EA is killing the Project Cars franchise and will be fully divesting itself from the series in the immediate future, the company revealed Tuesday. While the decision was at first only communicated internally, it promptly leaked to the media, with the California-based conglomerate subsequently confirming that the Project Cars franchise is effectively dead.
The original Project Cars was created by London developer Slightly Mad Studios. It released on PC and consoles in 2015 and was treated to a sequel two years later, after which Slightly Mad Studios was acquired by Codemasters. While the first two games were hardcore racing simulations, the 2020 Project Cars 3 offered arcade-like gameplay as it was a spiritual successor to Need for Speed: Shift, another arcade racer developed by Slightly Mad Studios. Several months following the release of Project Cars 3, EA acquired Codemasters for $1.2 billion.
In a brief media statement, EA today said it's stopping all development and investment related to the franchise after evaluating its "longer-term growth potential." The upcoming Project Cars 4 racing sim was canceled as part of the move, which the publisher described as a "hard" decision, but one that will allow it to focus its resources on making the most of its other racing IPs. As of today, EA owns the rights to Need for Speed, Burnout, Grid, TOCA, Colin McRae Rally, Dirt, and several other racing game series.
Reading between the lines, the fact that the Project Cars series isn't open-world like Need for Speed games apparently contributed to EA's decision to drop the franchise. The company also said its future racing portfolio will be focused on delivering "socially-led" games-as-a-service experiences, which isn't a description befitting any numbered Project Cars installment.
While EA kept its internal skepticism about the franchise under wraps until today, the writing was already on the wall after Slightly Mad Studios announced that Project Cars and Project Cars 2 will be delisted from online storefronts earlier this year. The developer cited expiring track and vehicle licenses—something that EA could have remedied, if willing—as the main reason for the delisting. Looking at the bigger picture, EA never greenlit Project Cars 4, which was already in development by the time it absorbed Codemasters. The only installment it did approve was last year's Project Cars GO mobile game, which was licensed out to Korean gaming giant Gamevil, who developed it independently.
EA said it's now working on finding new roles within its organization for as many staffers affected by this decision as possible. Slightly Mad Studios employed 150 staff at the time of its 2019 acquisition by Codemasters.
Source: GamesIndustry