Page 2 • EA acquires Codemasters • Gaming • General Gaming • Eurogamer.net

uiruki 14 Dec 2020 09:58:06 5,975 posts
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Wasn't that basically the Gamechangers programme?

Decks 14 Dec 2020 10:02:54 31,013 posts
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Lets not forget that Codemasters themselves have been buying up racing game developers for a while now. So EA have just bought a huge section of the racing game market. So that's that fucked I guess.

JamboWayOh 14 Dec 2020 10:13:01 25,236 posts
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Malek86 wrote:
Oh god, more racing games running on Frostbite.

I hadn't thought of that. But they have their own engine, surely they wouldn't force them to work with something that is designed for first person shooters? Who am I kidding?

Deleted user 14 December 2020 10:16:57

JamboWayOh wrote:

Malek86 wrote:
Oh god, more racing games running on Frostbite.
I hadn't thought of that. But they have their own engine, surely they wouldn't force them to work with something that is designed for first person shooters? Who am I kidding?

Didn’t EA come out a year or so ago and say ‘oh yeahhhhh turns out Frostbite isn’t good for all the games so we are going back to using the right engine for the job’

Darth_Flibble 14 Dec 2020 10:16:57 5,592 posts
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Also they can do F1 ultimate team packs, rinse more money out of the simpletons

uiruki 14 Dec 2020 10:19:30 5,975 posts
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Spend twenty quid, get fifteen copies of Giovanni Lavaggi

Malek86 14 Dec 2020 10:22:10 12,331 posts
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@Graxlar_v3 if they did, I didn't notice. All of their games so far have been Frostbite. The only exception was JFO, and only because Respawn had been working on it before the acquisition and it was too late to switch to a different engine.

The only hope is that the CPUs and SSDs in the next-gen consoles might actually be fast enough to stream those assets properly and run Frostbite better. But I don't know if that will make life any easier for devs.

Edited by Malek86 at 10:24:21 14-12-2020

Ultrasoundwave 14 Dec 2020 10:24:55 6,439 posts
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I didn’t realise F1 2020 is one of the highest scoring Metacritic games of the year, hats off to Codies for that.

However, there is no way this turns out well for them. We can all expect F1 2021, WRC and all future Dirt games to be full of “surprise mechanics” in the future, which is a travesty.

This is good news for the shareholders......and no one else.

Phattso 14 Dec 2020 10:29:40 27,426 posts
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JamboWayOh wrote:

Malek86 wrote:
Oh god, more racing games running on Frostbite.
I hadn't thought of that. But they have their own engine, surely they wouldn't force them to work with something that is designed for first person shooters? Who am I kidding?

Codemasters have multiple engines under their roof right now, I think?

As was said above: Codies have become "the driving game people" and EA have just bought that lock-stock. No need to homogenise engines when that teams are already humming along nicely.

I'm pretty sure EA only migrated teams to Frostbite that didn't have their own tech already? BioWare were just using Unreal weren't they? Respawn have been allowed to do their thing and will probably continue to do so, for example.

JamboWayOh 14 Dec 2020 10:32:07 25,236 posts
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Malek86 wrote:
@Graxlar_v3 if they did, I didn't notice. All of their games so far have been Frostbite. The only exception was JFO, and only because Respawn had been working on it before the acquisition and it was too late to switch to a different engine.

The only hope is that the CPUs and SSDs in the next-gen consoles might actually be fast enough to stream those assets properly and run Frostbite better. But I don't know if that will make life any easier for devs.

No, I think Anthem was a dev choice in using Frostbite. That's what was reported after all the fallout

JamboWayOh 14 Dec 2020 10:33:24 25,236 posts
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Also the wording of the article is that they've made a bid, they haven't technically bought them. Take Two could outbid them.

Darth_Flibble 14 Dec 2020 10:42:45 5,592 posts
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I know its very trendy to defend EA but out of all there studios they snapped up, which ones have they done a good job with? they shafted Respawn to buy them and I suppose they are doing well but the EA grave yard list is a mile long

Dirt3 14 Dec 2020 10:50:16 1,775 posts
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Codies have done pretty well in profit terms recently.

My guess is that it is the ownership of the official licences to F1, Rallycross and soon to be WRC that got EA interested.

Codies strategy to me recently seems a bit headless chicken. I can't quite figure out why they bought SMS, I can only guess it was some sort of fire sale.

To me it feels like a takeover by a major developer would result in a general dumbing down of the games and volume churnout. I can't see the Dirt Rally series surviving this, to me the game always swapped some of its mass appeal for difficulty and challenge.

I was wondering how they would market WRC, whether they would try Dirt : WRC or have a dirt expansion pack. If the takeover happens I think Dirt will die a death and it will all go over to WRC.

I think (possibly) some good things will come out of it. One is that we will finally see VR in F1. The other is that with larger budgets we might see some more exciting stuff in F1, like vintage grand prix. And the final thing and probably the best is that as the business is reformated we could well see new independent start ups emerge to do a proper PCars 3 and take on the mantle of rally sim racing.

JamboWayOh 14 Dec 2020 10:50:44 25,236 posts
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Darth_Flibble wrote:
I know its very trendy to defend EA but out of all there studios they snapped up, which ones have they done a good job with? they shafted Respawn to buy them and I suppose they are doing well but the EA grave yard list is a mile long

Is it trendy? That's the first I've heard of it. All I know is that Anthem was not a simple case of EA bad

fontgeeksogood 14 Dec 2020 10:51:24 12,913 posts
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TRENDY
R
E
N
D
Y

Rhaegyr 14 Dec 2020 10:54:16 5,499 posts
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Damn. They've been on a roll with F1 lately too.

How many years are we giving it before they're put out to pasture?

Malek86 14 Dec 2020 10:59:23 12,331 posts
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Anthem was a case of Bioware making a vertical slice and then having no idea how to proceed from that. I can't really blame EA for it.

Not so sure about Andromeda though.

Saul_Iscariot 14 Dec 2020 11:00:32 4,399 posts
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@JamboWayOh They brought the Katamari games to the west. And the last two Star Wars games they released were above average, though neither was great. Titanfall Two’s single player was really good, if short. That’s the best I have to say about EA.

Darth_Flibble 14 Dec 2020 11:02:34 5,592 posts
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JamboWayOh wrote:

Darth_Flibble wrote:
I know its very trendy to defend EA but out of all there studios they snapped up, which ones have they done a good job with? they shafted Respawn to buy them and I suppose they are doing well but the EA grave yard list is a mile long
Is it trendy? That's the first I've heard of it. All I know is that Anthem was not a simple case of EA bad

yeah, it is. Some people rabidly defend EA as everyone attacks the company. they feel the need to defend them with moronic comments "all aboard the HATE train".

mothercruncher 14 Dec 2020 11:03:55 19,474 posts
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I read somewhere EA are about to announce WRC: Afterburner, the deluxe game has Monster Energy themed rockets to go with the standard games’ machine guns.

Darth_Flibble 14 Dec 2020 11:04:46 5,592 posts
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Malek86 wrote:
Anthem was a case of Bioware making a vertical slice and then having no idea how to proceed from that. I can't really blame EA for it.

Not so sure about Andromeda though.

Andromeda was EA's fault, giving it to Sims DLC developer, with a lot of inexperienced staff working on it . Also frostbite didn't help. same with Anthem but EA was not responsible for all of Anthem's issue (they wanted the jet pack back in which sort of helped anthem)

JonFE 14 Dec 2020 11:04:55 2,071 posts
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Rogueywon wrote:
With a shiny new studio to ruin, I guess they'll be shutting down what's left of Bioware soon.

With both Mass Effect and Dragon Age new games in the horizon, is that really a concern? People will be furious, even if Bioware's latest output left a lot to be desired.

JamboWayOh 14 Dec 2020 11:08:18 25,236 posts
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Darth_Flibble wrote:

JamboWayOh wrote:

Darth_Flibble wrote:
I know its very trendy to defend EA but out of all there studios they snapped up, which ones have they done a good job with? they shafted Respawn to buy them and I suppose they are doing well but the EA grave yard list is a mile long
Is it trendy? That's the first I've heard of it. All I know is that Anthem was not a simple case of EA bad
yeah, it is. Some people rabidly defend EA as everyone attacks the company. they feel the need to defend them with moronic comments "all aboard the HATE train".

Interesting, I really haven't seen these people.

Tomo 14 Dec 2020 11:09:42 19,565 posts
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Just looking at Codies back catalogue, I realise I've barely played any of their stuff for a looooonnnnggg time, aside from Dirt Rally.

Would love a new Micro Machines, but it'll be dumped straight to mobile by EA if they revisit that. MMV3 was absolutely incredible - the Keepsies mode has never been replicated since, which is a missed opportunity.

Otherwise, can't say I'm too fussed, aside from the wider issue of the shrinking pool of developers. 1.2 billion seems a lot.

HarryPalmer 14 Dec 2020 11:12:21 6,357 posts
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Micro Transactions

BigOrkWaaagh 14 Dec 2020 11:13:18 10,554 posts
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@Tomo They did a new micro machines and it was shit. Toybox Turbos is the one you want.

Tomo 14 Dec 2020 11:18:47 19,565 posts
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I just watched a video of it and it did look pretty mediocre. They also had the Nerf guns logo attached to every player's weapon slot on the UI... Jesus. And yet somehow Brian Blessed was drafted in to provide some witty one liners for when you use powerups against other cars. Spend presumably a not insignificant amount getting him in and then smash it with advertising anyway. No wonder it sunk without a trace.

brainbird 14 Dec 2020 11:22:10 2,687 posts
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I wouldn't mind an new TOCA/GRID. Or a NFS: Dirt crossover.

Edited by brainbird at 11:23:01 14-12-2020

SolidSCB 14 Dec 2020 11:25:41 16,771 posts
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They already added a fucking battle pass to F1 this year, I'm sure it won't get even worse now...

Decks 14 Dec 2020 11:29:10 31,013 posts
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To be honest Codemasters have been pretty shit recently anyway. Other than Dirt Rally 2 we've had a shit Dirt 5, a shit Grid and a shit Project Cars 3. So the only (fairly huge) downside of this is that it probably means the end of Dirt Rally.

EA acquires Codemasters • Page 2