News broke today that the gaming developer and publisher Codemasters has signed a multi-year deal to develop games based off of the FIA World Rally Championship.
WRC and Codemasters
As first reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the British-based developer will be the new creator of officially-licensed World Rally Championship games. Previously, KT Racing (Kylotonn) was the developer for the WRC series, while BigBen Interactive (now known as Nacon) was the franchise’s publisher.
Thanks to the new agreement, Codemasters will the developer and publisher of WRC games starting in 2023. The agreement between the FIA World Rally Championship and Nacon/KT Racing ends in 2022. The first game is scheduled to be released in the financial year that ends in March 2024.
In addition, Codemasters will also oversee also eSports-related WRC events. It also made clear that despite the new agreement, Codemasters is still committed to the DiRT series. The company stated regarding DiRT, “The Dirt Rally team is already working on their next project ahead of the WRC agreement in 2023.”