Following the mega deal late last year that saw EA add Codemasters to its range of owned developers, we've all been eagerly waiting on the outside to see how the acquisition would affect the British-based studio.
A recent interview by MCV with EA's CEO Andrew Wilson has revealed that the publisher doesn't want to turn Codemasters "into another Electronic Arts studio", and that it wants to treat the developer in a similar way as it treats Apex Legends-creator Respawn Entertainment.
"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 further continued saying, "At Electronic Arts we have this amazing cupboard of IP ...and of technology, an amazing cupboard of marketing breadth, depth and reach on a global basis, and an amazing network of players. And so the way we're thinking about this, and it's how we worked with Respawn, it's more about handing Codemasters a set of keys to the cupboard, and they can come and take what they need from that cupboard, but they get to continue to be who they are, because that's what made them special in the first place."
So, by the looks of things, EA will be leaving Codemasters to its own devices. We'll have to see how this all pans out when we get the first Codemasters' title published under the EA banner, which will be F1 2021 comes this July.
Thanks, MCV.