You may have noticed that I write a lot about motorsports. In particular, I’ve written about F1 2020 and more several times already this year. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it once again, I hate sports with a passion; even if I did recently review EA’s FIFA 19 the other day, I can’t stand the idea of any of it at all. That said, my most played game of last year was Codemasters’ F1 2019, and I’ve always been fond of Codemasters’ work on racing games. Now it seems the publisher and developer will be gobbled up in the years’ second-biggest acquisition announcement following the pending purchase of ZeniMax by Microsoft.

It was made official yesterday, in a press release published to Business Wire, in which the publishing giant Take-Two announced the deal already being in the works. Take-Two, already the publisher of the 2K, 2K Sports, and the monolithic giant that is Rockstar Games, will be purchasing Codemasters. This purchase would be adding to the giant’s already large roster of developers and publishers under the company’s wing. Codemasters themselves are a force to be reckoned with in the racing game sphere with the aforementioned Formula 1 series of games, along with Colin McRae Rally/Dirt, GRID, and others.

The deal is said to be setting back Take-Two $994-million (£759-million locally). “We are exceedingly pleased to announce this recommended transaction with the Board of Codemasters,” Take-Two CEO, Strauss Zelnick commented about the acquisition. He would go on to say: “Codemasters has a renowned history of creating some of our industry’s most beloved and commercially successful racing franchises, and we believe that their offerings will be highly complementary to our sports portfolio and enhance further our organization’s long-term growth.” This was followed by welcoming the team of managers and developers to the company.

Gerhard Florin, chairman of Codemasters, is also quoted as saying, “With a leading position in sports gaming, the Board of Codemasters firmly believes the Company will benefit from Take-Two’s broad capabilities which will help propel the long term success of Codemasters.” For further reading, the full press release is linked above, with a note that mentions the rumors days before the announcement.

It seems that for the time being, it will be work as usual for the Codemasters. Though some have jokingly speculated that the team will go on to work exclusively on the driving of the highly rumored Grand Theft Auto 6. Personally, I have trepidation over the longer-term effects that Take-Two will have over the development of yearly titles. It was only last August that 2K Sports and Yuke’s announced their partnership had ended bitterly after a few years of working together. It will be a case of waiting and finding out what will happen following the transaction.

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