EA Sports have confirmed their first officially licensed World Rally Championship game will be released worldwide in early November.
Produced by Codemasters, who develop the official F1 game series and the popular Dirt Rally series, EA Sports WRC will be the first game under the WRC license since EA acquired it from Kylotonn this year.The game will arrive on November 3rd for current-generation consoles – PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S and X – and PC on Steam, Epic Game Store and EA App. It has been built with Unreal Engine using the physics of the Dirt Rally games as a base.
Featuring what EA claim will be “longer, more detailed stages than previously possible,” EA Sports WRC will feature 600km of stages over 17 locations at launch, with a Central Europe location to be added post-launch. The game will feature 10 cars across the modern WRC, WRC2 and Junior WRC categories alongside 68 historic rally cars spanning the last 60 years.
EA promises customisable handling to allow players to set their experience however realistic and authentic they wish, with options for simplified or authentic pace notes depending on what players prefer.
While there are no details yet about a career mode in the style of those found in the previous WRC games, EA Sports WRC will include a ‘builder’ mode which will allow players to customise their own rally car by selecting the chassis, body and mechanical elements before customising their livery in the livery editor.
The game will feature extensive online modes and competitions similar to the Dirt Rally games, including challenges inspired by real life moments from the 2023 season.
Codemaster’s senior creative director, Ross Gowing, said moving to the Unreal Engine has allowed them to expand the scope of EA Sports WRC over the previous Dirt Rally games.
“This is the rally game we’ve always wanted to make,” Gowing said. “Combining our studio’s deep knowledge and expertise with the power of the official WRC license representing the pinnacle of rally motorsport.
“The game’s new engine has enabled us to push rally to the edge of what’s deemed possible, and the additional features, including Builder and Moments, give players even more ways to interact with the sport they love.”
Players who pre-order the game will be able to play the game three days early from October 31st, along with additional liveries and race wear options.
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spoutnik (@spoutnik)
5th September 2023, 16:55
A Dirt Rally clone doesn’t sound particularly exciting, also simple car customizing shouldn’t be mentioned as a special feature come on. Take a very common feature, rename it with a capital letter and boom “the Builder” is there. A real entire circuit builder would have been worth such a Name, not basic car painting.
And what about Dirt Rally itself ?
Will Codemasters maintain two identical games, like car manufacturers rebranding the same platforms with their logos ?
PeterG
5th September 2023, 19:25
@spoutnik Pretty sure it’s been said previously that the both Rally & the mainline Dirt series are finished with Codemasters now only focusing on the F1 & WRC games.
Slightly mad studio who created the Project Cars series as well as Codemasters Evo who developed Dirt 5 & OnRush (And worked for Sony as Evolution studio to make Driveclub, Motorstorm & the excellent PS2 WRC games) have been put onto the teams working on Need for speed titles.
Project cars has been cancelled by EA and Grid may be finished as well.
Basically with EA’s purchase we have lost the Codemasters that were rotating a few different franchises and styles of game that featured something for everyone.
Now if you don’t like the F1 games or want a Rally game thats more than just a WRC licenced title there’s little point getting that excited about anything Codemasters are doing.
NinjaBadger (@ninjabadger)
6th September 2023, 2:02
I’m pretty sure EA’s valuation of Codemaster was purely just the F1, WRC, RX licences to add to their portfolio of sports franchises.
If I was to optimistic, I would suggest having the other studios of Codemasters working each on their own Need For Speed.
Much like when Black Box, Criterion Games, and Slightly Mad Studios were all making Need For Speed games; with each rendition being a different direction.
Maybe the Dirt series can continue as a multi-category Rallycross game.
But then I wouldn’t hold my breath for a new Burnout game either.
Dex
6th September 2023, 0:06
EA, that’s all I need to know.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
6th September 2023, 0:10
AAA? never mind then. That stands for macrotransactions, greed, and investors being the clients, gamers the product, the game the tool.
I’ll hope some indie will pmfill the hole left behind amd make a racing game. As with indie gamers are the client and the game is the product as it should be.
Robert
6th September 2023, 21:14
I actually look forward to trying this out. It sounds like it will essentially be Dirt Rally 3, with an official WRC license, and a better graphics engine. Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2 are both fun games, I still spend time in DR2 every now and then. Sure, they are not as realistic as I would ideally prefer. But they are somewhat decent, and better than (and not to be confused with) the other Dirt series.
If this is a continuation of what they learned with DR and DR2 it shouldn’t be that bad. Just hoping, but not holding my breath, that they take the “customizable handling” further to a pure sim on one end, when they have the other end available for those that like that sort of thing.
PacificPR (@streydt)
7th September 2023, 8:34
The switch to the Unreal engine is an interesting one. I guess it was cheaper or more cost effective than the development of Codemasters own EGO engine. What I really liked about previous versions of Dirt were the atmospherics and (cinematic) look – in general the games were fun and satisfying to play, the whole simulator argument wasn’t an issue – since it didn’t have the official WRC tag. Having seen the teaser / trailer – it looks like we have lost the nice look of Dirt (EGO) – curious what the handling and simulations will be like. I wouldn’t be surprised if they use this first version of WRC as a test version before switching F1 to the Unreal engine as well. Looks like EA’s influence is creeping up in Codemasters games.
NinjaBadger (@ninjabadger)
7th September 2023, 11:04
One of the appeals of using Unreal engine is that it makes it easier for studios to hire new devs and not have them need to learn how to use a proprietary engine.
EA learnt that lesson after they tried to push their in-house Frostbite engine on their studios, with negative results.
And with more EA studios using Unreal, it makes it easier for devs to move around, or have a studio brought in to assist another.
When Codemasters aquired other studios, each were still working on their own engines. With Codemasters making games with their EGO engine, Slight Mad with their Madness engine, Evo with their Evolved Game engine… so having to find common ground was probably inevitable.
While I’m not big on the idea of a single entity seemingly monopolizing an industry.
In a world of extended development times and increased stress put on to devs, I can understand the appeal of some form of standardised workflow.