Codemasters has confirmed that no additional expansions shall be launched for 2023’s EA Sports activities WRC, and that the staff has “reached the tip of the street” working on the sport. Sadly, alongside this information comes the extra affirmation that Codemasters can also be “pausing improvement plans on future rally titles.”
The veteran UK racing studio published the announcement via EA.com.
“Our WRC partnership was a fruits of types for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning many years by way of titles like Colin McRae Rally, and Grime,” reads the studio’s assertion. “We’ve supplied a house for each rally fanatic, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and ship the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We’ve introduced collectively extremely proficient racing builders, labored with among the sport’s icons, and had the chance to share our love of rallying.”
The World Rally Championship itself has acknowledged the news on social media, with a largely imprecise remark noting the “WRC gaming franchise goes in an bold new route with extra information coming within the close to future.”
EA pulling the pin on Codemasters rally video games shall be a bitter tablet to swallow for motorsports followers following EA’s acquisition of the storied British racing studio again in 2020.
The information is available in wake of studies of over 300 layoffs at EA, together with roughly 100 at Respawn Leisure.
Codemasters has been on the spearhead of rallying video video games for nearly three many years, courting again to 1998’s iconic Colin McRae Rally. The pioneering rally simulation kicked off a sequence of profitable and extremely esteemed racing video games. Following the dying of Colin McRae in 2007, the sequence retired McRae’s title and continued its evolution as Grime. 2009’s Grime 2 (often called Colin McRae: Grime 2 in Europe and different PAL sport territories) marked a transitional level for the sequence, which was reinvented once more as a hardcore simulation in 2015’s Grime Rally.
2023’s EA Sports activities WRC was the primary Codemasters rally sport to carry an official WRC license since 2002’s Colin McRae Rally 3. IGN’s overview notes EA Sports activities WRC took the class-leading really feel of 2019’s Grime Rally 2.0 and stuffed it into an formally licensed World Rally Championship expertise, like a metal rod in Timo Rautiainen’s bottom, however its technical gremlins left it feeling like a “nice racing sport attempting to battle its means out of an unfinished one.” Subsequent updates sought to enhance its display tearing points.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN opinions staff. You’ll be able to monitor him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him issues about stuff.