Codemasters Execs Leave 4 Months After EA Purchase

The two heads of British racing game developer Codemasters, CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia, are leaving their posts and the company at the end of this month, according to a GamesIndustry.biz report.

Sagnier and Varachia will be succeeded by senior vice president of product development Clive Moody and senior vice president of publishing Jonathan Bunney. This comes four months after Codemasters was acquired by EA.

Codemasters and its subsidiary Slightly Mad Studios, the team behind the Project Cars franchise, was bought out by Electronic Arts in February 2021. The acquisition was valued at $1.2 billion, with CEO Andrew Wilson calling the purchase “the beginning of an exciting new era for racing games.”

In a statement to GameIndustry.biz, EA praised both Sagnier and Varachia for making Codemasters a globally renowned studio of racing experts. The company wished the paid good luck on their future endeavors.

“We are incredibly thankful to Frank and Rashid for everything they have done for Codemasters and Electronic Arts, and we all wish them the very best,” EA said. “We know the culture they have created and their innovative spirit will very much live on at the studio through their outstanding leadership team.”

Though Sagnier and Varachia are leaving, Slightly Mad Studios will continue to be led by CEO Ian Bell. We have reached out to Frank Sagnier for comment and will update this post should we hear back from him.

When talking about the acquisition, Wilson told MVC in May 2021 that EA’s goal wasn’t to “turn Codemasters into another Electronic Arts studio,” but instead to foster the talent at the studio and give them access to resources.

“Similar to Respawn, our orientation isn’t to come in and take over Codemasters; our orientation isn’t to come in and turn Codemasters into another Electronic Arts studio; our orientation is around the provision of opportunity,” Wilson said. “This industry is all about amazing, creative talent. And we see little upside in the indoctrination of that amazing creative talent. But we do want to provide them access to the things that we get by virtue of our position in the industry.”