Electronic Arts has decided to strengthen the Need For Speed development team. Now the Codemasters division from Cheshire has officially joined Criterion Games.

The deal between Take-Two and Codemasters will not take place. Suddenly, EA announced its desire to buy a British studio, which offered Dirt developers $ 200 million more.

Take-Two plans to complete the purchase of Codemasters early next year. As a result, she will receive 100% of the shares of DiRT developers, and the transaction amount will exceed $ 950 million.Both companies came to an agreement and confirmed the deal in official statements.

Take-Two is preparing for another major purchase. The owner of Rockstar Games, 2K and Private Division intends to acquire one of the oldest British gaming companies — Codemasters. The estimated volume of the transaction is $973.8 million.

In the first half of 2020, the British studio Codemasters earned £80.5 million ($104.2 million). This is twice as much as at the same time a year ago.

British Codemasters is building up its asset portfolio. She is going to acquire London-based Slightly Mad Studios for $30 million.

The British developer and publisher of video games Codemasters officially goes on the stock exchange this week. According to preliminary estimates, the market value of the creators of the DiRT and GRID racing franchises was £280 million ($373 million).

One of the oldest gaming companies in the UK is planning to go public, but this is not for sure. According to Sky News, Codemasters studio intends to hold an IPO in the coming months. The company’s market value is tentatively estimated at £100 million.

The British studio Codemasters will close its own branch in Malta, which has developed a free-play card butler Battle Decks.

The British developer and publisher Codemasters has changed partners. If earlier the company’s games were published by the Japanese Bandai Namco, then the Germans from Koch Media will already be responsible for next year’s line.

Mobile game publisher Chillingo, together with Codemasters, has started working on a mobile game based on the Micro Machines racing series.