EA vs Take Two

For those unaware, long time racing producer Codemasters was recently on the acquisition table with Take Two Interactive. It seemed to be a done deal when all of a sudden, EA falcon punched Codemasters' executives with an even fatter cheque of $1.2 billion dollars.

To say I was displeased with this news is putting it lightly. Codemasters, while far from perfect, are essentially, the only company from my childhood whose games I still buy and enjoy. Bungie's Destiny doesn't interest me much, I don't use the Playstation enough to binge Gran Turismo, and Call of Duty's fun, but not occupying my days and nights.

Now, in fairness, I don't think there was situation for this to be positive for consumers. Deciding between EA & Take Two is like deciding which base console to play Cyberpunk on (this joke's not gonna age well), so I understand why some might've preferred EA to Take Two.

However, I've seen some declare that this probably won't shake things up much at all. I mean, Codemasters' already had season passes and yearly releases right?

That's technically true, but that's assuming the F1 series has been on the same track with Madden, FIFA, and NHL, which just looking at the franchises' trajectory hasn't been the case at all.

Since 2015, Codemasters have just been steadily improving game to game in presentation, features, physics, driving, and accessibility. There's always kinks, F1 2020 for instance has some hilarious and infuriating AI bugs that weren't present in 2019, but those are the things we forgive for overall improvements to the experience.

EA meanwhile has used its lack of competition as a complete milk machine, with game after game seemingly getting more heated in debates over its stagnating formula and overreliance on Microtransactions. 

Having seen that sausage factory up-close, I can also speak personally to the mismanagement of those games. Whoever thought it was a great idea to add an all involving Story Mode with branching dialogue, adaptive moments, and full motion capture the same year FIFA swapped engines deserves a soccer ball to the face and nuts simultaneously.

I'll be able to go more in-depth with this subject when cover the F1 series, but rest assured, this situation isn't as simple as putting EA on the box of F1 games. I really do hope that we'll just get a new F1 Career Challenge and everything's swell, but judging EA's track record in comparison with Codemasters, I think it's completely fair to look upon this situation with skepticism.