Codemasters secures World Rally Championship license from 2023

[Rallycameraman]

Well this is fairly substantial news! Absolutely overjoyed this has finally happened!

Congrats to the Codies team past and present, that have made this happen

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/codemasters-has-secured-the-official-world-rally-championship-license/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Thierry97]

wonderful news and only that in 2023 we will have the hybrid and the sound well it will no longer be a problem for them but for us yes.

[Frankiestail]

Oh thank you sweet lord!

I actually tried playing a bit of wrc8 last night and the choppy frame rates made me car sick, had to turn it off after 5 minutes.

 And I don’t even suffer vr sickness playing dirt rally with psvr.

Please make this support psvr on ps5 going forward.

[Rallycameraman]

15 minutes ago, Thierry97 said:

wonderful news and only that in 2023 we will have the hybrid and the sound well it will no longer be a problem for them but for us yes.

Hybrid cars still have a fully functioning petrol engine. The cars will sound the same as they do now. 

[m260602]

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/06/codemasters_signs_on_to_make_official_wrc_rally_games_on_ps5

[Cobra]

What will that mean for the games? Will Codemasters have 3 rally franchises in the future with Dirt, Dirt Rally and WRC? Or will the WRC content be included in the Dirt Rally games from that point on? And what would that again mean in terms of realism of the Dirt Rally games, since WRC would probably not want their games to be full simulation.

The way I see it is that in 2023 we'll get whatever the Dirt Rally team is currently working on, and that will be it for Dirt Rally.

[Rallycameraman]

2023 is when we should get the first Codemasters WRC game. This the way I read it. 

[KreuZenNL]

Next : BTCC licence

[stephensmattlee]

Really interesting to see how Codemasters plan moving forward with this news. I personally think it’s great news but I wonder if they’ll want to do something accessible similar to the F1 games for the WRC series, and also continue the DiRT Rally series at the same time for a more more hardcore sim experience.  
 

I can imagine WRC might have seen how popular the F1 games are and might want a similar kind of game to bring in new fans.  On the other hand with them having the licence it might give them freedom as well with DiRT Rally to use more official cars and locations so everyone wins. Will be interesting to see how they approach things. 
 

[Thierry97]

@Rallycameramanbut how will the hybrid have the same sound as now ???

[Dytut]

5 minutes ago, Thierry97 said:

@Rallycameramanbut how will the hybrid have the same sound as now ???

Current plans for 22 is to have the exact same engine as now. 

[Thierry97]

therefore the cars will have the same sound ???

[Rallycameraman]

7 minutes ago, Thierry97 said:

therefore the cars will have the same sound ???

Yes. Hybrid is only a battery unit. Will provide more power for the cars that’s all. 

[Madhun1967]

really all depends how and when the hybrid motor will be engaged in WRC spec cars  during the races.Maybe the electric motors will only be used between special stages and /or for emergency power  

[VirtuaIceMan]

WRC: DiRT?

I think it'll be based on Dirt Rally engine, as it's being used for so much eSports by real life drivers, they're not likely to dumb it down, surely? DiRT 5 onwards would more likely be the fun side of off-road racing.

 

Unless DiRT Rally continues to service WRX only, perhaps?

[UnderclassGDfan]

40 minutes ago, Dytut said:

Current plans for 22 is to have the exact same engine as now. 

 

28 minutes ago, Rallycameraman said:

Yes. Hybrid is only a battery unit. Will provide more power for the cars that’s all. 

So the cars will just be even more powerful?
Can't really believe that.

I really fear a 2nd mess like 2014 with these horrible V6 Turbo Hybrid engines we still have in F1.
They sound absolutely awful.

Watched an old Formula E race yesterday because I was bored...they sound like my vacuum cleaner (Vacuum cleaner? That sounds strange, but google says it's right 😄 ).

Really dark future for motorsport in my eyes. I know, we have to find a clean way for motorsport, but is there really no other way as electric only in the future?

 

Anyway.

 

My fears for that deal is now, we get an official licensed game like the F1 games. The games are not that bad, but far away from an hardcore sim like DR 2.0. Doesn't matter what the F1-PR-guys say.

And also classic cars. I doubt we get all we have now and on top the licensed cars.
They will most likely cuts from the current roster. I don't wanna give up any of them in favor of these (quite ugly) new hatchbacks.

I personally don't need the WRC license, if that means cuts to the current game. As a bonus sure, but not with a compromise.

Maybe there will be a DiRT Rally 3 before that. Waiting another 3 years would drive me mad.

[MattJelonek]

Octavia WRC

SEAT WRC

Accent WRC 

WRC05 Lancer

and the Group A Lancer EVO VII

Please?

[Rogerbee]

Happy days!

My PC will probably be minimum spec by then though!

[dgeesi0]

2 hours ago, KreuZenNL said:

Next : BTCC licence

there is a new TOCA style game being made maybe thats a codies one aswell but waiting to see about the licensing.

WRC stages cant wait. drools thinking of corsica germany ! 😎

[Jake Cushing]

" Codies states the DIRT Rally team "is already working on their next project ahead of the WRC agreement in 2023".

That's what I wanted to read.

Dirt Rally 3.0 on next-gen consoles is what I want most of all, more so than a Codies-made WRC10 or whatever.

[richieI]

First of all, I think current F1 cars do sound quite impressive. Just go buy some tickets and listen these cars fly by. That should change your mind. The cars are faster now than they've ever been, and more fuel efficient. V12s and V10s are heavy and they're thirsty making it difficult to set cars up and find a good balance. 

The WRC MGU power is expected to be 100kW and the cars will keep the 380HP ICE. Now, does that mean that whenever it's going to be allowed to be used power output will be around 500HP?  

[Rallycameraman]

2 hours ago, UnderclassGDfan said:

 

So the cars will just be even more powerful?
Can't really believe that.

I really fear a 2nd mess like 2014 with these horrible V6 Turbo Hybrid engines we still have in F1.
They sound absolutely awful.

Watched an old Formula E race yesterday because I was bored...they sound like my vacuum cleaner (Vacuum cleaner? That sounds strange, but google says it's right 😄 ).

Really dark future for motorsport in my eyes. I know, we have to find a clean way for motorsport, but is there really no other way as electric only in the future?

 

Anyway.

 

My fears for that deal is now, we get an official licensed game like the F1 games. The games are not that bad, but far away from an hardcore sim like DR 2.0. Doesn't matter what the F1-PR-guys say.

And also classic cars. I doubt we get all we have now and on top the licensed cars.
They will most likely cuts from the current roster. I don't wanna give up any of them in favor of these (quite ugly) new hatchbacks.

I personally don't need the WRC license, if that means cuts to the current game. As a bonus sure, but not with a compromise.

Maybe there will be a DiRT Rally 3 before that. Waiting another 3 years would drive me mad.

WRC going to hybrid is absolutely nothing like F1. F1 went from NA 17000rpm V8s to Turno Charged 12000rpm V6s. The battery/hybrid unit has F all to do with the sound. 

[Yaggings]

I'm reading this as a confirmation for Dirt Rally 3 being released around 2023, once the agreement is in full effect. That'd give the main crew (programmers, artists, animators etc.) over two years to deliver, which is a pretty nice timeline for a project this size. It's possible they're planning Dirt Rally 3 for 2021, Dirt 6 for 2022 and Dirt Rally 4 for 2023, but that'd be pretty ridiculous.

I would not be happy with another WRC entry, but this time from Codemasters. It's pointless to split these games, when they occupy the same genre. Perhaps the game will be titled "Dirt WRC", "Dirt Rally 3 WRC", or even a whole new franchise.

I'm wondering how it'll influence the development. Obviously the cars are in, but so are the tracks. This does not bode well for the random track generator feature, nor even modding - I'm not betting on WRC allowing much customization in its products.

[UnderclassGDfan]

6 minutes ago, richie said:

First of all, I think current F1 cars do sound quite impressive. Just go buy some tickets and listen these cars fly by. That should change your mind. The cars are faster now than they've ever been, and more fuel efficient. V12s and V10s are heavy and they're thirsty making it difficult to set cars up and find a good balance. 

There is no way I pay these ticket prices to watch Lewis Hamilton win for the Xed amount of time in an awful sounding car.
You can excuse these sounds like you want, compared to a V10/V8 back in the day they sound awful.
I don't say you can't get excited while on track hearing them, but it's not even close to what it was.

And there is no german GP and soon no german driver in the field. No german team, too (no, I don't accept Mercedes GP as a german team), so no reason to go in a different country watching boring races in awful sounding cars.

And I don't say, I want V10s back. They are outdated now, I know. But there must be a solution for much better sound.
But it looks like it's just a matter of time we get silent electric only power units in the future in F1 and WRC.
Maybe not in the next 3-5 years, but probably in 10.

6 minutes ago, richie said:

The WRC MGU power is expected to be 100kW while maintaining the 380HP ICE. Now, does that mean that whenever it's going to be allowed to be used power output will be 480HP?  

That sounds ridiculous.
The Peugeot 205 T16 Evo 2 had 480 HP, that would mean we are reaching Group B HP again.
Pretty ridiculous for rally sport.

5 minutes ago, Rallycameraman said:

WRC going to hybrid is absolutely nothing like F1. F1 went from NA 17000rpm V8s to Turno Charged 12000rpm V6s. The battery/hybrid unit has F all to do with the sound. 

Not directly, yes.
But they replaced the V8s for V6 Turbos, BECAUSE they have that Hybrid system as a replacement for some part of the HP output.
And that part gets more and more and ultimately replacing petrol engines in the future completely.

[Madhun1967]

so this will hopefully be the time we see the SMS "inspired"  tarmac physics i hope .................

[Matt555]

This is great news, however I hope the balance of cars isn’t effected to much. The R5s are great to drive but I get a better sense of achievement from nailing a good time with an RS1800

[Sector4]

------------------------------------------

[Von4wd]

I have a mixed feeling... hyped and afraid at the same time. Annual release, focusing on modern cars instead older ones, handling more oriented to casual players. In my ideal world Codies will keep developing DiRT Rally series but having WRC cars on it.

[Nightswipe]

I just hope that they will still add rallies to these games that isn't part of the official lineup. 

[WestHam66]

Could Dirt Rally 3.0 be the last of the Dirt Rally series before the start of the WRC deal? I can't imagine the FIA would want another rally game made by Codemasters out at the same time as the official one.

As we've seen with the F1 games, the owners of the product have tight control over it and I'd expect it to be no different with the WRC games. 

[Thierry97]

Dirt rally 3.0 2021??

[dgeesi0]

22 hours ago, Jake Cushing said:

" Codies states the DIRT Rally team "is already working on their next project ahead of the WRC agreement in 2023".

That's what I wanted to read.

Dirt Rally 3.0 on next-gen consoles is what I want most of all, more so than a Codies-made WRC10 or whatever.

probably is dirt rally 3.0 as they will need to get it out for 2021. also a lot has changed recently. so it probably has just started to be worked on. two seperate teams. with a realease date for 2021. dirt 5 is next. and then Dirt rally 3.0 then next dirt game. then WRC 2023.

websites just changed. so it looks like a new beginning change over.

[m260602]

I really hope that for the future Codemasters WRC games, the Evolution Studios guys can have some effects and features from the older WRC games they made back in the early 2000s. For example something like the unexpected moments from WRC Rally Evolved, or the start/ending ceremony from these games. Also, it would be cool if they added a Historical Events mode in the game, just like the one in MotoGP20.

[MartijnvH]

On 6/1/2020 at 12:40 PM, Rallycameraman said:

Well this is fairly substantial news! Absolutely overjoyed this has finally happened!

Congrats to the Codies team past and present, that have made this happen

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/codemasters-has-secured-the-official-world-rally-championship-license/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Should it be time then to get this topic back up? 😉 

Think there can be so much improvement in a carreer mode, specially if you can combine it with a F1 Carreer mode look a like. 

What do you guys think? 😄 

 

 

[F2CMaDMaXX]

Well, looking forward to the release before the first WRC title.

[Jake Cushing]

Am I the only one who's not a fan of increasing levels of management gameplay creeping into rally games?

I really have zero interest in hiring engineers or whatever and wasting time looking those up, as in games like Dirt 4.

Is it even realistic for a rally driver to be engaging in team management? Just make a pleasurable career mode with a nice ladder, lots of different races to choose from, maybe some pizazz in the form of narrative bits, emails and the like. Surely they can find more fun aspects of a rally driver's life than hiring/firing PR staff. 

I mean seriously, what's next in that path - you get harassed by a Karen and have to play a simulated 5 hour meeting with HR?

DEEP SIM!

[Mental]

I'm shedding a literal tear of pure joy right now. This has been my dream for well over a decade. Yes, yes, yeeees!!!

[Mental]

Here's how I think it will go. I think the same team made 2015s Dirt Rally, 2017s Dirt 4 and 2019s Dirt Rally 2.0. A release every two years. Then in 2020, developed by an entirely different team, they release a more arcadey game, Dirt 5.

I think Dirt Rally 3 in 2021-2022 is entirely possible, made once again by the 2.0 team; and the WRC game in 2023 will be made by the WRC 5 team. The World Rally Championship will probably want the official game to be more accessible.

[gfRally]

I guess I am late to seeing this news.  We discussed a WRC license at length in the OLD Dirty Gossip thread a few years back.  Granted it would give us new WRC cars, but it would also take away a lot that we love about DR [series] now.  

It has always seemed that a big part of WRC games intent was accessibility.  This is fine for marketing, etc.  However this goes backwards to what we where just told about the SPLIT of D5 and DR series, that DR would be the hardcore rally game and D# would take the fun/loose gameplay path, I was happy with that announcement.

Also, as mentioned above by @UnderclassGDfan how much will be lost that we love about the current DR games.  Again back to the OLD Dirty Gossip discussion, there are certain licensing benefits for the new stuff, but what about all the classic and historic cars and events that we have today?  Granted you can only improve the same cars so many times until it gets old and stale, however there are many cars companies that are not in the current games that could be traded off for some of these older cars to freshen up the title.  Toyota, Volvo, Saab, to name a few are lacking in all of these current games, lots of history to be explored with those cars.  Toyota and CM, its time to bury the hatchet, move on, and do what it takes to come to an agreement again.  

If its not obvious, I like history, and the history of rally is rich with lots of huge moments that have yet to really been explored.  

Maybe we will get this in DR3 and that will be great.  But it will be the last DR game that we have come to love.  I will be rather old when 2023 rolls around, so I may be historic myself.

PROVE me wrong CM, please.

[richieI]

We'll have to wait and see how the WRC license will materialize. Of all the questions that arise from the news I think there's one that can already be answered. It seems very unlikely to me that Codies will have 2 rally games. That means, either DiRT Rally and WRC franchise will merge, some kind of WRC by DiRT Rally with all the goodies from both worlds such as Phil Mills as a co-driver or the quality sounds and modern 1.6L World Rally cars, or DiRT Rally will be frozen until the end of the license and we'll see a completely new game. 

Let's not forget, the WRC license will require long stages which can't be realised with the EGO engine, so Codies will be forced to move on that front as well. Will it run on a on a new engine or will they completely re-build the EGO engine?

Another premise is that WRC want the franchise to be accessible, that'd mean less sim goodness. Given the fact that Kylotonn took on a new handling model in WRC8 which pointed clearly in a more sim direction, that premise seems to be wrong. 

 

[Haris33]

Anyway, WRC license is in right hands now... ✔️

[Jake Cushing]

It also makes sense that Codies would have brought some of their own negotiation terms to the table.

There's too much rally enthusiast blood flowing in there now, to see them agree to jettison serious rally sim gaming.

Rally's in their blood, it... can't... be... removed...

 

[Von4wd]

The best way is:

1. They sould nail all aspects of DiRT Rally 3 (tarmac physics, career mode, more stages per location, etc.) and make a near perfect rally game;

2. Use DiRT Rally 3 as the basis for the first WRC game, keeping all the content and just adding the WRC stuff (cars, teams, missing events, etc.) and that is it.

Another thing is the name, Codemasters need to distance themselves to the mediocre WRC games from Kyloton, so just making a WRC12, 13, 14... is not a good thing. In the past Evo Studios developed "WRC: Rally Evolved", maibe this time Codies could make a "WRC: DiRT" or "DiRT Rally WRC", imagine the appeal of this two strong brands together.

[BluecatRally]

I think Dirt Rally 3 will land with a new engine born out of collaboration with SMS, most likely in 2022.  The WRC game I think would make sense to me to be a refinement of DR3 with the additional cars and some added bits so that they get their platform, engine and hopefully cloud servers nailed down and working well.

Then in 2024 when this first WRC game arrives I would expect to see it called something like Dirt WRC '24 with maybe some historic stuff included in a scenario style game play similar to the Colin McRae stuff recently put out.  So you might find that you're knocking a Mitsubishi round Kielder in 89 as Pentti.  A lot of the historic stuff though I'd expect to be dropping some coin for DLC as this is the stuff that doesn't have to be included for the game to sell, and it's what enthusiasts will happily pay handsomely for.  

Personally, I think the game will very much come from the Dirt Rally stable but I also think they'll factor in an 'easier to drive' mode for the pick-up-and-play gamers.  

As for the Toyota stuff, this surely has to bring some kind of relationship back together.  I for one would love to see a Celica make its way in to DR3..   and unless Tommi has an imminent announcement to make then Toyota's WRC car will be in the new game and they will have to get along to some extent.

[dgeesi0]

i do wonder if sms will join in for Dirt rally 3.0 and maybe try and tweak the tarmac to get it perfect. its the only achiles heel for dirt games. nail tarmac you have the undeniable best rally game ever made.

WRC will probably want the game named just WRC something so cant see it being called DIRT WRC or whatever. i also dont think that codies would bury the name. so will it be a case of more teams for each game so all continue or one gets dropped while WRC is being done.

Do codies think that another Dirt rally is worth doing ? maybe think do WRC only and Dirt for the arcade side. WRC maybe has a better ring to it than maybe Dirt rally 4.0 5.0 and so on.

i reckon much of this has probably already been decided and Dirt rally 3.0 probably being worked on as we speak.

[Madhun1967]

i hope for same , that tarmac gets sorted with SMS collaboration.I dont care for the Fast Furious or Dirt 5 arcade , with SMS engines etc................

I hope that the knowledge from the joint effort will realize a new handling model.

[JorritVD]

What I like about DiRT Rally 2.0 is the big diversity of cars and classes. If there will be a “pure” WRC game, this diverse amount of cars will not be possible (due to licensing and agreements). So you go from +/- 80 cars (DR2 incl DLC) to about 20 models (WRC8).

What I actually do hope is there will be a DiRT Rally title with WRX and WRC licenses in it. So that the WRC is incorporated similar into the game like the WRX is now in the game. So you can have fictional local rallies and build your career towards the top WRC and WRX classes. 

[chukonu]

The dream is of course that DR3.0 releases in 2023 with the usual cars + the new wrc cars, the wrc locations etc. But I don't think that is what will happen.

It'll be a continuation of the current WRC series but by Codemasters. Similar to what F1 now is.

[Thierry97]

Dirt rally 3.0 exit 2023?

[_BorisTheFrog_]

It's nice to be enthusiastic and all that but 2023 (and a potential first instalment of WRC in 2024) is perhaps a little too early to be expressing hopes and expectations. All I really want to add is taking the licence away from Kylotonn / Bigben is the best news possible and (assuming i'm still alive) i'm genuinely looking forward to a WRC game that isn't just low quality year on year shovelware.