EA Out Bids Take-Two For Codemasters

Everyone understands the phrase: “Stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Though, I wonder how many understand: Stuck between the cartel and the up and coming drug lord. It’s like the prior, but with guns and knives. I think that’s where I am at with this entire news story, one which I wasn’t expecting to see at all this year, and yet it is entirely on the tone. Why does this year have to make life hard?

As we spoke about a while back, Codemasters, the developers behind F1 2020, Dirt 5, and Grid, was expected to be purchased by Take-Two Interactive. The parent company of Rockstar Games known for Grand Theft Auto, 2K for BioShock, and 2K Sports for NBA and WWE games. The purchase of Codemasters by Take-Two was set at a mind-blowing $994-million (£759-million), and like most, we expected this to be the end of the story. It would happen in months to come, but much like the Microsoft and ZeniMax deal, it would be finalized and completed in-quiet while everyone looked the other way. That’s not the case, however.

EA is a company known for writing the book on how to be pond scum and releasing several games including FIFA, Mass Effect, Star Wars: Battlefront, The Sims, Titanfall and Apex Legends, Command & Conquer, Need for Speed, Dead Space, Anthem, and what no one remembers them for, Rocket Arena. Some might call them a large-ish publisher of the video games these young whippersnappers are playing. Well, it seems they themselves want to jump in on the action; As reported by Sky News in the UK (Think Fox News but with a tiny bit of integrity), the US games publishing empire is set to… Take two on the deal with a $1.2-billion offer.

As noted by Sky and Polygon, giants of game publishing are taking swings. In this case, EA is the larger of the two. EA themselves with capital around $39.9-billion, to Take-Two’s $21.8-Billion. Neither publisher is sitting in the favor of many at the moment, as EA is still considered questionable thanks to their microtransaction policies. Similarly, Take-Two’s perceived greed and poor quality with 2K Battlegrounds and other WWE titles have them positioned as no one’s number one option for becoming the parent company of any developer. While many of us have and possibly still do enjoy games from both, many have also seen beloved series run into the ground with microtransactions or inferior quality.

Once again, the deal is expected to be finalized in silence during the first fiscal quarter of 2021.