"End of an era" is an overused cliche, but in this case it is absolutely appropriate. Electronic Arts has announced that the 2024 season of EA Sports WRC will be its last, and that the Codemasters team has "reached the end of the road working on WRC."
"For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles," the message says. "Rest assured, EA Sports WRC will continue to be available for existing and new players. We hope it remains a source of joy, excitement, and the thrill of rally racing. We've poured our hearts into making it for fans, and we know you'll keep the passion alive."
Rallying is a relatively niche motorsport (and please don't send me emails to complain about that, okay, I know) and so rally videogames aren't exactly FIFA-scale endeavors either.
But they represent a huge and important part of Codemasters history, beginning with Colin McRae Rally in 1998 and evolving through regular releases into the Dirt series—originally Colin McRae: Dirt—that wrapped up in 2020.
That same year, Codemasters acquired the exclusive rights to develop FIA World Rally Championship videogames, but then in 2021, Electronic Arts acquired Codemasters. EA said ahead of the completion of that deal that the buyout would enable it to become "a global leader in racing entertainment," but it's been a rough ride since. In 2022, EA brought an end to Codemasters' Project Cars racing series, and in 2023 it laid off an unspecified number of employees at the studio.
With rallying now off the table, it seems Codemasters will focus more or less exclusively on the F1 racing games: The latest addition to that series, F1 25, is due out on May 30. But while it sucks that Codies is walking away from a near-30-year history of making rally games, the good news for rally fans is that it seems someone else is climbing into the driver's seat.
"Over the past three years, WRC has been elevated to another level in the gaming world thanks to the dedication of EA Sports and Codemasters," sanctioning body FIA said in a message shared on X. "Now, our WRC gaming franchise is going in an ambitious new direction with more news coming in the near future."
So it's definitely the end of an era, but at least it's not the end—and maybe we'll finally see the return of Richard Burns Rally that PC Gamer contributor Phil Iwaniuk has been pining for.
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