But those aren't limited to the late 90s, those happen still today. Of course it's impossible to predict when one of those opportunities is going to present itself, but the thing is that the WRC hasn't even tried for decades. Dirt Rally came out of nowhere, without any licensing and only because a "b team" inside a studio was passionate about rallying, and they made the most popular rally game for decades. Meanwhile the official WRC game, which I'm sure had the same or even better funding than Dirty Rally, were mediocre and serviceable games because, hey, it's a pointless thing but money is money. Same thing could be happening right now, with them thinking "the new one is never going to do better than Dirt Rally anyway". Well no it's not if you never give it a chance, that's for sure.
It could be argued that the same thing happens with F1, but they still make it work. WRC is never going to get that level of attention, but it has potential for drama and likable personalities, like the group B and A era proved. You don't need to bring only hardcore fans, because there's always going to be very few of those. They have to play to their strengths, and at the moment they aren't. It is a complex puzzle but we've mentioned several ideas in this thread already, not only the game but also improving the WRC+ model. And we're just fans writing in discussion board. They supposedly have people they pay money for to figure this stuff out.
I am not sure where we're going with this, but no, we can't repeat the 90s. You're never going to get that cultural movement again in the context we are talking about. The hardware improvement was huge. The way Colin transcended the sport is unlikely to happen again. It's cultural alchemy that'll not happen again. Sure a good game is great, but it doesn't make anyone care about Kalle Rovanperä. if it was called Rovanpera Rally it might sell 5 copies.
F1, a LOT of people care about the championship. The problem comparing to F1 is that it's defacto the automatic #1 motorsport, the Pereto Distribution dictates it'll get 90% of the attention despite only making up about 0.01% of motorsport. People care because it's #1, and it's #1 because people care. A lot of people say Liberty improved F1 massively, but they really haven't done that much of note. It's Youtube Channel is bland. Most of its marketing is pretty bland. It just got lucky with DTS and that only worked because the top 2 teams weren't in it and that partly forced the use of a creative licence in the editing rooms, as well as benefiting from latent interest in the fanbase already. But overall it's PRIME marketing power is the name and the fact it's the FIA's #1.
The problem Rally has, and it by far the most crucial, is dying car-culture . Video games, youtube videos... all aren't going to do much. It's a saturated space where people playing video games are drawing FAR larger audiences. You're not going to get any kind of revolution there. What's needed is cars competing that young drivers relate to. Unfortunately they've all been priced out of the market. Average new car buyer is over 50. Sure call me pessimistic, but unless young drivers start buying cars that have some kind of cultural relationship with Rally I can't see any real significant growth. Also, there is a culture of young drivers (so it's car culture obv is not dead yet) with cars related to celebs, but that's via Youtube channels ... that market is locked up in that scene. Has little interest in Rally.
Edited by Skelly1927, 01 November 2023 - 23:27.
