Announced earlier today, Dirt Rally from Codemasters is now available to purchase on PC through Steam Early Access.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Chief Game Designer Paul Coleman said that, while it isn’t on consoles right now due to their lack of early access support, he expects Dirt Rally to appear on consoles eventually:
The people that are expecting all the bells and whistles [of a] Dirt 4 product will be disappointed. But hopefully they’ll see that with it being Early Access, that’s not really supported on consoles so it’ll be impossible to do it at this stage anyway.
If I’m brutally honest I think people will feel that it’s slightly unfair that we’re not allowing it on to console just yet, but I’m set on putting this out on console eventually. I think that it’s right, at this early stage, is to package it and tweak it and introduce those things that fans will be asking for that we don’t know they want yet.”
In a separate FAQ on their website, Codemasters talks about why Dirt Rally isn’t on consoles right now:
For now, we’re focused on Early Access. It’s really important to us that we make Dirt Rally the best game it can be and we can only do that with your help. Steam Early Access is the perfect place for us to do that. We believe that Dirt Rally is the game many of our fans want and right now, our plan is to develop Dirt Rally with community feedback and get that experience absolutely right. Once we have done that, if there is sufficient demand for the Dirt Rally experience on consoles, then of course we’ll consider that.
Wanting to take “off-road racing to a new level of realism” with Dirt Rally, Codemasters says they have “captured the essence of what makes rally unique – that sense of trying to remain in control of your emotions, as you hurtle along dangerous, undulating roads at breakneck speed, aiming to squeeze everything out of your car whilst knowing that one crash could irreparably harm your stage time.”
[Source: Codemasters, Eurogamer]
