The official World Rally Championship game franchise will be returning to a familiar home shortly, with Nacon announced as the publisher for the next title in the series — and for years to come.
Last month came to a close with the surprise announcement that the long-running WRC game franchise would be moving to a new developer in the future. Both Codemasters and the World Rally Championship revealed the news through their respective social media channels, with WRC adding that the franchise would be going in “an ambitious new direction”.
Today, on the official WRC page, the series promoter confirmed that it will return to the previous license holder, French publisher Nacon, beginning in 2027. The new agreement, confirmed by Nacon in its own press release, will cover the development and publication of new games and esports competitions, on PC and consoles, for six seasons through to 2032.
As well as featuring the official teams, cars, rallies, drivers and sponsors, the new games will set out to offer players an “immersive experience” for enthusiasts and new players alike, and serve as a “complete reboot of the franchise”. That does leave a lot open to interpretation, but suggests that things won’t siimply pick up where they last left off with 2022’s WRC Generations.
While not explicitly named in today’s announcement, development will likely fall to KT Racing who took over from Milestone beginning with 2015’s WRC 5. The news does have a rather unfortunate downside for WRC fans as it means there won’t be a new game until 2027 at the absolute earliest. The current game, EA SPORTS WRC, released in 2023, will have to hold rally fans over until then.
WRC marketing head Arne Dirks expressed delight in reaching an agreement with the French publisher, “Their vision for the franchise stands out, and their expertise in delivering great rally games is unquestioned. We look forward to breaking new ground together in this collaboration, to truly turn the WRC games into epic adventures and offer gaming experiences beyond rally as we know it today.”
Alain Falc, CEO of Nacon, added: “Between 2015 and 2023, we had the opportunity to work closely with the championship’s official teams and many drivers, allowing us to gain solid and unique expertise in translating rallying into a video game experience. This new venture marks a major milestone: a fully reimagined project driven by a passionate and specialized team, with a clear ambition to elevate rally games to new heights.”
