EA Halts Development on Upcoming Rally Games

I was sitting there, sipping my lukewarm coffee, when I stumbled upon some news that threw me for a loop. Codemasters, that legendary name in rally games, is putting the brakes on future World Rally Championship games. Yeah, you heard me right. No more updates for EA Sports WRC. It’s like they just decided to park the car and walk away. Apparently, they’ve wrapped up their work on the Hard Chargers content pack, and some kind of announcement came out about them no longer working on rally titles. This is like the end of an era, folks.

So, Codemasters has been all-in with the VR scene, you know? They made three titles that really got VR fans revved up—EA Sports WRC, DiRT Rally, and DiRT Rally 2.0. And now, just like that, it’s over. Rally fans are gonna have to shift their gears and search for the next best thing if they’re into VR.

I read through their announcement, and lemme tell ya, it felt kinda poetic. Something about every great journey reaching its finish line—like they were closing a chapter of a dusty old book. “We’re pausing,” they said. But don’t worry, EA Sports WRC will still be there for old-time players and newcomers. They went on about how much love they’ve poured into these games, hoping players keep that rally spirit alive.

I had to sit down and think about this for a bit because Codemasters has been like the granddaddy of rally games for decades now. Over 40 years, if you can believe it! I mean, they kicked off with Paris to Dakar Rally on the ZX Spectrum—way back in ’91. Then, bam—Colin McRae Rally came out in ‘98 and sold like hotcakes. It was like hitting the jackpot for them, back when they were still doing their own thing, independent and all.

Through the 2000s, they were all in on driving games. Plus, they were early birds on the VR front. When the DiRT Rally VR version hit in 2016, we were all about it. We even labeled it the top dog for VR racing games. Its sequel held its own too. There’s some whispering about EA’s layoffs—300 to 400 folks, apparently, and whether it had to do with any of this. I’ll keep my ears open for updates.

Now, looking to the road ahead, VR rally games are kinda sputtering. Will Codemasters still do VR compatibility updates? Maybe yes, maybe no. Anyway, their next big thing, F1 25, is sticking with PC VR. If a shiny new rally game suddenly comes around the corner, you bet I’ll shout about it.