Electronic Arts Pulls The Plug On Slightly Mad Studios’ Project Cars

While properties such as Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport, Grid, and more exist, additional competitions is never a bad thing. Coming from Slightly Mad Studios, the team delivered Project Cars which is a racing simulator that further diversified the genre. More precisely, the franchise was noted for its detailed portrayals of real-life tracks proportioned into its games.

In 2019, Slightly Mad Studios was acquired by Codemasters for $30 adding the team to the family of other racing IP including Dirt, Formula1, and Grid of course. However, the acquirer soon became an acquiree come its buyout from Electronic Arts for more than $1 billion. Following the deal, the publisher pressed that Codemasters and its subsidiaries with preserve its character moving forward.

Well, that is not entirely true. According to a statement from Electronic Arts to gamesindustry.biz, Project Cars is being canned as Electronic Arts focuses its resources on other racing properties.

Today we announced internally an update to our racing portfolio. Following an evaluation of the next Project CARS title and its longer-term growth potential, we have made the decision to stop further development and investment for the franchise. Decisions like these are very hard, but allow us to prioritise our focus in areas where we believe we have the strongest opportunity to create experiences that fans will love.

We are focusing on our strengths in our racing portfolio, particularly licensed IP and open-world experiences, and expanding our franchises to be more socially-led with long-term live services that will engage global communities. Games are at the heart of sports and racing entertainment, and with shifting fan expectations, we recognise the need to evolve our games beyond pure play, providing experiences for fans to also watch, create and connect with their friends.

The Electronic Arts spokesperson continues, “We are working with everyone impacted by this decision to place them into suitable roles across our EA Sports and racing portfolio, as well as other parts of EA, wherever we can. Our priority now is on providing as much support as possible to our people through this transition.”

Elsewhere, Slightly Mad Studios co-founder Ian Bell went to Twitter to express his disgust with the decision the publisher made. “EA, keeping on being awesome… I said my bit and I stand by every word as they continue to prove them.  How are those numbers (sorry I mean people, with hopes, dreams and families) looking, at the bottom of those the spreadsheets?”

As for current racing properties on the horizon, it is no secret that the next release in the Need for Speed series is close to releasing. In that, Criterion Games unveiled Need for Speed: Unbound which is set to launch next month in December with the team back at the helm of development for the series. You can read the full report by heading here.

Are you surprised by the decision made by Electronic Arts?

Source: gamesindustry.biz