Dirt and Dirt Rally (stylized as DiRT and DiRT Rally, formerly known as Colin McRae Rally), also known as EA Sports Rally, is a rally racing video game series developed by Codemasters and published by Electronic Arts under its EA Sports label. In 2022, the franchise was rebranded as EA Sports Rally with both Dirt and Dirt Rally games being released under the brand. As a result, Codemasters had acquired the exclusive license to the World Rally Championship series in June 2020, which will begin as a five-year deal in 2023. Started in 1998, the franchise has been a critical and commercial success and is generally acknowledged as a pioneer of realistic rally sports racing games. The series is named after the World Rally Championship driver Colin McRae, who provided extensive technical advice during development. After McRae's death in September 2007, Codemasters used his name one more time in Colin McRae: Dirt 2, dropping the moniker in Dirt 3. The McRae name was then used once again in 2013 in the mobile release of Colin McRae Rally. Games Colin McRae Rally (1998) Colin McRae Rally, the first title in the series, was released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows platforms in January 1998 in the United Kingdom and in September 1999 in the United States. The game featured real cars and drivers from the 1998 World Rally Championship season. Colin McRae's Subaru Impreza was featured on the game's cover. In Novice mode there are 3 stages per rally, each followed by a Service Area, making it easier to adjust the vehicle to the different conditions of each stage and repair the damage. Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (2000) The second game in the series, and it features the works-entered cars and the rallies of the 2000 World Rally Championship. There are 3 difficulty levels, namely Novice, Intermediate and Expert. New features include Arcade mode, with direct head-to-head competition against AI drivers or another player, and a cleaner and more minimalistic menu system, which would be retained for the rest of the series until the release of Dirt 2 in 2009. The game was a bestseller in the UK, and again later in the year. A version for the iOS was released in June 2013. IGN gave it a score of very high 9.4/10. Colin McRae Rally (2001) The first handheld entry in the series was released for the Game Boy Color