Codemasters is “pausing development” on future World Rally Championship games, ending updates for EA Sports WRC.
With work wrapping up on the Hard Chargers content pack for EA Sports WRC, it’s been announced that Codemasters will be ceasing all active work on rally games. With the venerable UK studio having provided considerable VR support for three of its titles – EA Sports WRC, DiRT Rally, and DiRT Rally 2.0 – rally fans will soon have to find a new ride if they want to continue the journey in VR.
“Every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we’ve reached the end of the road working on WRC”, began the announcement. “For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles. 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.”
Codemasters’ association with rally games goes back more than 40 years, to the release of Paris to Dakar Rally for the ZX Spectrum back in 1991. The studio went up a gear six years later with the release of Colin McRae Rally in 1998, which sold beyond three million copies in Europe and became a huge success for the-then independent publisher.
Over the next decade, the studio focused all its efforts on driving games and was one of the first to embrace VR. When we reviewed DiRT Rally VR in 2016, we called it “the new high watermark for VR racing games.” The sequel wasn’t bad either. It’s unknown if Codemasters has been affected by EA’s recent redundancies reportedly cutting over 300-400 jobs, and we’ll update this story if we learn more.
Going forward, there aren’t too many new options for rally driving in VR. Whether Codemasters’ games will continue supporting the VR front with compatibility updates remains to be seen, while the studio’s next title F1 25 will continue supporting PC VR. Meanwhile, if we see any new games bounding towards us over the horizon, you’ll be the first to know.
