Early roots and arcade games (1974–1990s) The roots of Formula One games can be traced back to 1974, with
arcade racing games such as
Speed Race by
Taito and
Gran Trak 10 by
Atari which depicted F1-like cars going on a race track. Two years later,
F-1 (1976) by
Namco has been cited as the first truly Formula One
arcade game, but it was an
electro-mechanical game, rather than an
arcade video game. The first successful Formula One video game in arcade history was
Pole Position (1982), by Namco. In
Pole Position, the player has to complete a lap in a certain amount of time in order to qualify for a race at the
Fuji racetrack. After qualifying, the player had to face other cars in a championship race. The game was very successful and it spawned an official sequel,
Pole Position II, and an unofficial one,
Final Lap. After the success of
Pole Position, many similar games appeared in arcades (and later ported to home computers) such as
TX-1 (1983). During the late 1980s, successful arcade games included
Super Sprint, which uses the top view instead of the rear view of most games, and its sequel
Championship Sprint. From the second part of the 1980s more games were being created. Most of these games featured racetracks, cars and driver names similar to the real ones, but all modified slightly, since they did not have official licenses from
FIA. Examples of this are
Super Monaco GP (1989) and its sequel ''
Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II'' (1992), which had a license to display only
Ayrton Senna's name), or ''
Nigel Mansell's World Championship'', but many other less known games had similar features. Formula One racing games made the transition to
3D computer graphics with Namco's arcade game
Winning Run (1988). Later arcade manufacturers began developing games in this style, like
Sega with its
Virtua Racing (1992), and later Namco again with
Ace Driver (1994), which featured futuristic, F1-like cars. Formula One began officially licensing video games in the early 1990s, starting with
Video System's arcade game
F-1 Grand Prix (1991).
Console gaming and Sony exclusivity (1990s–2000s) The first half of the 1990s saw a growing in popularity of Formula One games, and many software houses began acquiring licences and display most real names and cars, for example
Formula One by
Domark, which featured most real tracks, drivers and teams. The first 3D games to feature a full license were
F1 Challenge (1995) for the
Sega Saturn, releasing sequels to
Formula 1 on its PlayStation systems roughly at an annual pace throughout that time to form its
Formula One series, as well as licensing the release of
Infogrames' 2003 PS2-exclusive game
Grand Prix Challenge, developed by
Melbourne House.
Challenge was well received by critics, particularly its high quality graphics for its time, despite being unknown to most F1 gaming fans.
Codemasters takes control (2009–2021) Sony concluded their
Formula One series with the releases of
Formula One 06 on the PS2 and PSP and
Formula One Championship Edition on the
PlayStation 3. In 2008,
Codemasters obtained the F1 license, beginning
their own annual Formula One video game series. The first game of the series,
F1 2009, was released on the
Wii,
PlayStation Portable and
iOS, with the Wii version supporting the
Wii Wheel for
motion-controlled steering. Subsequent annual sequels were released on non-
Nintendo consoles and personal computers, with
F1 2011 also being available on
eighth-generation handhelds and
F1 2016 also available as a paid mobile title on
iOS and
Android. Besides the
Wii U port of the
F1 Race Stars spin-off, subtitled
Powered-Up Edition, no other Codemasters F1 game has been available on a Nintendo console. While Formula One games in general are strict reproductions of the sport regardless of gameplay style, Codemasters'
F1 Race Stars was the first to bring
Mario Kart-style gameplay to the setting, while their official license from FIA (which the company has held since 2009) allowed for the teams (complete with their respective sponsors) and drivers from that year's season to be given a cartoonish makeover.
Return to Electronic Arts (2021–present) In late 2020, Electronic Arts acquired Codemasters after outbidding
Take-Two Interactive's offer to buy the company. As a result, all subsequent installments of Codemasters' ongoing
F1 video game series, starting with
the 2021 season's game, are published by Electronic Arts, making this the first F1 game to be published by the company in nearly two decades, after ''
F1 Career Challenge and F1 Challenge '99-'02''. The 2021 game is also the first to be released on
ninth-generation consoles, the
PlayStation 5 and
Xbox Series X/S. While Electronic Arts publishes the main
F1 racing games,
Frontier Developments developed and published the
management simulator F1 Manager 2022, which holds the official license for the season. Frontier currently develops and publishes future installments of the
F1 Manager franchise. ==Modding==