Esports Plans? Bug Report Permission? WRC Ending?

Title: Disappointed with EA & Codemasters – From Classic Highs to Modern Lows

1. The Golden Era of Classics

I remember a time when EA and Codemasters set the gold standard for racing games. Titles from about 20 years ago – like Need for Speed: Underground, NFS Most Wanted, the TOCA Race Driver series, and Colin McRae Rally – were released with remarkable polish. These games came out of the box nearly bug-free, with no need for massive day-one patches or endless hotfixes. They delivered complete experiences that we could enjoy for hours on end without hitting game-breaking glitches. Simply put, those classic titles left a legacy of quality and earned our trust in these companies.

2. Today’s Releases: Bugs, DLC Greed, and No Accountability

Fast forward to today, and it feels like everything has flipped. Instead of polished products, we’re now often getting games riddled with bugs at launch. It’s become the norm to expect patches for basic functionality that should have been working from day one. The focus seems to have shifted from quality to quick cash:

- Rushed, Buggy Launches: Recent titles (even the latest EA Sports WRC and F1 games) have launched with glaring technical issues. Crashes, mode failures, and recurring bugs that span multiple yearly releases make it feel like minimal testing or polish is done before release. It’s incredibly frustrating to pay full price for a game that feels unfinished.

- Overpriced DLCs & Cash-Grabs: Instead of earning our money through great content, we’re hit with pricey DLC packs and microtransactions at every turn. Core features that used to be part of the base game are now sold separately. For example, we see content packs in EA’s latest games that cost a premium, even while the base game’s issues remain unresolved. It gives the impression that maximizing profit is more important than delivering value.

- No Accountability or Communication: Perhaps most discouraging is the lack of developer accountability. When issues arise, official responses are either completely absent or painfully sparse. Bug reports and community feedback often go unanswered. There’s rarely an apology or acknowledgment from the devs/publishers about the state of the game. This silence feels like they don’t care or assume we’ll just tolerate it and keep paying.

3. The F1 Esports Qualifier Debacle

A perfect example of this troubling trend is the F1 Esports situation for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. As an avid fan (and someone who hoped to participate), I’ve been stunned by the complete lack of transparency around the qualification process. There have been no clear in-game updates or announcements in the F1 titles about how to qualify for the official F1 Esports series these past two seasons. The official F1 Esports website is horribly out of date – it still shows old information and “coming soon” placeholders, with nothing specific about the current season. It’s as if the entire qualification route was hidden or never activated, and we were never told.

I honestly feel misled — even borderline scammed — by this experience. The game and its marketing suggested an active esports pathway, yet in reality everything was either quietly canceled or incompetently managed without a word to the players. Many of us kept checking for updates or hoped each patch might unlock the promised “esports qualifiers,” but we got silence. This lack of communication isn’t just disappointing; it feels like a breach of trust with the community. We invested our time (and money on the game) expecting a shot at competition or at least to follow a structured esports season, and instead we got nothing but confusion.

4. Silence, Outdated Info, and Shifted Priorities

Sadly, the F1 Esports fiasco is part of a broader pattern with EA and Codemasters lately. Developer silence has become the norm across the board. Whether it’s unanswered questions about missing features or outdated information lingering on official sites, the message we get is that keeping the community informed just isn’t a priority anymore. The developers responsible for maintaining the F1 Esports website are also at fault — the qualification and results pages haven’t been properly updated since 2022 or 2023, despite new seasons happening. The same applies to the official WRC website, where the esports section (https://www.wrc.com/en/misc/game) doesn’t mention anything about whether esports events were ever planned. We still see the same bugs carry over from one game to the next, year after year, showing that lessons aren’t being learned. When the community reports issues or asks reasonable questions, we’re met with either generic PR responses or complete silence.

All of this paints a picture of companies that have shifted focus away from player experience. It feels like profit is now king – push the product out, sell DLCs, hype the next title, and rinse and repeat – while the loyal fans and players are left dealing with half-baked games and broken promises. The contrast with 15-20 years ago couldn’t be more stark. Back then, it seemed like EA and Codemasters cared about making great games and earning player loyalty. Now, we’re largely seen as wallets to extract from, rather than a community to genuinely support. You're optimizing for short-term profits, but in doing so, you're alienating the very people who supported you for decades.

5. Final Thoughts

I don’t write this out of hate, but out of disappointment and a bit of heartbreak. I grew up loving EA and Codemasters games, and I know they can do better – they’ve done it before. As a long-time fan, it’s upsetting to feel so let down by the current state of these once-great franchises.

All we’re asking for is a return to what made these companies respected in the first place: release games when they’re actually ready, communicate honestly with your player base, fix the issues that need fixing, and don’t treat us like walking wallets. We want to celebrate your games, not constantly complain about them.

Right now, though, I and many others are truly disappointed. We reminisce about the classics because they gave us joy without the headaches. It would be amazing to see EA and Codemasters recapture that spirit – focusing on quality, community, and transparency. Until then, it’s hard not to feel cynical about every new release or promise, and that’s a **bleep** shame for those of us who just want to enjoy the games.

Here’s hoping the message gets through and things change for the better.

Title: If Developers Aren’t at Fault — Then Who Is? Responsibility Must Exist Either Way

I want to clarify something important after everything I’ve said about the poor state of recent games.

If it turns out that the developers are not the ones responsible for the buggy, rushed, and broken games we keep getting —
If the real blame lies with executives and corporate decision-makers who force fast releases, demand monetization at all costs, and burn out their staff, then they must be held accountable. It’s also likely that some of these executives push their own ideas into the games — ideas that go against the vision of experienced developers or the actual needs of the community — just to gain credit, stay in the spotlight, or climb the corporate ladder. Many of these decisions are, frankly, short-sighted or outright foolish, made by people who don’t understand the game, the genre, or the audience, yet still hold the power to overrule those who do. When bad decisions come from the top, it’s not just frustrating — it’s damaging.  In doing so, they often damage the final product while promoting themselves for work that ends up being shallow, misguided, or outright harmful to the game’s quality. Unfortunately, the people making those decisions are often the least qualified, but still the first to get rewarded while the game — and the players — pay the price. —
Then I sincerely apologize to the developers.

Based on several recent sources, I’ve come to understand that not all devs are lazy or careless. In fact, many are underpaid, overworked, and stuck in a system driven by unrealistic deadlines and money-first priorities:

Articles and reports that confirm this:

- EA layoffs: Hundreds of devs lost their jobs during multiple rounds of cuts
→ https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/electronic-arts-layoffs-hundreds-20302979.php

- 1 in 10 devs lost their jobs in 2024 alone due to corporate restructuring and budget cuts
→ https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/22/24349728/gdc-state-of-the-industry-survey-2025-results

Crunch culture in AAA studios like EA, Rockstar, Epic
→ Business Insider – https://www.businessinsider.com/video-game-development-problems-crunch-culture-ea-rockstar-epic-explained-2019-5
→ Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunch_(video_games)
→ Kotaku – https://kotaku.com/crunch-time-why-game-developers-work-such-insane-hours-1704744577

For more articles or reports related to this issue, feel free to ask ChatGPT or any other AI platform to list recent news, industry data, or community discussions.

So, if developers truly care and are being crushed by deadlines, then the executive leadership must be held accountable.
And in that case, I believe those responsible at the top — those who ignored quality and good teams, overworked their employees, and treated them inhumanely just to meet release targets — should be fired.

Furthermore, if it is proven that developers were forced into unpaid overtime or subjected to unreasonable crunch, they deserve proper financial compensation for the extra hours and stress they endured, as well as improved working conditions going forward.

However, if the opposite is true and the executives have provided reasonable conditions but the developers delivered low-effort or careless work, then it’s on the developers to be held responsible instead.

Either way, someone needs to be held accountable.
We, the players, pay full price and expect a functioning, polished product — not a half-broken mess with missing features and silence from the studio.

No more finger-pointing without transparency. No more excuses. Whoever is responsible — devs or executives — should answer for the current state of things.

Most detailed critique of EA I've seen on these forums.    Nicely done 👍

Thank you! Appreciate it! 🙂

It was great.  Just a shame this place doesn't get more traffic.    Your post deserves more attention.    Was  fair and balanced critique. Especially compared to the normal abusive posts aim at EA.  Not saying they don't deserve it.  But those posts are deleted in short order.    Whereas i know good constructive criticism does get past up the ladder.  But whether they get get read or instantly thrown in the bin by senior management is another matter 

Thank you so much 🙏 Your words truly mean a lot! I tried to keep the post fair and grounded, so I’m glad that came across.
You're absolutely right — constructive feedback often flies under the radar, while angry posts get deleted or ignored. I still hope that if we keep the tone respectful and focused, maybe more of it will reach the people who can actually make changes.

I genuinely hope that both EA and Codemasters and the teams behind the F1 Esports and WRC websites will take this kind of feedback seriously and use it to improve communication, features, and support for the player base.
Thanks again for the encouragement — it motivates me to keep contributing!

So what happened to the "bug report permission" part of your argument that was simply forgotten about? 

What was your concern regarding that?

Regarding Bug Report and Stage Restart Exploit in Time Trial (Akropolis example)

I’m not sure if this applies to all rally tracks in Time Trial, but I’ve noticed a potential exploit in certain Akropolis stages. Specifically, after falling off a cliff and totaling the car, if I keep pressing the throttle and then restart the stage attempt, the car begins moving forward at the start line — even though the red light is still active.

If I’m not mistaken (it’s been a few months since I last played), the car is stuck in neutral at that point, and yet it still moves forward on its own. Normally, if you try to manually shift into 1st gear and run the red light, you get penalized — but this is different. The car moves forward while in neutral, during the red light phase, and it doesn’t remain stuck behind the racing line like it should.

Depending on how straight the road is, you could gain a 5 to 10 second advantage by the time the light turns green, and the game doesn’t seem to detect or penalize it. In theory, someone could abuse this in Time Trial and go unnoticed unless Racenet (or whatever the leaderboard system is called) tracks this behavior and shows this abnormal pattern on a virtual map.

As for the “bug report permission” part — I’ve held off on recording and posting video evidence because I was expecting an admin or someone from the EA or Codemasters staff to respond first. I wanted to be sure that the issue would actually be seen and acknowledged before putting in the effort.

At the moment, I’m also busy and unable to work further on this — but I wanted to make sure the issue is at least raised.

In the coming weeks I plan to record a short video demonstrating the issue and post it here on the forum in this discussion.

Well it sucks but with all further development being stopped i expect only the most outrageous and glaring exploits to be addressed.

And as usual, didn't happen if we didn't see it hahahaha. we'll be waiting for your video.