Codemasters confirms layoffs after not renewing license

Codemasters has revealed that it will be laying off some staff shortly, the second round of restructuring in less than two years.  In recent days, this is the second Electronic Arts subsidiary to confirm layoffs. Codemasters, the company behind the popular WRC series, declared in late April 2025 that it would not be renewing its World Rally Championship license.  Although a limited edition of the company's license is valid until 2027, development of their most recent rally game, EA Sports WRC, which was launched in 2023, has already stopped.

However, the company confirmed to VGC that there are going to be some layoffs in the near future, as a result of the new reality of no longer having a WRC license. According to various reports, the firm has just started to consider reducing some roles, though the studio remains with some specific people. Codemasters also states that not all of the positions are vacant because of layoffs, and the company is also looking for some other options for impacted staff members within the EA Sports corporate structure. 

Codemasters is not the only EA subsidiary to have recently reduced its workforce or to have comparable plans in the works. Respawn Entertainment fired scores of employees this spring and shelved two titles.  Shortly, EA plans to eliminate 200 to 300 more positions beyond those impacted at Respawn, according to a Bloomberg report published on April 29. In the January 2025 financial report, EA acknowledged that a number of its high-profile projects had underperformed, which is where the present issues lie.  

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 EA halt all other rally-related video game projects

Both Dragon Age: The Veilguard and FC 25, EA's most recent yearly soccer simulation, fell short of the company's sales targets.  The earnings report released in late January caused EA's stock to plummet by around 20%.  Since then, though, they have fully recovered and have even gained almost four points since the announcement of EA's group-wide layoffs. The extent of Codemasters' impending layoffs is yet unknown.

The loss of the World Rally Championship license has caused EA to halt all other rally-related video game projects in addition to discontinuing support for EA Sports WRC. Since the early 2000s, Codemasters' rally games have been a dependable source of amusement for WRC fans, thus, these developments truly represent the end of an era.

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