Last week, the giant Electronic Arts was a central player in video game news with the revelation of the financial results for the year 2021 and in particular the sharing of new information on their games in development. With the passage of Codemasters under the leadership of EA, the American group has considerably strengthened its development capabilities for racing licenses and this is what Tom Henderson explained to us in a new paper.
Read also: Codemasters Cheshire (DiRT 5) joins Criterion to work on Need For Speed
Here are the six racing licenses in development at EA
It is through a new article published on Exputer that Tom Henderson, the famous journalist and insider, has detailed the next racing games currently in the pipes of EA. With the $1.2 billion takeover of Codemasters in January 2021, Electronic Arts has acquired a legendary studio in the history of racing games, in particular thanks to the legendary licenses that are TOCA (now Grid), Colin McRae Rally (now DiRT) or even F1.
Project Cars 4
In his article, Tom Henderson first explains that Project Cars 4 is indeed in development despite the fact that no official announcement has been made to date. It was the ex-CEO of Slightly Mad Studio, Ian Bell, who had given a fairly explicit hint concerning the possible development of a fourth opus.
The sources of Tom Henderson within EA still confirmed the thing to him as well as the name of the title which will simply be called “Project Cars 4”. Very little information is known so far, but the title should return to its roots with a formula of hardcore racing simulation reserved for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC for a possible release around 2024.
World Rally Championship
In a second step, it is the DiRT license which is approached. The release of a third installment of DiRT Rally was shelved last year after Codemasters scooped up the rights to exploit the World Rally Championship, the WRC. Again, few concrete details, but some sources for Tom Henderson have reported to him that this license will be released annually with an agreement extending from 2023 to 2027. It is easy to envisage a model modeled on that of the F1 license with the WRC. This new game will use the Unreal Engine with a first release scheduled for the end of the current financial year, ending on April 1, 2023. Note also that a mobile adaptation would be considered.
F1 2022 & F1 2023
The Codemasters F1 license has seen a real explosion in terms of interest and popularity with the general public over the past few years. Each opus is eagerly awaited by an assiduous and passionate community. On July 1, F1 2022 will be the first episode to be released under the auspices of Electronic Arts with new features such as crossplay, F1 LIFE mode and even supercars. As for F1 2023, it would already be in development at Codemasters. It would offer a real technological gap fully using the capabilities of 9th generation consoles, a redesign of the game engines and also an extension of the F1 LIFE mode called F1 WORLD.
Need for Speed
Criterion Games could not work in the best conditions on the next installment of Need for Speed since the studio had to help with the development of Battlefield 2042. The new Need for Speed has therefore been delayed for 2022 and the title should come out between next October and December. Nevertheless, the Codemasters Cheshire teams, which were initially supposed to provide some support to Criterion Games, are now working fully with the studio on the development of the next license games, including this year’s one. Tom Henderson also reports the existence of a game project based on car encounters at Codemasters Cheshire, again according to internal sources.
Need for Speed Mobile
The mobile games sector is essential for many very large studios and Electronic Arts is no exception to the rule. A Need for Speed Mobile leaked this week, showing a map based on the one from Need for Speed Heat. The title would be a fully multiplayer open-world racing game playable on mobile, but without a story. Tom Henderson specifies that this choice would portend many microtransactions.
Regarding GRID and Burnout, no new information has been transmitted by Tom Henderson. The recent failure of GRID Legends will force Codemasters and EA to take a step back on the license and the proposed formula while a return of Burnout could be considered, but not for quite some time. By then, the publisher could look into remasters, but nothing is certain on that side and public feedback could be more than mixed. In any case, racing games still have a bright future ahead of them and Electronic Arts now has a more extensive team than ever.