Having recently received the USA Tour DLC and Patch 2.1 update, Dakar Desert Rally will now only get Quality of Life updates in the future. Which means no new content or features will be coming to the game, only occasional fixes for significant issues.
Rather than an official announcement, the change in focus has been shared by Saber Help on the Steam discussion boards for the rally racing game, and in response to concerns on social media.
The response is due to a number of players reporting ‘fatal error’ issues when playing the game. Anecdotally, there seems to have been a rise in problems for lots of games which utilise the Unreal Engine 4 game engine recently, and I’ve experienced issues with other titles following recent updates despite the fact they ran without problems previously. Looking at comments and support, it seems that more people are posting about games crashing at the moment, so there may be an underlying issue.
But beyond that specific issue, developers Saber Porto and publishers Saber Interactive have planned to move on from Dakar Desert Rally, originally released in October 2022 for the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
This may mean that the Saber Porto team are starting to work on a sequel, but nothing has been formally announced. And the parent company of Saber Interactive, the Embracer Group, are currently restructuring with plans to continue reducing their headcount in the future.
The upcoming release of Expeditions: A MudRunner Game is the only new driving title currently in the works from Saber Interactive, and the somewhat mixed response to Dakar Desert Rally might mean the series takes a break for a while, if it returns at all. Which is reminiscent of what happened after Dakar 18 was released in 2018 by Bigmoon Entertainment (Saber Porto before they were acquired by Saber in 2019).
It’s also worth noting that Bigmoon CEO and Game Director, and later Saber Interactive Studio Director Paulo J Gomes left the company in September 2023, and has now launched his own Paulo Games Productions studio. Which could mean a change of direction for Saber Porto, who also previously contributed to racing titles including FlatOut 4, WRC 5, MotoGP 13, and WRC 3.
Dakar Desert Rally is available for the PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S via the Microsoft Store, and the PS4 and PS5 via the PlayStation Store. You can also find physical copies via Game or Amazon.
And you can keep up with all the latest Dakar Desert Rally news, updates, DLC and more, here. Along with checking out the list of wheels officially supported by the game.
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