EA say its planned purchase of Codemasters will allow the release of 'annual racing games'

EA has expanded on its plans to acquire Codemasters, which could allow the company to "release new racing games each year".

The planned acquisition of Codemasters was mentioned in EA's Q3 earnings call this week, which also referenced the success of its Star Wars games and the revival of EA Sports College Football.

EA already has a large number of racing franchises under its belt, like Need for Speed and Burnout, but if this planned acquisition of Codemasters goes ahead, it will bring over even more brands and racing series' to play with, like DIRT.

Recently, Codemasters has acquired the rights to the FIA World Rally Championship, but even before this, the company has been the driving force behind many high-profile racing games with franchises like F1 and Grid, many of which are released annually.

In the earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Willson explains the decision to acquire Codemasters citing that the proposed $1.2 billion deal would help make EA "a global leader in racing entertainment” and “enable EA to release new racing experiences annually". Looking at EA's Need for Speed, for example, this series sees releases sporadically over the years with sizable gaps between entries, which seems like a gap EA is pushing to fill.

EA has already entered into a binding agreement with the three directors of Codemasters to initiate a vote supporting the acquisition, a vote which is unanimously recommended that Codemaster's shareholders support. 

This agreement, which is now binding even if Codemasters is offered a better deal, can only fall through if EA decides to pull the plug on it.

In the same call, we've reported on EA's plan to continue making Star Wars games, which saw the company make $3 billion and 52 million games sold during the time it had exclusive rights to the franchise.