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GRTV News - Nacon reclaims rights to the WRC franchise
A new game in the series is planned for 2027.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News. Today we're going to be talking about one of the big developments that took place late yesterday.
Following EA and Codemasters losing the rights to the WRC franchise after a sort of middling EA Sports WRC game.
We've been waiting to hear what the WRC brand was going to do and which video game developer they were going to associate themselves with."
"And it turns out they're going basically back to an ex following splitting from Nacon a few years ago.
They've now decided to re-team up with Nacon and continue the WRC franchise that they were formerly very familiar with each other about.
So yeah, the key thing to know is that WRC games in the future will be made by Nacon and there's a new game in the works right now."
"WRC video game license returns to Nacon. New game in 2027. EA Sports WRC was the first and the last WRC game made by Codemasters.
So the World Rally Championship license is returning to Nacon and a new game will release in 2027.
The video games with the official rally license have been published by several companies starting with Sony between 2001 and 2025."
"But became more popular with the French publisher and gaming peripherals manufacturer Nacon between 2013 and 2022.
However, the license moved briefly to EA Sports in 2023 under the expert hands of Codemasters.
EA Sports WRC launched in November 2023 to good reviews.
However, the first WRC game made by the makers of the F1 games and Dirt series was also the last as it was announced on April 30th that EA Sports had stopped working with WRC."
"Today, it has been announced that Nacon is taking back publishing rights and a new game will launch in 2027.
WRC promoter and Nacon are joining forces to take WRC's game series to a whole new direction from 2027 to 2032.
Promising an immersive experience that meets the expectations of rally enthusiasts and new players.
And there's the official confirmation statement from WRC and Nacon."
"Now to me, this seems like a bit of a comfort move, if anything.
Because the reason why WRC and Nacon split in the first place is because the games that were coming out weren't exactly of the highest quality.
They were fine, but I would say they were getting progressively worse as the years were going on.
EA Sports WRC came out, it impressed enough people from a technical and performance standpoint, but the problem is that it didn't have the numbers behind it."
"For whatever reason, WRC fans were not flocking to the game and its sales have been particularly poor.
Its support hasn't been great either.
Clearly the lack of sales has contributed to the fact that they didn't want to re-up the partnership.
And now it's going back to a company that you have to assume will probably deliver a product that may not exist on the same level of quality."
"But it probably won't cost as much to make at the same time, meaning the financial brackets it has to exist in are less tight, shall we say.
But we'll have to see how this all goes.
Again, WRC will be making its return to the video game sector, but don't expect a game for a while, actually.
Because the next one is coming out in 2027, which means we're going to go through the entirety of 2026 without a new WRC game."
"Meaning you're going to have to be content with either WRC Generations from 2022, 2021, or EA Sports WRC.
Which is now receiving no more content or anything like that, because obviously EA and Codemasters have done with that franchise.
But yeah, as we know more about this, we'll be sure to keep you posted and updated.
And otherwise, yeah, that's all the time that I have in today's episode of GeoTV News."
"So I'll see you all in the next one tomorrow. Take care, everyone."
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