Last year Electronic Arts swooped in to buy British developer Codemasters for hefty $1.2bn (£851m), and we’re now starting to hear further details about what the publisher plans to do with its new acquisition. In an interview with MCV, EA CEO Andrew Wilson explained that EA wants to give Codemasters the Respawn treatment: in other words, allowing Codemasters to retain its identity without too much outside interference.
“Similar to Respawn, our orientation isn’t to come in and take over Codemasters; our orientation isn’t to come in and turn Codemasters into another Electronic Arts studio; our orientation is around the provision of opportunity,” Wilson said. “This industry is all about amazing, creative talent. And we see little upside in the indoctrination of that amazing creative talent. But we do want to provide them access to the things that we get by virtue of our position in the industry.”
Wilson went on to describe the tools provided by EA as an “amazing cupboard of IP… and technology,” with plenty of “marketing breadth, depth and reach on a global basis” – and said EA was effectively “handing Codemasters a set of keys to the cupboard.
