Slightly Mad Studios is bound to be happy with the reception that Project Cars has received since its launch. The game has gathered plenty of critical acclaim, giving racing fans an in-depth driving simulation with plenty of nuanced gameplay. Although some may have criticized how foreboding the title may be to newcomers, Project Cars is still a polished addition to a speed freak’s game library.

It remains to be seen whether the racing sim can break into a market dominated by the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza, particularly given the recent announcement of a Need For Speed reboot. However, Slightly Mad may feel confident that Project Cars already has a strong audience in place. After all, the title gained backing for development through crowdfunding, with would-be fans buying Tool Packs to contribute in the creation of the game.

Unfortunately, Slightly Mad Studios has some bad news for any backers who want to see the game on the Wii U. According to a recent forum post from studio head Ian Bell, the developer is facing great difficulty in getting Project Cars to run on Nintendo’s console. Apparently, Project Cars is struggling to keep up at 720p resolution, and currently sits at around 23 frames per second.

According to Bell, the development team is still working to make Project Cars work on the Nintendo console, but it looks like Slightly Mad will have to make some severe sacrifices in terms of graphical fidelity. “We could reach a fairly solid 30FPS,” said Bell, but admits that it “might take a hell of a lot of work.” It would be a blow to Wii U owners, with racing sims thin on the ground aside from cartoonish titles such as Mario Kart 8.

The news gets worse for Wii U fans, however, as Slightly Mad has apparently discussed cutting Wii U development altogether. Instead, the studio would look to release the title on Nintendo’s next home console, which has been codenamed the NX. “Our work might just be the best thing that ever hit that new console in the driving sim genre,” said Bell, continuing to state that Slightly Mad will be “looking to Nintendo’s next console” unless the team decides to cut the graphical quality of Project Cars back dramatically.

Although Slightly Mad is clearly yet to take a finite direction, it doesn’t look good for Wii U owners hunting after a realistic racing sim. Developing the highly ambitious racing title for the console was always going to be a difficult task, given both the age of the Wii U and the gulf in graphical power between Nintendo’s console and its more up-to-date competitors. Even so, Wii U backers will rightly be disappointed if Project Cars fails to make it to the console. Given that some backers were set to receive a share of the game’s sale profits amongst other perks, it will be interesting to see if – and how – the developer compensates Wii U backers.

Source: Project Cars Forums