EA Sports to purchase F1 Video Game Developer Codemasters for a reported $1.2 Billion

American video game developer Electronic Arts have agreed a takeover deal with Codemasters valued at $1.2 Billion. The agreement is expected to be finalised at the beginning of 2021.

Codemasters have been the official video game franchise of Formula One since 2009 and have developed very successful annual versions of their F1 game since.

Electronic Arts have previously produced a series of F1 games in the early 2000s with limited success as the series was cancelled after 2003. However, their Need for Speed series has been very popular in recent years.

Last month, video game franchise Take-Two Interactive announced they had an agreement to purchase Codemasters for $994 Million. However, Codemasters board of directors have left that offer to prioritise its agreement with EA.

CEO of Electronic Arts Andrew Wilson stated:

"We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans."

"Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment."

However, the initial response from F1 fans has been very negative towards EA's takeover.

EA are the producers of popular football video game FIFA, which in recent years has been infamous for the addition of micro-transactions to progress in online game modes, with fans also angered by the lack of development into single-player modes.

Furthermore, fans were angered when the newest addition to the Star Wars series, Star Wars Battlefront II, featured an unbalanced rewards system where players could progress much quicker through micro-transactional 'loot boxes' than through in-game progression.

The main concern from F1 fans now is that the game could follow in the footsteps of previous EA game series, where micro-transactions are necessary to access certain features while offline modes are left to regress in quality.

Additionally, EA have a previous history of takeovers that have led to a number of gaming studios closing. The most famous being Origin which was a Texan based studio acquired by Electronic Arts and dissolved in 2004.

Until a deal is concluded it is still unknown what the future of the Formula One series will hold for fans who are anxiously holding their breath at the fate of their beloved game.