In an unexpected move, Electronic Arts, the publisher of the official Formula 1 game, has announced that it won’t be releasing a new title next year to follow F1 25. Rather, it’ll be offering an expansion pack for the 2026 season with the appropriate team and roster adjustments.
EA calls this a “premium content upgrade” that “will align with the sport’s major changes for the 2026 season, bringing fans new cars, sporting regulations, teams, and drivers.” Pricing and release timing are unknown, but over the last three years, EA has released F1 titles in late May or mid-June.
The next full release won’t land until 2027, and EA is already hyping it up. This is slated to be “a deeply authentic and innovative representation of the action and thrill of Formula 1, reimagined into a more expansive experience with new ways to play for fans around the world,” while also being “built for the rapidly evolving and globally expanding nature of F1 fandom.”
The company’s statement notes that a third of the sport’s current fans began following it in the last four years. That’s especially important for EA to note, as it acquired developer Codemasters and assumed stewardship of the F1 license starting in 2021.
Back in June, a spokesperson told Insider Gaming that EA’s current deal with F1 was extended into 2027 by a two-year option, before retracting that statement. Today’s announcement does make mention of a “a multi-year strategic investment” in the series, but how many multiple years is unknown.
What’s more, this news arrives during a time of considerable commercial change for F1. Next year, fans in the US will only be able to watch races on Apple TV+, and it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts the sport’s continued growth trajectory. For what it’s worth, F1 25 seems to have surpassed EA’s sales expectations, after CEO Andrew Wilson told investors it “delivered a 27% year-over-year increase in net bookings” in July.
Are you a fan of the F1 game? What do you think of this news? Hit me up at adam.ismail@thedrive.com
Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
