EA has confirmed it will drop the Project CARS franchise, and will “stop further development and investing” in the series.
As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, the announcement was made internally, with EA stating that Project CARS staff will be shuffled into “suitable” roles “wherever they can.”
Project CARS was developed by Slightly Mad Studios, which was acquired by racing game powerhouse Codemasters in 2019. Codies itself was then acquired by EA a year later in 2020. At the time of its acquisition by Codemasters, Slightly Mad employed around 150 people.
According to Gi.biz, EA evaluated the Project CARS franchise after it acquired Codemasters, arriving at the conclusion that it wasn’t likely to become a smash hit, nor fit neatly within the rest of Codies’ portfolio of racing games.
The news follows an announcement by Slightly Mad that Project CARS 1 and 2 would be delisted from sale. At the time of writing, Project CARS 3 remains on sale (but is considered the weakest of the PC trilogy so, you know, that one’s up to you).
In fact, let’s talk about the history of this series really quickly. Project CARS was created by Slightly Mad as a simulation-leaning racing game with a big community component. Highly moddable and full of the kind of meticulously recreated tracks that simmers love, it became quite popular the sim racing crowd. Though it never made huge commercial inroads, the original was successful enough to get a sequel off the ground. Slightly Mad leaned further into the simulation genre and the fans responded. PC2 became the fan favourite. Project CARS 3, however, sent the needle back the other way. Released after the studio’s acquisition by Codemasters, and perhaps in hopes of competing with the increasingly popular Forza Horizon franchise, PC3 eschewed hyper-realism in favour of more arcade-style racing. The fans, who had been expecting more sim-friendly racing, absolutely hated it.
And there, it seems, is the end of Project CARS, a racing series with the best of intentions that went out on a bum note, now consigned to history. If you own a copy of PC 1 and/or 2 on digital platforms, they will remain in your library for download, but will be unavailable for further sale.
Kotaku Australia hopes everyone on the Project CARS team at Slightly Mad will be well looked after and moved into other games in production at Codemasters. Farewell, PC. RIP to a real one.
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