It's been bubbling away for some months, but it now looks like the takeover of British racing developers Codemasters by American giant Electronic Arts is finally official.
EA completes takeover of Codemasters
News was quiet following a UK court date on the takeover on 16 February, but EA has announced the takeover publicly.
The $1.2 billion deal trumped a $900 million offer from EA's rivals Take-Two, who also own Rockstar and produce 2K Sports games.
What this means for the future
The immediate impact for fans of Codemasters games is that their next release, F1 2021, could have the EA logo in the starting credits.
Other than that it is unlikely there will be much short-term impact. Development for F1 2021, expected to release in June/July 2021, began long ago and so the game should be relatively uneffected.
The longer-term impact is that we could start to see Ultimate Team, EA's flagship sports game mode, make its way into the Formula 1 series.
Fans have been debating if this is a good thing or not, but will now just have to wait and see.
The addition of another amazing racing developer like Codemasters makes EA, who already has the Need For Speed and Burnout franchises under their umbrella, the world-leader in racing.
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