EA Sports brings back punchable heel Devon Butler to kick off F1 23’s reveal
polygon.comF123 will feature a narrative mode with live-action scenes like 2022’s Grid Legends, if a new teaser from publisher Electronic Arts is any indication. We’ll learn more about Codemasters plans for the latest edition of its Formula 1 video game series on Monday.
To whet that appetite, fans got an extensive (8-minute) trailer introducing the fictitious racing team to F1 23’s grid on Friday — Konnersport Racing Team, whose top driver is yep, you guessed it, Devon Butler.
Butler has been the breakout star of Codemasters’ prior attempts at a narrative: F1 2019’s “taster” of three Formula 2 races heading into a standard career, and F1 2021’s “Braking Point,” a much larger, chapter-based mode which brought Butler back against two new playable protagonists. In a preview for that game, creative director Lee Mather was delighted that fans “gelled with Devon,” despite Codemasters deliberately casting “somebody who’s got a face you wanted to punch.”
So, what does Butler look like in live action? Unfortunately, we only got a look at a still photograph with a voice over. In this fictitious F1 studio show spoke to (very real) hosts Naomi Schiff (formerly of Formula W’s Hitech GP and a Sky Sports personality) and Dickens Junior “durkchocolate” Ngoma, a motorsports Twitch streamer and influencer who just signed with Red Bull Racing’s esports department as a content creator.
His hair looks a little different, but for the record, that is still a punchable mugshot. Adding to Butler’s douchey appeal, it looks like Butler has his own management agency, Butler Global, and it looks like it shares twin-billing with Konnersport on first reference. I’m sure that won’t cause any friction down the line.
Konnersport will be helmed by (again,
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