EA has a bit of a reputation when it comes to acquiring and shutting down studios. The publisher’s closure of beloved developers ranging from Bullfrog and Westwood to Pandemic and Black Box has never sat well with fans, but hey – at least Respawn is putting out a great, financially successful battle royale game, and EA prefers to focus on that.
Asked by an investor during today’s financial results call about how well Codemasters and F1 2021 have done, CFO Blake Jorgensen says the game has “exceeded our expectations”, and that the studio has integrated well within EA. “I think we don’t get enough credit for this. But EA is a bunch of people who really can work well together, and we do a great job of working with other parts of our company. And when we bring in acquisitions, we work well with them.”
Jorgensen says Respawn is the “poster child” for successful EA acquisitions. “You look at what’s happened with Apex. This is a team effort. Respawn’s obviously driven the amazing development of Apex. But they partnered with us extremely well to drive what is now coming up to almost $2 billion in business over two years. That’s unheard of in our industry.”
Jorgensen reiterates that “I’m not sure we get enough credit for it. I don’t really care. At the end of the day, it is amazing what our teams are able to do.”
It’s just a shame Black Box isn’t around to handle Skate 4, I guess.