You might have seen
the recent news that EA had placed a rather unceremonious full stop on Codemasters’
WRC franchise after releasing just one game. Disappointing, wasn’t it? Well hold onto your pace notes, because there’s another twist in the road ahead.
The license has been re-acquired by publisher Nacon and developer KT Racing, the same duo who held the license before Codemasters, and released seven games between 2013 and 2022. It’s all a bit
Groundhog Day.
Nacon’s
official announcement details that the deal spans an initial seven-year period and begins in 2027, so let’s hope the real WRC 2026 season is particularly forgettable and thus there’ll be no pangs of deprivation from not having a game that recreates it.
If you played EA’s
WRC and the KT Racing releases, you might consider this… mixed news. The KT games were solid and the trajectory of their quality was certainly going upwards with each release, particularly 2022’s
WRC Generations. But their handling model couldn’t look the 2023 Codemasters
WRC game in the eye.