Electronic Arts has combined two of its racing specialists into one studio.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the publishing giant has merged Codemasters Cheshire into Criterion Games, meaning that the number of developers working at the Need For Speed studio has doubled. That's across Criterion's home in Guildford and this new Cheshire outpost. Both offices will be reporting into VP and GM Matt Webster.

"This integration builds off the close partnership the two studios have developed over the past few months," an EA spokesperson told us.

"Sharing common values and similar cultures, we strongly believe unifying the huge wealth of experience across both teams will help us to deliver the best racing experiences we can for our players."

This comes in the wake of EA outbidding Take-Two to acquire Codemasters in 2021. The publishing firm paid a cool $1.2 billion for the racing specialist.