Farewell Project Cars – EA Retires the Popular Racing Series
Slightly Mad Studios‘ Project CARS racing game series has been silently discontinued by EA. Despite the company’s decision to “stop future development and investment” in the series, EA has assured impacted employees that they would be reassigned to “appropriate” positions within the company.
This news comes from a report by GamesIndustry.biz.
— Slightly Mad Studios (@slightlymadteam) November 8, 2022
As far as the history of this company is concerned, you should know that in a $1.2 billion deal in February 2021, EA acquired Codemasters, which was previously bought by Slightly Mad Studios. Soon after being acquired by Codemasters, SMS released the poorly received Project CARS 3. Ian Bell, CEO of SMS, left the company in October 2021 and has since created a new studio, Mildly Annoyed Games, where they are developing a “sequel” racing game to GTR2, titled GTR Revival.
In December 2020, in between the two mergers, Bell released a statement claiming that Slightly Mad was already working on Project CARS 4 and that it will be “the most accurate simulation ever built.” This was the last time we got to hear directly from Slightly Mad. It appears that the company knew of this a long time ago, which was evident by a lack of communication between consumers and the developer. As for the fans of Project Cars, well, R.I.P.
Following the news, EA is doubling down on its racing portfolio, putting an emphasis on licensed IP and open-world experiences, and growing their brands to be more socially led with long-term live services that aim at engaging global communities.
In addition, many people were already skeptical when Project Cars 1 and 2’s digital editions were taken from the market in October and September.
