisher of racing games, but has also been known in the past as publisher of the Overlord series among others. The acquisition would come with Codemasters' extensive back catalog of games and IP. Notably, the acquisition of Codemasters would give either EA or Take-Two the rights to the Operation Flashpoint series of sandbox military sim shooters. Operation Flashpoint was started by Bohemia Interactive, the same developers that went on to make premier milsim series ARMA.

We quite liked the last game in the F1 series, though neither this year's Dirt 5 nor 2019's GRID impressed our reviewers. The Project Cars series—developer Slightly Mad Studios was acquired by Codemasters in 2019—is also well regarded.

In response to EA's maneuver, Take-Two said in a statement that it is "considering its position in relation to Codemasters and a further announcement will be made when appropriate."

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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.