After acquiring Codemasters in early 2021, EA Sports now has two big racing licenses under its roof: Having seamlessly continued the series of F1 games, the first rally title by EA Sports and Codemasters is due this year - but sim racers are still waiting for an official announcement. Could it be right around the corner?
Image credit: Codemasters
Rumors had the new rally game set for launch in July, but by now, this seems highly unlikely as WRC 23 has not yet been officially announced. F1 23 had been announced six weeks prior to its launch on June 16th - that would make for a mid-to-late August release should the game be announced very soon.
2023 marks the first year that EA Sports owns the official WRC license after Nacon and KT Racing have delivered their final effort under their previous licensing agreement in WRC Generations. Their series of WRC titles usually released in late summer or even later in the year, with Generations being available in November, whereas its predecessor WRC 10 had been released in early August.
Sun or snow? Previous WRC games have been released at very different times of year. Image credit: Codemasters
It is possible that EA wants to tie the official announcement of WRC 23 to a real WRC event, two of which are coming up shortly: From July 20th to 23rd, the World Championship makes station in Estonia before moving on to Rally Finland from August 3rd to 6th.
With the popularity of the latter, which is affectionately known as the "Grand Prix on Gravel" among fans due to its high speeds, this could be the event EA is targeting - Rally is enormously popular in Finland, and many Finns get behind the wheel themselves in local events.
Held for the first time in 1951, Rally Finland started to become increasingly popular and has been part of the WRC calendar since the World Championship's first season in 1973, with the exception of 1995 and 2020. Characterized by its gravel stages that feature very high average speeds and spectacular jumps, the event is one of the crown jewels of the WRC season.
It is easy to imagine how the event would make a perfect stage (no pun intended) to officially announce WRC 23 - possibly even with a first hands-on version available for fans to try. Of course, this is still just speculation at this point. The official Twitter profile for EA Sports Rally has recently been active and celebrating the anniversary of the very first Colin McRae Rally, which was released 25 years ago. The successor has also been mentioned - could it be that a retrospective is going to lead to the newest iteration? Time will tell.
Image credit: Codemasters
Rumors had the new rally game set for launch in July, but by now, this seems highly unlikely as WRC 23 has not yet been officially announced. F1 23 had been announced six weeks prior to its launch on June 16th - that would make for a mid-to-late August release should the game be announced very soon.
2023 marks the first year that EA Sports owns the official WRC license after Nacon and KT Racing have delivered their final effort under their previous licensing agreement in WRC Generations. Their series of WRC titles usually released in late summer or even later in the year, with Generations being available in November, whereas its predecessor WRC 10 had been released in early August.
Sun or snow? Previous WRC games have been released at very different times of year. Image credit: Codemasters
It is possible that EA wants to tie the official announcement of WRC 23 to a real WRC event, two of which are coming up shortly: From July 20th to 23rd, the World Championship makes station in Estonia before moving on to Rally Finland from August 3rd to 6th.
With the popularity of the latter, which is affectionately known as the "Grand Prix on Gravel" among fans due to its high speeds, this could be the event EA is targeting - Rally is enormously popular in Finland, and many Finns get behind the wheel themselves in local events.
Held for the first time in 1951, Rally Finland started to become increasingly popular and has been part of the WRC calendar since the World Championship's first season in 1973, with the exception of 1995 and 2020. Characterized by its gravel stages that feature very high average speeds and spectacular jumps, the event is one of the crown jewels of the WRC season.
It is easy to imagine how the event would make a perfect stage (no pun intended) to officially announce WRC 23 - possibly even with a first hands-on version available for fans to try. Of course, this is still just speculation at this point. The official Twitter profile for EA Sports Rally has recently been active and celebrating the anniversary of the very first Colin McRae Rally, which was released 25 years ago. The successor has also been mentioned - could it be that a retrospective is going to lead to the newest iteration? Time will tell.
