EA Can Now Buy Codemasters, As Take-Two Confirms It's Stepping Away

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2K Games, has officially withdrawn its intention to acquire the racing game studio Codemasters. As a result, this effectively paves the way for Electronic Arts to go forward with its own deal for Codemasters.

The company announced this in a news release. While the buyout of Codemasters did not work out for Take-Two, the company said it might look for more acquisition opportunities in the future.

"Take-Two remains a highly disciplined organization and, with its strong balance sheet, will continue to pursue selectively organic and inorganic opportunities that are designed to enhance the Company's long-term growth and deliver results to its shareholders," it said.

Take-Two offered to pay $994 million to acquire Codemasters, but Electronic Arts swooped in with a bid of $1.2 billion for the studio, which Codemasters has approved. With the buyout, EA is getting franchises like Dirt, Dirt Rally, and F1 that will complement EA's own Need for Speed series.

This is not EA's first acquisition of a racing game studio, as the company bought Burnout developer Criterion Games in 2004, putting it to work on Need for Speed games. More recently, Criterion contributed to the development of Battlefield V and Star Wars: Battlefront II, with EA's other studio, EA Gothenburg, handling the Need for Speed series.