World Rally Championship is a rally racing video game series. The series is currently developed by Codemasters and published by EA Sports. To date, a total of sixteen main games have been released, with the upcoming installment being set to release on 3 November 2023.
History
The first series was published by Sony Computer Entertainment who owned the WRC license in the early 2000s. These titles were all made by British developer Evolution Studios between 2001 and 2005. The series consists of five original games released exclusively for the Sony PlayStation 2 console, and one port for the Sony handheld PSP, all based on the World Rally Championship seasons from 2001 to 2005, using official drivers, cars and locations.
The license then remained dormant until 2009 when Italian publisher Black Bean Games signed a four-year licensing contract. The second series then followed, which included five games published by Black Bean Games and developed by Italian developer Milestone between 2010 and 2013. These included four official WRC games based on seasons from 2010 to 2013, as well as a licensed arcade title, all of them released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
In July 2013 the license was picked up by the French publisher Bigben Interactive. Bigben hired Paris-based developer Kylotonn to work on the third series of games, which started in 2015 with WRC 5 and continued with WRC 6 in 2016, WRC 7 in 2017 and WRC 8 in 2019, based on the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 World Rally Championship seasons. All four were released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A port of WRC was released for Android titled WRC The Official Game on Play Store on 4 December 2014.
WRC Promoter GmbH extended its licensing agreement with game developer Kylotonn until 2022, with WRC 9, WRC 10 and WRC Generations all confirmed to be released on the new-generation Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 platforms.
Codemasters acquired the exclusive license for WRC games in 2020, to start for games in 2023 and for five years after, with its planned first game to be released in 2024. EA Sports were put in charge of a partnership with Codemasters after the latter's acquisition by Electronic Arts in 2021.
Games
Main titles
Spin-offs
Release history
World Rally Championship (2001)
World Rally Championship was released for PlayStation 2 on 30 November 2001 in Europe and 21 March 2002 in North America. The game features FIA licensed cars, stages and drivers from the 2001 season and has a career mode allowing the player to work through the World Rally Championship season. The game also features damage simulation in the form of visual damage as well as performance damage if the player crashes.
WRC II Extreme (2002)
WRC II Extreme is the sequel to WRC World Rally Championship and was released for PlayStation 2 in Europe and Japan on 27 November 2002. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2002 WRC season. It also includes "extreme" cars designed by the teams. The main soundtrack to WRC II Extreme was produced by the Chemical Brothers. Additionally, the tracks "Come with Us/The Test" and "Star Guitar" from the Chemical Brothers album, Come with Us (2002) were also used in the game.
WRC 3 (2003)
WRC 3 is the second sequel to WRC World Rally Championship and was released for PlayStation 2 on 21 November 2003 in Europe, and 27 May 2004 in Japan. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2003 WRC season. It also contains Extreme and Concept cars, designed by the teams.
WRC 4 (2004)
WRC 4 is the fourth installment of the WRC World Rally Championship series and was released on 22 October 2004 in Europe and 7 April 2005 in Japan. It contains teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2004 WRC season. It also contains Extreme cars designed by the teams, S1600 cars and Group N4 cars.
WRC: Rally Evolved (2005)
WRC: Rally Evolved or WRC5 is the last of the series for the PS2. It was released exclusively in Europe on 28 October 2005. The game includes teams, drivers, cars and rallies from the 2005 WRC season. It also contains Extreme and Concept cars designed by the teams, S1600 cars and Group B cars from the 1980s.
World Rally Championship (2005)