Why is Codemasters so valuable? They make games nobody buys. Sony shut down Evolution Studios for similar reasons
A large part of that is the licenses I bet.
Also, DriveClub actually sold 2 million less than a year. It was by no means a failure. Hell, if Sony had done what they wanted to, they wouldve given it the Gran Turismo title like Forza Horizon. But kaz said no, and sony ended up shutting down the better racing dev they had.
Codemasters has actually been acquiring a bunch of devs in recent years. After picking up evolution studios, they acquired slightly mad studios who make the Project Car series. They already had the yearly F1 sim (Full license), and this year they acquired the WRC license they lost 18 years ago.
they are a very attractive proposition to a big Publisher like EA. They will have a rally game every year with the Dirt Rally team making the rally sims (very popular among hardcore rally racing fans) and the evo studios team making the arcade dirt series. They finally have a respectable racing sim like Project Cars which can fill in years Forza and GT dont show up. I fear the GRID team will be the odd man out, but for a Publisher that has basically turned into a subscription based yearly sports franchise publishers, these racing IPs are going to bring in a steady sum of money every year.
That is, if they dont fuck it up like they do usually do.