WRC9 Codemasters Secure Official WRC Licence

[Paul Jeffrey]

Big news for fans of the FIA World Rally Championship - Codemasters have today announced they have secured the rights to bring the official WRC games to console and PC.

Reportedly beginning from 2023 in a five year exclusive deal, the studio have captured the rights to represent the FIA World Rally Championship for current licence holds Kylotonn Games, with the new IP expected to slot in alongside the current and highly popular DiRT Rally franchise.

The news was broken earlier today by gamesindustry.biz, and further details aside from a potential 2024 release date have yet to be made public by Codemasters or the WRC.

With DiRT Rally 1 & 2 having firmly laid the foundations of a solid claim to Codemasters off road credentials, it looks like the future of the official World Rally Championship in digital form is in very good hands indeed....


Original Source: gameindustry.biz

Codemasters F1 and DiRT Rally series of games are available now.

Want to chat about the various official rally games currently available? No worries, head over to the WRC 9 sub forum and let us know your thoughts today!

 

[Deleted member 6919]

Codies will need more than 5 years to get this right..

 

[sentry87]

Soon...Codemasters will be to racing games, what EA is to NFL/sports games.

 

[melanieuk]

They have Three Years to "code Master "- pun intended, the Madness Engine, no more "No VR no buy"

 

[Jayblue]

Official WRC cars and stages with Dirt Rally quality.

Sounds great to me!

 

[TTM75]

I wrote this in another thread already, but.. Hopefully offical games are more Dirt Rally 2.0 style than Dirt 4 or 5.

 

[ricardokilbr]

I think it's good that several companies can have licenses, even to have a quality competition, look what happens with F1, not that Codemasters games are not good, but it is aimed at a more casual audience, imagine if the license was acquired for more companies like Reiza, Kunos, Studio 397, Iracing etc. we could have excellent games, I think it is a mistake for a single company to have the license.

 

[Deleted member 217114]

Oh no. Another yearly release-franchise with minimal changes. It will be catered to the mainstream. Hit a tree = just drive again with no problems. Simcade physics. Bad FFB just like DR 2.0. 200gb disk usage. Seasons, achievements locked behind DLC, deluxe, superdeluxe, ultra-ultradeluxe. WIll be supported for a half or a year, just like DR 2.0. Then bin it and create another.

Our only hope is Reiza making a real rally sim in 2025 or so.

 

[Trebor901]

I wrote this in another thread already, but.. Hopefully offical games are more Dirt Rally 2.0 style than Dirt 4 or 5.

Dont expect them to be. It will be like their F1 games. Will need to be easily playable for anyone that picks them up. Personally dont mind which its like. Wouldnt expect Kyloton to put out a descent WRC game for the next 3 years after this. Not really much point putting tons of effort into a game you are losing the licence to.

Although with the way they do things in Dirt does it mean you will buy the game with just Junior WRC content and have to pay extra for WRC2 and WRC?.

Also why not just bin the dirt series off and concentrate on this?

 

[giga1tr]

I can't judge if Dirt is really a Sim because I've never driven a rally car myself.
But I really enjoy Dirt2 and I find it challenging.
I'm looking forward to a Dirt3.

 

[Michel Bélisle]

I am not thrilled by that. I liked that Codies was doing the Dirt Rally series while Kylotonn Games had a separate franchise.

 

[Chris Alfveby]

I read the headline and got excited, then i read more about it and am less excited. i hope the game is like dirt rally 2 where there are multiple options in a dirt rally style sim mode and an more accessible arcade mode that is easier for controllers and such.

 

[toxinpowe]

Richard Burns Rally sends his regards...

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

I wrote this in another thread already, but.. Hopefully offical games are more Dirt Rally 2.0 style than Dirt 4 or 5.

I would guess so. They have 2 teams working on DiRT games, one on the rally-series and one on the bro-dude-series. It would make sense to let the bro-dude-team work on their games, while take the DiRT Rally 3 guys over to WRC.

Also seeing when the first game will be released, mid to late 2023. I guess we'll see a DiRT Rally 3 released early 2022 first.

 

[Kurupt CDN]

Personally I really don't care too much for the dirt series any more....although I am some what interested in the use of the madness engine with it's loose surface physics as I think it will really enhance the experience.

Too bad codemaster and SMS struggle in the ffb area, hopefully during the next 3 yrs Reiza will give them some tips in that area.

 

[mac22]

uaoooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[TheBugattiFan]

I am not thrilled by that. I liked that Codies was doing the Dirt Rally series while Kylotonn Games had a separate franchise.

Hey, at least this can potentially lead to a Dirt or WRC game with not only just WRC cars but all the car classes from Dirt Rally 2.0 and all the locations both those games can bring.

 

[MirNet]

Look forward to seeing what they come up with a first shot at it, hopefully more down the DR route than the Dirt series. Fairly convinced it tail off in to an annual rinse and repeat though tarted up with their slick marketing.

 

[Ruy Horta]

Codemasters has one safe franchise that’s F1.
They do not take many risks with it, cater for a broad audience and to date have kept out VR.

Now with a WRC they’ll probably do the same.
Broad target audience, consoles + pc, controller + wheel.
Not to demanding technically (Talking 2023-2028 console level) and playwise (physics, handing etc).

To be honest I do not believe you can create a racing game that pleases both casual controller and more hardcore simmers alike. Bottomline if Codemasters has to make a choice they’ll go for the mainstream, just like F1.

We’ll lucky if we get VR.
All speculation, all IMO.
Not holding my breath, but I am hoping to be surprised.

 

[Witti]

I see many users here talking about catering the game to a big audience but I think that won't be the case. Rally is way smaller than F1 so it has less of the casual fans/drivers as a target group. Therefore Codemasters can make a game aimed more towards the sim group which follows many racing categories anyways while many F1 fans are just interested in Ferrari go vrrrrrroom