''World Rally Championship'' is a

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

series. To date, three series of video games with the official license have been released.

History

The first series were published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

who owned the WRC license in the early 2000s. These titles were all made by British developer

Evolution Studios Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean Softwa ...

between 2001 and 2005. The series consists of five original games released exclusively for the Sony

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

console, and one

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

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 Black Bean Games was an Italian video game publisher based in Gazzada Schianno in northern Italy, founded in 2004. Established as a European publishing arm of video game distributor Leader S.p.A., it was best known for publishing a number of ra ...

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 A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...

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 Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. In July 2013 the license was picked up by the French publisher

Bigben Interactive Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive) is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020 Bigben Group was consolidated to form Na ...

. Bigben hired Paris-based developer

Kylotonn Kylotonn Société à responsabilité limitée, SARL is a French video game development studio founded in 2006 in Paris. They are best known for their racing games, and are the official developer of the ''World Rally Championship (video game se ...

to work on the third series of games, which started in 2015 with ''

WRC 5 ''WRC 5'' is a racing video game based on the 2015 World Rally Championship season. The game was developed by French developer Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, ...

'' and continued with ''

WRC 6 ''WRC 6'', also known as ''WRC 6 FIA World Rally Championship'', is a racing video game based on the 2016 World Rally Championship season. The game was developed by French developer Kylotonn and published in October 2016 by Bigben Interactive f ...

'' in 2016, '' WRC 7'' in 2017 and ''

WRC 8 ''WRC 8'', also known as ''WRC 8 FIA World Rally Championship'', is the official game of the 2019 World Rally Championship. The game was developed by French developer Kylotonn and published on 10 September 2019 by Bigben Interactive for Micros ...

'' in 2019, based on the 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 World Rally Championship seasons. All four were released for Microsoft Windows,

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

. A port of WRC was released for Android titled ''WRC the Official Game'' on Play Store on 4 December 2014.

WRC Promoter GmbH The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and te ...

extended its licensing agreement with game developer

until 2022, with ''

WRC 9 ''WRC 9'', also known as ''WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship'', is the official racing video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship. The game is developed by French developer Kylotonn and published by Nacon. It is available for Microsoft Win ...

'', ''

WRC 10 ''WRC 10'', also known as ''WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship'', is a racing video game developed by French developer Kylotonn and published by Nacon. It is a sequel to ''WRC 9'' and is the official game of the 2021 World Rally Championship. Th ...

'' and '' WRC 11'' all confirmed to be released on the new-generation

Xbox Series X The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

and

PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...

platforms.

Codemasters The Codemasters Software Company Limited (trade name: Codemasters) is a British video game developer based in Southam, England, which is a subsidiary of American corporation Electronic Arts. Founded by brothers Richard and David Darling in Octo ...

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.

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 FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

licensed cars, stages and drivers from the 2001 season and has a career mode allowing the player to work through the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

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 The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat genre t ...

. Additionally, the tracks "

Come with Us/The Test "Come with Us" / "The Test" is a double A-side single from the Chemical Brothers' fourth studio album, ''Come with Us'' (2002). The vocals in "The Test" are performed by Richard Ashcroft. When released, the single reached number 11 in Spain, nu ...

" and " Star Guitar" from the Chemical Brothers album, ''

Come with Us ''Come with Us'' is the fourth studio album by English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers, released in January 2002 by record labels Virgin and Freestyle Dust in the UK and Astralwerks and Ultra in the US. It features Richard Ashcroft ( ...

'' (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 Group B was a set of regulations for grand touring (GT) vehicles used in sports car racing and rallying introduced in 1982 by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Although permitted to enter a GT class of the World Sportscar ...

cars from the 1980s.

''World Rally Championship'' (2005)

In 2005, British game studio

Traveller's Tales Traveller's Tales is a British video game developer and a subsidiary of TT Games. Traveller's Tales was founded in 1989 by Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. Initially a small company focused on its own content, it grew in profile through developing ...

and SCEE developed a new ''WRC'' title for the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

based on ''WRC: Rally Evolved'', which had recently been released on the PS2. The PSP

was jointly released by

(EU/JP) and

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...

(NA) on 18 November 2005 in Europe, 9 March 2006 in Japan, and 18 April in North America. It is known as ''WRC'', ''WRC: FIA World Rally Championship'' and ''World Rally Championship'' in the UK, Japan and the US, respectively. Like its predecessor, ''World Rally Championship'' is based around the 2005 season and features 30 fully deformable 2005 WRC, Evolution and Extreme spec cars. In ''championship'' mode, players have the opportunity to play through the entire WRC season as any one of the 17 official 2004 registered drivers from the six official manufacturers, participating in 16 official rallies spanning five continents and 16 countries. Additionally, there are 19 bonus stages and

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

that was available to users. In addition to ''championship'' mode, there are also ''quick rally'', ''time trial'' and ''single rally'' single-player game modes. ''World Rally Championship'' also supports various

ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

multiplayer modes, such as ''wireless time trial'', ''turn-based time trial'', ''turn-based single rally'', and ''turn-based championship''. However, unlike the PS2 version, the PSP remake does not include damage simulation, though visual damage to the vehicle can be seen.

''WRC FIA World Rally Championship'' (2010)

''WRC FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on 8 October 2010 in Europe and 14 April 2011 in Japan. It was the first game to be officially licensed by the WRC since 2005's ''WRC: Rally Evolved'', and is also the first official WRC game to be released on Xbox and PC. It features the official cars, drivers and co-drivers from the 2010 season and from the three support classes:

Production World Rally Championship The FIA Production World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested by Group N rally cars. History The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and obtained th ...

, Super 2000 World Rally Championship and

Junior World Rally Championship The FIA Junior WRC, also known as JWRC and previously known as Junior World Rally Championship, is an international rallying competition restricted to drivers under 29 years old. The championship currently consists of five select rallies of th ...

. A downloadable car pack, featuring Group B rally cars from the 1980s, was released on the day of the game's release.

''WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2011)

''WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on 14 October 2011 in Europe and 16 February 2012 in Japan. It is the second installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2011 season, including support categories.

''WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2012)

''WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360 and PC on 12 October 2012 in Europe. It is the third installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2012 season, including support categories.

''WRC Powerslide'' (2013)

''WRC Powerslide'' was developed by Milestone srl and released on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. As of April 2016, the game has been taken down off from the PSN, XLA, and Steam stores.

''WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2013)

''WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship'' was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC and PlayStation Vita in October 2013 in Europe. It is the fourth installment in Milestone's rebooted WRC series and is the official video game of the 2013 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2013 season, including support categories.

''WRC 5'' (2015)

''WRC 5'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, PC and Xbox One in October 2015. It is the first installment on next generation consoles and was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. WRC 5 is the official video game of the 2015 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2015 season, including support categories, and a total of 400 km of stages. It is the first WRC game for

eighth generation console The eighth generation of video game consoles began in 2012, and consists of four home video game consoles: the Wii U released in 2012, the PlayStation 4 family in 2013, the Xbox One family in 2013, and the Nintendo Switch family in 2017. The gen ...

s. This game featured British

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Bastille The Bastille (, ) was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. It was sto ...

's song "

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

" in its intro. The game reached number 10 in the UK physical sales chart, and number 10 in the downloads chart.

''WRC 6'' (2016)

''WRC 6'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 7 October 2016. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. ''WRC 6'' is the official video game of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship, featuring cars and rallies from the 2016 season. The

Toyota Yaris WRC The Toyota Yaris WRC is a World Rally Car designed by Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT to compete in the World Rally Championship. The car is based on the Toyota Vitz#XP130, Vitz-based XP130 Toyota Yaris, and is the first car Toyota have competed with in ...

test car was made available as a pre-order DLC.

''WRC 7'' (2017)

''WRC 7'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 26 September 2017. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. ''WRC 7'' is the official video game of the

2017 World Rally Championship season The 2017 FIA World Rally Championship was the 45th season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing championship recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams an ...

, featuring cars and rallies from the 2017 season.

''WRC 8'' (2019)

''WRC 8'' was released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC on 10 September 2019. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. ''WRC 8'' is the official video game of the 2019 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2019 season.

''WRC 9'' (2020)

''WRC 9'' was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 3 September 2020.

and

Xbox Series X and Series S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 2020, t ...

were launched on 12 November 2020, with the Nintendo Switch version available on 11 March 2021. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. ''WRC 9'' is the official video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2020 season.

''WRC 10'' (2021)

''WRC 10'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S and PC on 2 September 2021. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

Nacon Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive) is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020 Bigben Group was consolidated to form Na ...

. ''WRC 10'' is the official video game of the 2021 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2021 season.

''WRC Generations'' (2022)

''WRC Generations'' was released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S and PC on 3 November 2022. It was developed by Paris-based

and published by

. ''WRC Generations'' is the official video game of the 2022 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2022 season.

References

External links

''WRC World Rally Championship games official website''

''WRC World Rally Championship''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Nacon franchises Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises Video games developed in France Video games developed in Italy Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video game franchises introduced in 2001

History

Games

Main titles

Spin-offs

Release history

''World Rally Championship'' (2001)

''WRC II Extreme'' (2002)

''WRC 3'' (2003)

''WRC 4'' (2004)

''WRC: Rally Evolved'' (2005)

''World Rally Championship'' (2005)

''WRC FIA World Rally Championship'' (2010)

''WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2011)

''WRC 3: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2012)

''WRC Powerslide'' (2013)

''WRC 4: FIA World Rally Championship'' (2013)

''WRC 5'' (2015)

''WRC 6'' (2016)

''WRC 7'' (2017)

''WRC 8'' (2019)

''WRC 9'' (2020)

''WRC 10'' (2021)

''WRC Generations'' (2022)

See also

References

External links