'EA Sports WRC' Marks New Era For Rally Racing On Xbox This November

With Codemasters at the helm

by Ben Kerry Tue 5th Sep 2023

Here we go! EA's first rally racer since it picked up the WRC license has finally been unveiled in the form of EA Sports WRC. Racing game experts Codemasters are officially developing this one too, for a November 3rd launch on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

This very development team have been working on the Dirt series for years now, so it should feel like a very natural switch for them and EA. Here's more about what the teams are hoping to achieve with EA Sports WRC on Xbox this fall:

"Combining the power of the Unreal Engine with the DiRT Rally series physics, EA SPORTS WRC delivers longer, more detailed stages than previously possible, with 18 official FIA World Rally Championship locations and over 600km of unforgiving asphalt, gravel, and snow stages. The game also boasts 10 current WRC, WRC2, and Junior WRC vehicles and 68 of the most iconic rally cars spanning 60 years of the sport.

Working together with official WRC teams and manufacturers, such as Ford, Toyota, and Hyundai, each vehicle is built to tackle every challenge they'll face throughout the season. The hybrid-powered 4WD Rally1 cars are some of the fastest in the sport's history, capable of incredible speeds while tackling gravity-defying jumps, deteriorating surfaces, and adverse weather."

The game's multiplayer functionality sounds very nice as well. EA and Codies are expanding the whole online suite to feature 32-player racing, complete with full cross-play:

"EA SPORTS WRC brings fans together with 32 player cross-platform multiplayer, allowing for competition between friends and the wider rally community. Using EA Racenet, EA’s racing companion app, Clubs serve as community-built hubs offering custom multi-surface tournaments with rallying at any location and time of year. Alongside personalised events, Moments, updated daily in-game, give players the chance to relive pivotal scenarios from the 2023 season alongside classic events from the sport’s archives."

We're looking forward to seeing how this new WRC game partnership grows in the coming years, and hopefully the lack of numbering in the title means EA Sports WRC may stick around for some time. We'll drop some of the team's early in-game screenshots down below:

Are you hyped for a brand new WRC series? Tell us if you'll be rallying around on Xbox this November!

Ben is a News Writer at Pure Xbox, and is a fan of action, racing and straight-up shootin' in any Xbox game he can get his hands on. When he's not clutching an Xbox controller like his life depends on it, Ben spends his time listening to music that's far too old for him, watching football on the telly and probably eating somewhere.

1
peterandom
Tue 5th Sep 2023

"Like racing but rally" — what kind of a tagline is that?!

2
Widey85
Tue 5th Sep 2023

Codemasters I'll always remember for Colin McRae Rally which was one of the first "proper" 3D racers I remember playing, back on PS1.

Loved that game, and the main listing screenshot of McRae's Subaru definitely brought back memories - will be interested to give this one a try on the free trials we get with EA Play (via Ultimate)...

3
TheGrizMan
Tue 5th Sep 2023

Not interested in full sim personally, but Codemasters does good work in my experience

4
Raffles
Tue 5th Sep 2023

Please don't give it Need for Speed baby physics like the recent two Grids. The difference in physics between Autosport and the recent two Grids is staggering.

5
SuntannedDuck2
Tue 5th Sep 2023

Hopefully EA doesn't ruin this one. The club app has me questioning things (not something I'd use but still for those modes who knows).

Well Dirt/Project Cars I thought EA dumped them? Is Dirt Rally saved?
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/11/ea-reportedly-writes-off-project-cars-dirt-franchises

I loved Grid Legends the game I actually Platinumed and the rarest times of liking a modern racing game. It isn't perfect at all, I wouldn't say the driving model is perfect but it got the job done, but it was a step up driving model from 2019, campaign (yes the stage 2 tuning made it a bit of a grind to do some events so I just did the largest location/track in the game in the event editor a few times and just grinded those KM/Miles to unlock what I needed, not a fan of that. Was better than trying to pick the vehicle/repeat a bunch of events over and over what 3-5 times yeah just time trials/free runs around the largest track instead 2-3 times to the limit.

Skill tree barely did anything didn't even get a trophy/achievement for it was odd, story is fine I enjoyed it, the lack of touge still annoys me) didn't Grid 2019.

I haven't played NFS current games as hate open worlds and well Dirt/Project Cars I thought EA dumped them to take up the F1/WRC IPs like they wanted and Grid just happens to be there to what NFS doesn't offer and to fit in 'somewhat' even if not the same but as competition with GT/Forza like NFS Shift 1 & 2 did try to. Even if Grid is yes a different form of TOCA and is great at that then well street cars and others or campaign that those offer (making Ride the bike equivalent seem closer than Grid does).

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