Electronic Arts closes down Project Cars

08.11.2022

An in-game, close-up view of a tuned up street racing car with a very large spoiler, seen from the rear driver’s side bumper — *Project Cars 2* (2017)

The Project Cars collection, which Electronic Arts gotten when it purchased Codemasters in very early 2021, will certainly be closed down. EA validated the closure to GamesIndustry.biz on Tuesday.

Codemasters had actually gotten the copyright in addition to its designer, Slightly Mad Studios, in 2019. In a declaration, EA claimed it shut Project Cars in order to “prioritize our focus in areas where we believe we have the strongest opportunity to create experiences that fans will love.”

“[W]ith shifting fan expectations,” the author claimed later on, “we recognize the need to evolve our games beyond pure play.”

That statement discreetly highlights why Project Cars ran out location amongst EA’s expanding auto racing profile. Project Cars (2015) and also its followers, 2017’s Project Cars 2 and also 2020’s Project Cars 3 were all driving simulations, in the setting of Sony’s Gran Turismo or Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport collection, or EA’s very own Need for Speed: Shift sub-franchise — which Slightly Mad created in 2009 and also 2011. Need for Speed has actually not reviewed that layout given that the days of the PlayStation 3 and also Xbox 360.

Meanwhile, Codemasters has added a narrative mode and also lifestyle features to its F1 collection; covered Grid Legends in a story mode with live-action, documentary style scenes; and also Need For Speed: Unbound, launching Dec. 2, is an activity racer loaded with personalization choices, street-racing way of life, and also music visitor celebrities.

In its declaration, Electronic Arts claimed any kind of designers still dealing with Project Cars would certainly be relocated to “suitable” functions in other places in the business. (Slightly Mad utilized regarding 150 at the time Codemasters chose it up.) That lines up with previous reconstructions, that includes placing the former Codemasters Cheshire office beneath Criterion Games when that workshop was put back in charge of the Need For Speed collection.

Source: Polygon