DiRT Rally and DiRT 4 Quietly Removed From All Online Storefronts

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EA and Codemasters are on a roll. While announcing the demise of the Project CARS franchise, 2 of Codemaster's titles from the DiRT franchise have been taken down as well. From now on, you officially cannot buy both DiRT 4 as well as DiRT Rally anymore. Newer titles are not affected.

Publisher Electronic Arts seem to be restructuring its racing portfolio quite intensely. Yesterday saw the announcement of Project CARS, developed by Slightly Mad Studios being cancelled and the team reshuffled into other teams. Slightly Mad Studios is, or was, owned by Codemasters, developers of the DiRT franchise, GRID and the F1 Games and owned by EA.

It is unknown whether this restructuring of racing games under the EA umbrella has been sought after by EA itself or Codemasters. What is clear, however, is that major disruptions in the racing genre are currently happening.

If you still want to buy either of the 2 titles unlisted for PC, unfortunately, the only way would be by buying codes online. But if you do, be quick about it. DiRT 2 codes currently sell online for over 300€. So it can be expected that codes for DiRT 4 and DiRT Rally will increase in price too.

Or you can wait for the inevitable DiRT Rally 3.0 title that will be running with the WRC license at some point in the future, probably in 2023 or 2024. DiRT 6 is also expected to release no earlier than 2023.

But with no news on these new titles in the franchise, all we know is that currently, if you want to enter the DiRT scene, you need to do it via either the arcade racer DiRT 5 or the rally simulator DiRT Rally 2.0.

What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments down below!
About author
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

Comments

Owning both Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0, all I can say is that Dirt Rally wont be missing (although a good sim). Don't know about the multiplayer scene of Dirt Rally - it may be affected by the removal of the title from stores, I guess. If so, this is sad news for those still playing it, otherwise, not much to complain at.
 
Being VR driver (G2) and owning both Dirt Rally 1 and 2, the only thing I miss from DR1 is Pikes Peak. VR worked - until their last farewell patch that added uncurable microstutters, for me at least. DR2 is a fantastic package: really plenty of content, VR reliable, good driving experience, convincing illusion. Who would want to buy DR1 anymore?

Pikes Peak fans, obviously. Okay, with that question I shot myself into my own foot...:D
 
Reminds me these are some of the gazillion sims I just buy on Steam but never have run :D
DiRT and DiRT 2 I raced to the ground, but that was before I appeared on Steam.
But news as those seems to get my engines started, same story with Pcars1, when PC1+2 was removed from Steam - which I race quite often now due to it's bulls eye with my VR setup, even better VR performance than AMS1/AMS2.
So btw got a decent hand brake now. If I find a way racing DiRT 4.0 and DiRt Rally in VR it will again be a headache for me for which of my sims in my garage I should prioritize racing :D

Apart from that the tendency is worrying news. Especially for the hoarder and storer for eternity guy here...
 
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Dirt Rally was a good foundation for DR2.0.
I hope that Codemasters know what to do and they bring finally a proper rally sim.
This is their big chance and i hope that they do not f....k it up!

DR2.0 is for sure far away to be perfect but few things are good and i still prefer this than the Kyloton crap (wasted money on 8 and 10).
Generations is nothing else than a recycled stuff from previous titles.
I will not spent even 1 Cent on that garbage.

Hopefully VR will be implemented properly from beginning, will be satisfying and with proper performance.
This time physics must be much better and ive expect even better sound (which is still 200x better than WRC-synthetic crap).
Force Feedback must be on point on every surface. THIS IS ESSENTIAL.

For me are the WRC games not good enough and RBR should finally be buried.
Yes, i know... best physics bla bla.... played it month ago with all the mods and stuff but this thing is meanwhile just old and the mods do not make it better.
I dont bought a 3080 to watch at minecraft graphics.
I want a rally sim which is proper made and satisfying for 2023.
They need just to focus on rally...nothing else!
 
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D
Well, Dirt Rally 1 was my first true sim (ETS 2 was first...) and it's still a great simcade to play with. Lots of fun! Cars are fun, tracks are fun, the audio + soundtrack are great, as well the visuals. It's a true passionproject from Paul Coleman & Team. When I played RBR a lot I modded his voice in RBR. That much I like his voice.

That said Dirt Rally 2. It only got 100 hours from me.. Dirt Rally 1.. 1250+ hours. Could have been more if I didn't had a quarter life crisis after playing Dirt 4, whom was promised to be best of both worlds, but failed.
 
I think it's a good thing that old games are being removed from the market. I mean, selling a decade old game is kinda...greedy. Well, unless it's still being updated/expanded.
That being said,a better option would be to give them for free, for a certain amount of time, or a certain number of downloads. It's not like they would be losing money because nobody buys them now anyway.
 
Premium
My two first VR sim games are now officially dead.

Dirt Rally 1.0 and Eve Valkyrie were my gateway drugs into VR gaming.

In August of this year they shut down the Eve Valkyrie servers.
With Dirt Rally 1.0 gone, that marks the end of the beginning of my VR experience.
 
I think it's a good thing that old games are being removed from the market. I mean, selling a decade old game is kinda...greedy. Well, unless it's still being updated/expanded.
That being said,a better option would be to give them for free, for a certain amount of time, or a certain number of downloads. It's not like they would be losing money because nobody buys them now anyway.
It's greedy if you're, say, Activision still selling Black Ops 2 for full retail price, but if the games are cheap (which all old Codies games are/were) then I'd argue it's perfectly OK for the sake of making sure people can experience these games and that they don't get lost to time
 
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Being VR driver (G2) and owning both Dirt Rally 1 and 2, the only thing I miss from DR1 is Pikes Peak. VR worked - until their last farewell patch that added uncurable microstutters, for me at least. DR2 is a fantastic package: really plenty of content, VR reliable, good driving experience, convincing illusion. Who would want to buy DR1 anymore?

Pikes Peak fans, obviously. Okay, with that question I shot myself into my own foot...:D
As you own the game you can download a backup with different version from 3rd party sites.

DR1 had PP, DR2 didnt, did you made a typo?
 
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...Or you can wait for the inevitable DiRT Rally 3.0 title that will be running with the WRC license at some point in the future, probably in 2023 or 2024. DiRT 6 is also expected to release no earlier than 2023.
I Do not think We will have to wait long for the new EA/Codies WRC IP.

As far as I can remeber, Codies Signed the WRC Agreement, in late 2019, since than there was no new Rally Game released, accept the crappy DiRT 5.

I would definitly bet some money, that as soon as EA/Codies can officially show something, which, as far as I know, is 01.01.2023, they will give us an early release Date in 2023's Q1. Because they definitly work on this project since at least 2020.

May you remeber, the releases of last few F1 Games was 6 to 8 weeks after they annouced the Games. As far as I remeber.
 
I would gladly PAY for Dirt2.0 UPDATES ! I think they need to stop thinking about new games only... there is money to be made updating a single good title... look at iracing... are they making a new version each year, hell no !! keep growing the franchise... more track, more cars, better feel ! Bring back Dirt2.0 with proper optmization and add content.. this title is the best ! stop the gimmicks ;)
 

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