DiRT 4 Will Not Feature Current WRC Content Due to Licensing

FFS Codies, you had how long before now to button that up? No excuses.

I don't think DiRT or D2 had UTD WRC cars, and they're great fun so while some will scoff, this is merely a detail to me. It would be nice, but if the rest of the game is ace it's not gonna drop what I think of it.
 
Just to note: while 2016 and 2017 era cars i.e. 1.6 liter cars, won't be making an appearance, efforts are being made for earlier WRCs, of the 2 liter era to appear. So far, both Ford Focus' and the Subaru Impreza WRC that were in DiRT Rally will be making an appearance. Negotiations are under way to try and get more cars into the "Up to 2000cc" class of the new game.
 
Well, i really enjoyed the real life stages in Dirt Rally, especially germany. But at first i didnt even know they are authentic. Real life rallys and the latest WRC cars are nice, but i think there are more important things in a rally game, like great physics and a good career mode. Im really looking forward to Dirt 4, WRC licensed or not.
 
Right now I am imagining Codemasters with the WRC license! (I bet it's a reality in some alternate universe) :dunce::drool::eek:...

But honestly, if Codemasters had the current WRC license, we'd probably have the greatest "licensed" rally game ever - kinda like F1 2016 is the king of F1 games

So I hope no one buys Big Ben's WRC game this year so they have to give up the license! (Cruel I know)
 
Wow there's a wealth of information in that Gossip thread, glad to see CM being quite candid with giving information to their fanbase.

Here's another post from Paul that gives more context behind the issue with stages specifically:

I've tried answering this a few times as it is complicated and I can't go into the full details of the situation however....

We made bespoke tracks in DiRT Rally because at the time the license was available and we thought we would have a better chance of getting it if we did it. As we went through development we didn't secure the license and we ended up having a bunch of stages that were used in the championship. The roads themselves are not licensed, however since DiRT Rally we have been advised (legally) to avoid representing these roads and using them for rally events. When we started to look at reusing those tracks in DiRT 4 we were advised that we would need to change them significantly to avoid getting into trouble. The amount of work required to rework the routes so that they were no longer authentic made no sense as we would essentially be spending good money on removing the authenticity of those roads.

Hopefully that makes it a bit clearer as to why we have not continued with those stages in DiRT 4. It is obviously a shame but we are just going to have to move on for now. Should the opportunity arise in future to use them then we still have them in our archives and we'll be able to dust them off and use them again.

Pikes Peak is another interesting one. We signed the deal to use the track and the event before they went exclusive but it took a while for us to confirm that we could use the full event license in DiRT Rally. We had the road but not the PPIHC part of the deal. That's why it took a while for us to get the official branding into the game.
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And it's all because Kylotonn has the WRC license right now. Good grief. Hopefully the WRC has enough sense back to give it to someone better.
 
At least we're still getting this:

evo6_aus_5.jpg
 
Well, there are nothing that any of us can do to changed the situation, yes i am mad, maybe some non-WRC cars would not be so idea as we all think, we still got Dirt Rally that is just an amazing game.
 
Hasn't it been said that the official WRC license limits what other cars or content you can put into a game besides the events and cars from the current rally season?
 
ZeeMax72
Well, there are nothing that any of us can do to changed the situation, yes i am mad, maybe some non-WRC cars would not be so idea as we all think, we still got Dirt Rally that is just an amazing game.
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Dirt 4 is, if I read right, covering the broader spectrum the other three had, so there will be different classes of vehicle. Personally, knowing they can't go full WRC, I'd love to see a return to the sheer variety of cars in Dirt 2. The Z4 and the McRae R4 were my favorites.
 
It`s a shame that even the WRC 2010`s (2011-2016 generation) won`t be in the game. But fortunately we`ll have the R5`s. :)
In addition to that I want to have more cars of the 2000´s than in Dirt Rally.
 
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lskill909
It`s a shame that even the WRC 2010`s (2011-2016 generation) won`t be in the game. But fortunately we`ll have the R5`s. :)
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If they're including the Fabia R5 (or even the S2000) in amongst the R5 cars I couldn't care less about modern WRC cars :D , seriously under-represented in driving games.
 
BKGlover
FFS Codies, you had how long before now to button that up? No excuses.
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They obviously don't want to be pinned down to a yearly release that limits what they can include - if they have the licence, it's unlikely that they could include anything but WRC cars.
 
Aki Ko
This isn't the Dacia Sandero. Heck off.
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Accurately recreating real world locations for rally stages in a game is the hugest waste of time. Time that has finally been invested in procedural generation. because yo you should never race the same stage twice let alone dozens of times as you would in a wrc game.
I love it when a thing ive been shouting about for years and years is finally adopted. Always late but never unwelcome.
 
Devil240Z
Accurately recreating real world locations for rally stages in a game is the hugest waste of time. Time that has finally been invested in procedural generation. because yo you should never race the same stage twice let alone dozens of times as you would in a wrc game.
I love it when a thing ive been shouting about for years and years is finally adopted. Always late but never unwelcome.
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That moment when the sarcasm doesn't become obvious.
 
I always wondered why licensing is such an issue. I mean, wouldn't these companies/brands want more exposure to 10,000+ potential customers. I guess not. :confused:
 
SAFFY
Darn the FIA and their silly licensing rules.
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It's common practice in sports games. FIFA do it for the FIFA games, as does whoever administers the NFL for the Madden series.

It's about retaining control over their intellectual property. If they let just anyone include the championship in their games, the market could be flooded with low quality games or the inappropriate use of the cars or image.
 
No real cars, no real tracks, not interested then.

But I'm not a first row Dirt fan either, I'm much more of a GT/LMP endurance circuit racer. But I am one for as much realism as possible, both in cars and tracks. I like Dirt Rally as something on the side and I see no reason to upgrade to Dirt 4. Dirt Rally will still suite my occasional rally needs just fine even after the Dirt 4 launch.
 
prisonermonkeys
It's not the companies. It's the FIA.
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I don't think we can blame the FIA, I'm sure licensing comes down to the commercial rights holder (with F1 games that would've been FOM and Bernie). WRC is now promoted by Red Bull which may be behind the license restrictions changing in the last few years.
 

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