The Project Cars franchise seemed as though it may have been one of the shooting stars of the Codemasters game library, and it seemed that was set to continue in the new era under the EA umbrella, however today we have learned that is no longer the case. Today it was revealed that EA is cutting the cord on the franchise as reporting from GI.biz’s Marie Dealessandri has revealed.
When Codemasters picked up Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios in 2019, they were 150 developers strong, but now, under this new EA leadership, the work on the IP will sadly cease to continue. The announcement was made to developers internally initially but with the word getting out via Dealessandri’s reporting, EA sought to comment on the matter when questioned.
In a statement to GI.biz, an EA spokesperson said the following,
Today we announced internally an update to our racing portfolio. Following an evaluation of the next Project CARS title and its longer-term growth potential, we have made the decision to stop further development and investment for the franchise.
Decisions like these are very hard, but allow us to prioritise our focus in areas where we believe we have the strongest opportunity to create experiences that fans will love. We are focusing on our strengths in our racing portfolio, particularly licensed IP and open-world experiences, and expanding our franchises to be more socially-led with long-term live services that will engage global communities. Games are at the heart of sports and racing entertainment, and with shifting fan expectations, we recognise the need to evolve our games beyond pure play, providing experiences for fans to also watch, create and connect with their friends.
We are working with everyone impacted by this decision to place them into suitable roles across our EA Sports and racing portfolio, as well as other parts of EA, wherever we can. Our priority now is on providing as much support as possible to our people through this transition.
Project Cars was one of many racing/driving franchises that entered the EA portfolio simultaneously when EA acquired Codemasters in February 2021 for a total of $1.2 Billion. Within that transaction, EA became the owner of many other racing IP including Dirt, F1, Grid, OnRush, the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) games as well as of course Slightly Mad Studios, the developers of both Project Cars and the not overly popular Fast & Furious Crossroads.
The future of Slightly Mad Studio as well as the many other Codemasters IP that EA acquired in 2021 remains unknown.
