In an official blog post, Codemasters has announced that it is ending development support for EA Sports WRC, which released in 2023, and that it has also ended its partnership with WRC, with the exclusive license having spanned just one game. Not only that, Codemasters – the studio behind the likes of Colin McRae Rally, Dirt, and Dirt Rally – also says that, at least for now, it has no plans to make more rally racing sims.

“Every great journey eventually finds its finish line, and today, we announce that we’ve reached the end of the road working on WRC,” the developer writes. “After releasing EA SPORTS WRC in 2023, the 2024 season, including the recently released Hard Chargers Content pack, will be our last expansion.

“For now, we are pausing development plans on future rally titles. Rest assured, EA SPORTS WRC will continue to be available for existing and new players. We hope it remains a source of joy, excitement, and the thrill of rally racing. We’ve poured our hearts into making it for fans, and we know you’ll keep the passion alive.

“Our WRC partnership was a culmination of sorts for our Codemasters journey with off-road racing, spanning decades through titles like Colin McRae Rally, and DiRT. We’ve provided a home for every rally enthusiast, striving tirelessly to push the boundaries and deliver the exhilarating thrill of driving on the ragged edge. We’ve brought together incredibly talented racing developers, worked with some of the sport’s icons, and had the opportunity to share our love of rallying.

“Thank you to all the fans who have and continue to be part of our rally journey.”

How this change will affect Codemasters remains to be seen. There’s currently no word on whether the studio will be eliminating positions.

EA confirmed on Wednesday that it had laid off roughly 300 employees across a number of studios. Reports have claimed about a hundred of those affected were employed at Respawn Entertainment, and that the studio also cancelled a Titanfall extraction shooter.

As reported by Insider-Gaming’s Tom Henderson, it seems like EA has internally cancelled the long-running DiRT franchise as well. The rally-racing focused DiRT Rally titles are apparently viewed as redundant, seeing as Codemasters will be releasing officially licensed WRC titles starting in 2023. Meanwhile, the arcade-focused DiRT games seem to have no future at the company either.

A report earlier this year (also written by the aforementioned Henderson) claimed that Codemasters had cancelled DiRT Rally 3.0 in favour of ramping up development on 2023’s AAA WRC title. Read more on that through here.

EA or Codemasters have yet to make an official statement regarding the status of the DiRT franchise.

In a job ad for the position of Development Manager spotted by Exputer, it’s stated that Codemasters Cheshire, the studio that worked on last year’s DiRT 5, the studio is working on the “most ambitious and biggest game that Codemasters has made in over a decade.” There are very few details about the project itself in the job listing, but it’s safe to assume that it’ll be a racing game. Whether it ends up being the next mainline DiRT game or something else entirely remains to be seen.

In an interview with GamingBolt last year, DiRT 5 lead designer Mike Moreton said that while the DiRT Rally games would continue to offer an authentic simulation experience, the mainline DiRT series would follow in DiRT 5’s footsteps and deliver a more arcade-y experience. He said: “For us DiRT Rally represents “lean in gaming” where concentration is key and focus, practice, and skill are paramount. DIRT 5 is more “lean back gaming.” We want players of all abilities to find fun and engage with our game. We’re really pleased with our spread of driving aids and options to ensure that even more hardcore players will find some challenges, while more casual players will still be able to have a fantastic experience with the game. Moving forward, we want the DIRT games to continue to develop their own identity and remain distinct from the DiRT Rally franchise.”

Of course, it’ll probably be some time before we hear more about whatever it is that the DiRT 5 team is now working on, but based on what the aforementioned job ad states, it’s probably going to be worth keeping an eye on.

Codemasters recently published an update on their official forums, providing information to DiRT fans on what lies ahead for the series. The developer confirms, for starters, that post-launch support for DiRT Rally 2.0 by way of seasons is now done and dusted, though they did assure that “some minor updates and surprises.”

The bigger news in the update is that a new game in the DiRT series is in development, and it is going to be revealed “very soon.” Codemasters confirms that this “brand new experience” is being developed by a different team from the one that works on the Rally games.

Meanwhile, the DiRT Rally team is also “now focusing on the future”, though what that will amount to isn’t something we’ll be learning about anytime soon. “We have big plans, driven by a passionate development team, solely tasked with taking the Rally series to even greater heights,” the developer writes. “You won’t hear about that for a while, but when you do… oh boy, will you be excited for what’s coming.”

Codemasters concludes the letter by saying that whether its the new upcoming DiRT game that they’re talking about or the next Rally title, they are “incredibly excited to continue making DiRT the franchise for everything we all love about off-road racing.”

We’ll keep you updated about anything more we learn about the next DiRT game, so stay tuned to GamingBolt.

The next DiRT game has been teased and speculated on for a long time, but now Codemasters has gone ahead and announced it officially- it’s called DiRT Rally, and it will be launching exclusively on PC. PC players can, in fact, play a very early build of the game right now, as it is already available on Steam Early Access. The game is launching on Early Access with 17 classic and current cars and 36 challenging stages spread across three very different real world environments, and the team will be adding regular free updates featuring more vehicles, locations and game modes as they build a new, exciting breed of focused and challenging off-road racing.

“Globally renowned for delivering realistic, yet fun, driving games, Codemasters is once more bringing its talent and experience to the world of rallying,” Codemasters said. “With DiRT Rally, the team wanted to take off-road racing to a new level of realism, so tore up its previous pace notes and completely rebuilt the physical simulation and driving models to truly capture the feeling of each individual car as it hurtles along a variety of surfaces in different conditions.

“Codemasters has captured the essence of what makes rally unique – that sense of trying to remain in control of your emotions, as you hurtle along dangerous, undulating roads at breakneck speed, aiming to squeeze everything out of your car whilst knowing that one crash could irreparably harm your stage time,” they continued. “It’s the ultimate test of a driver’s skill, and it’s the ultimate in high risk, high reward gameplay.”

DiRT Rally is anticipated to have an official launch soon, with the final product shaped by the feedback that the team gets from Early Access players. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage and information.

Codemasters has been on the relative down-low since releasing Grid Autosport last year and only having F1 2015 releasing in June for PS4, Xbox One and PC. However, the British developer seems to also be working on DiRT 4 as revealed in the release notes for AMD Catalyst 15.4 (which adds Crossfire Profile for a number of games on PC including Grand Theft Auto 5 and Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes).

Interestingly the release notes also specify that for DiRT 4, “Poor performance may be experienced in some configurations.” Aside from confirming AMD Crossfire Profile support for the game, it would indicate that development is fairly well on its way to approach the optimization stage. Perhaps these notes were meant for those taking part in an unconfirmed closed beta for the team?

DiRT 4 has been teased by Codemasters before – innocent though it may seem – but this is the first real indication of the game’s existence. On another note, the official release notes for AMD Catalyst 15.4 currently show no sign of DiRT 4. Stay tuned for more details on the same, ideally close to E3 2015 in the coming weeks.

While news broke out some weeks ago that Codemasters’ newest game in its long running rallying series, DiRT, might have run into trouble due to turbulence at the developer itself – Codemasters as a whole was apparently hit with layoffs and restructuring, with just under 20 people estimated to have been working on the new DiRT game – it appears that the company is choosing to tractor on ahead with the game anyway. As a matter of fact, today, they teased the game on Twitter. A tease which was also a job ad, but I mean, it’s all the same.

‘Graphics Programmer wanted for a DiRTy little game we’ve been working on,’ they said (link to the job included in the linked tweet, for those of you who might be interested in applying).

If and when DiRT releases, it is likely to be headlined on the new consoles this time around- particularly given how so much of Codemasters’ current troubles come from them delaying their transition to the Xbox One and PS4 in the first place.

Long renowned UK based developer Codemasters, best known for releasing autosport based games such as Dirt, GRiD, and the F1 series, appears to be in trouble- the studio, it has been confirmed, was just hit by a round of layoffs, with 50 jobs being reviewed, and as many as 30 of those slated to go.

“As Codemasters continues its programme of strategic realignment in line with market changes, the company has reviewed its current structures to focus on areas of increased importance and decrease resources in areas where work requirements have been reduced,” a company spokesperson told Eurogamer.

“As a result of this review, a small number of roles have been proposed as being at risk of redundancy. Those in potentially affected roles are now involved in a consultation period to discuss the proposal. The proposal does not affect the on-going production of titles in development and no projects have been cancelled as a result of the proposal.”

I’d love to tell you that games you are looking forward to, such as the new Dirt game, won’t be affected by any of this, but then I would be lying, as it has been confirmed that the team working on that game has been reduced to just about 20 people- which is, incidentally, far less than the number of people who were working on Grid Autosport. Codemasters assures us, however, that work on that game is continuing uninhibited.

The studio currently has at least two games in the pipeline- the next generation version of F1 2014, slated to release some time in the first half of this year, and a new Dirt game. We will keep you posted.

Watch the newest DiRT 3 video by Codemasters above and see gymkhana gameplay in action as WRC driver Ken Block explains the history behind the freestyle stunt phenomenon and its role in DiRT 3.

Here’s the entire press release by Codemasters.

“Today Codemasters released a new video starring WRC driver and DiRT 3 technical consultantKen Block, focussing on the all-new gymkhana game mode. The trailer mixes live action with gameplay footage as Ken Block explains the origins of the discipline and how players can hone their rally skills by unleashing their inner hooligan.”

Codemasters recently released a new teaser trailer video for their upcoming racer, DiRT 3. The trailer shows off some cool stunts, cars, races, visuals, skids and heck, even explosions. Watch it, it’s pretty good.

DiRT 3 is out next year. Stay tuned, we’ll have more info soon.