Codemasters Bosses Exit Ahead of EA Takeover

I think it is fair to say that rumors of the purchase of Codemasters a while back had a few concerning names around it. Neither 2K nor EA have been getting into the favor of many fans of sports (or “sports-entertainment”) games of late. After all, 2K published the awful WWE 2K20 and the offensively bad WWE 2K Battlegrounds. Meanwhile, EA keeps farting out yearly FIFA and Madden games. Both are marred with the disease of seeking as much money as possible through microtransactions, with EA forgetting “art” is in their name. So, not many were hopeful.

According to a report by GamesIndustry.biz the top bosses at Codemasters are out thanks to the acquisition of the publisher and developer. Frank Sagnier and Rashid Varachia, CEO and CFO respectively, have noted they are leaving their positions at Codemasters. As reported by GamesIndiustry.biz, the exit has “always been part of the plan,” though the accelerated integration into EA’s sports brand has led to their departures happening sooner than expected. Both are set to step down at the end of the month.

All of this is thanks to EA swooping in early on in the year with a $1.2 Billion offer. They outbid 2K, the publisher of NBA and WWE games. 2K also had the ability to give GTA V a prolonged life as an online cash cow. Both sought to pick up the developer of the F1 games of the past decade, with their adjacent projects of the spin-off series Dirt and Grid. The most recent F1 game (F1 2021) is releasing next week.

In a statement provided to GamesIndustry.Biz, EA noted the history of both CEO and CFO, mentioning that Sagnier’s tenure lasted from 2014, when he joined the publisher and developer from French mobile developer IsCool Entertainment. Varachia joined the company, leading to the 2018 listing of the developer/publisher on the London Stock Exchange. Both undoubtedly take a large portion of the credit for the 2019 purchase of developer Slightly Mad, who is behind the Project Cars series. While Slightly Mad’s CEO Ian Bell will continue on in his role, as SPV of product development Clive Moody and SPV of publishing Jonathan Bunney will take over Sagnier and Varachia’s roles as Codemasters falls under the EA Sports banner.