Well, it seems EA has driven the wheels off of its rally franchise. The company has announced that Codemasters, it’s racing studio, will no longer be making rally titles, marking the end of an era.
“For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles,” EA said. “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.”
While rally games have never been a huge seller, they have been a huge part of Codemasters history. They’ve been making hem since 1998 when they released the awesome Colin McRae Rally which I spend hundreds of hours playing. The Colin McRae games were eventually spun into the DiRT series, a mixture of both arcade and realistic games. That series ended in 2020, the same year in which the team acquired the rights to create FIA World Rally Championship games. A year later, EA bought the company with the goal of making it “a global leader in racing entertainment,”.
With rallying off the table and Codemasters Project Cars series also on ice, that leaves the team developing the successful annual F1 games.
As for the WRC license, the FIA intends on having more games made.
“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,” said the FIA on X. “Now, our WRC gaming franchise is going in an ambitious new direction with more news coming in the near future.”
Whatever happens, it’s a sad day indeed to see Codemaster’s hang up rally gloves and rip up their pace notes.