New World Rally Championship Videogame Announced

Those who have been following the FIA World Rally Championship with religious-like fervor for the last couple of years have something to celebrate as it has been confirmed that Black Bean Games, a developer based in Milan, and the FIA have entered into an agreement related to creating a racing videogame that will be released for a variety of platforms at some point in 2010.

Black Bean Games has significant experience in such simulation titles as it has already launched videogames based on the Moto GP franchise and on the Superbike championships.

Simon Long, who is Chief Executive Officer ISC, the company that holds the exclusive media and commercial rights for the FIA World Rally Championship, stated that “The official WRC game will engage a whole new audience for the sport and we’re tremendously excited at the opportunities to grow our fan base and the profile of the WRC. It provides a hugely powerful touch point for us in which to showcase the WRC to consumers, and it will be the most realistic and playable rally game of all time. We chose to work with Black Bean Games because they have a proven track record making top level games with the official license in two-wheel motorsport.”

The videogame will surely attract some attention as no less than 600 million people are estimated to have watched the 2008 edition of the World Rally Championship. There were 12 rallies organized in 2009 in such far flung locales like Ireland, Norway, Cyprus, Portugal, Argentina, Italy, Greece, Poland, Finland, Australia, Spain and Great Britain.

All of these events will be simulated in the 2010 released videogame, which might also contain all the stages making up the Championship next year. More details will probably be unveiled by Black Bean Games as the release date draws near.