WRC (video game series)

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 licensed cars, stages and drivers from the 2001 season and has a career mode allowing the player to work through the World Rally Championship 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 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. Additionally, the tracks "Come with Us/The Test" and "Star Guitar" from the Chemical Brothers album, Come with Us (2002) were also used in the game.

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 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 or WRC5 is the last of the series for the PS2. It was released exclusively in Europe on 28 October 2005.[4] 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 cars from the 1980s.

In 2005, British game studio Traveller's Tales and SCEE[5] developed a new WRC title for the PlayStation Portable based on WRC: Rally Evolved, which had recently been released on the PS2.[5] The PSP port was jointly released by Sony Computer Entertainment (EU/JP) and Namco Bandai Games (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.[5]

Like its predecessor, World Rally Championship is based around the 2005 season and features 30 fully deformable 2005 WRC, Evolution and Extreme spec cars.[5] 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.[5] Additionally, there are 19 bonus stages and downloadable content that was available to users.[5] In addition to championship mode, there are also quick rally, time trial and single rally single-player game modes.[6] World Rally Championship also supports various ad hoc multiplayer modes, such as wireless time trial, turn-based time trial, turn-based single rally, and turn-based championship.[6]

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 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, Super 2000 World Rally Championship and Junior World Rally Championship.

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 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 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 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 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 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 Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. 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 consoles. This game featured British indie rock band Bastille's song "Pompeii" in its intro. The game reached number 10 in the UK physical sales chart,[7] and number 10 in the downloads chart.[8]

WRC 6 was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 7 October 2016. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. 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 test car was made available as a pre-order DLC.[9]

WRC 7 was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 26 September 2017. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. WRC 7 is the official video game of the 2017 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2017 season.

WRC 8 was released on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PC on 10 September 2019. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. WRC 8 is the official video game of the 2019 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2019 season.

WRC 9 was released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on 3 September 2020. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S were launched on 12 November 2020, with the Nintendo Switch version available on 11 March 2021. It was developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Bigben Interactive. WRC 9 is the official video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2020 season.

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

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 the last WRC game developed by Paris-based Kylotonn and published by Nacon. WRC Generations is the official video game of the 2022 World Rally Championship season, featuring cars and rallies from the 2022 season.

Codemasters regained the WRC license in 2020 (which in turn being acquired by Electronic Arts in 2021); following this, it was rumored in 2022 that work on Dirt games has been suspended.[10] On 1 September 2023, EA Sports confirmed that the next game will titled EA Sports WRC, with a full reveal taking place on 5 September.[11] The game will release on 3 November 2023.[12]