Cliff Notes – Codemasters in danger as EA pausing WRC and all future rally games
- EA has announced the discontinuation of its partnership with the World Rally Championship, halting all future rally game development following significant layoffs of up to 400 staff.
- The decision comes after disappointing sales of recent titles, including EA Sports FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, indicating a shift towards cost-cutting measures within the company.
- Codemasters, known for its long-standing history in rally games, may face an uncertain future, potentially limiting its focus to Formula 1 titles after the cessation of the WRC licence.
Codemasters in danger as EA ‘pausing’ WRC and all future rally games
EA Sports WRC – the one and only (EA)
A day after laying off up to 400 developers, EA has announced that it is ending its partnership with the World Rally Championship and stopping all rally games.
EA has not had a good 12 months. Split Fiction sold well but EA Sports FC and Dragon Age: The Veilguard were both sales disappointments, and at the same time as Apex Legends has seen a decline in profits.
if EA Sports FC 26 does better then they can reverse their futures but it cannot be a coincidence that a day after they admitted to laying off up to 400 staff they’ve also discontinued use of the World Rally Championship (WRC) licence.
Apart from 100 job cuts at Apex Legends developer Respawn it’s not known what the breakdown is of layoffs across the rest of the EA, but it now seems very likely that British developer Codemasters has or will be affected.
Codemasters has been around since the 8-bit era and was the last big, independent British publisher and developer, before they were bought by EA for £1.2 billion in 2020.
Since then, they’ve worked primarily on Formula 1 games for EA, the only exceptions being 2022’s GRID Legends and EA Sports WRC in 2023.
Codemasters has a long history of making rally games, starting with the iconic Colin McRae Rally series, which evolved into the DiRT franchise. This was abandoned in favour of focusing on the WRC licence, but only one game was ever made.
‘Every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we’ve reached the end of the road working on WRC,’ reads a message on EA’s website. ‘For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles.’
There’s not going to be a EA Sports WRC 25 (EA)
No explanation is offered for why, but the game did not seem to be a major hit, and the job cuts alone indicate that EA is now firmly in money saving mode – especially as it already laid off nearly 700 people last year.
Although EA has confirmed some ‘select changes within our organisation’ it has not commented on the figure of between 300 and 400 layoffs, or which studios are affected.
For those that have already bought EA Sports WRC, it will continue to be available for redownload. If you’re interested but never got around to buying it, we’d advise picking it up straight away, as the loss of the licence will mean it will be withdrawn from sale.
This is all yet more miserable news for the games industry as a whole, where the announcements of hundreds of job losses at a time have become routine over the last few years.
It’s a particular blow for such a storied developer as Codemasters, who may now be stuck making nothing but Formula 1 games for the foreseeable future. F1 25 is due to be released on 30th May for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Codemasters’ rally heritage runs deep (Codemasters)