EA Evaluations Caused Two Racing Franchises To Be Killed Off?

If you enjoy racing games, there is a ton to pick through. Each year that goes by, there is a plethora of racers for players to pick up. Whether you’re a fan of realistic simulation-type racing games or arcade-style experiences, there is something for just about everyone. However, it looks like fans of two particular racing franchises under EA’s control might be saddened to hear that they might have been killed off.

Recently, news had started to spread that there were two franchises that got the ax when EA decided to check out their current portfolio catalog. Those two particular game franchises are Project Cars and the DiRT series. This might be a big bummer as those two franchises might have had a rather large audience of players eagerly awaiting the next major installments. However, right now, only one game franchise has been confirmed to be dropped, and that’s Project Cars.

Project Cars comes from the development team Slightly Mad Studios, where the game series first got started back in 2015. So this is not the longest-running franchise out there. However, since the first installment was released, Project Cars would go on to see two more major installments along with a spin-off mobile title experience called Project Cars Go. The last mainline release the series being Project Cars 3 which launched within 2020.

Gamesindustry.biz received a statement from Electronic Arts where a spokesperson confirmed the cancellation of the franchise. After evaluating the IP, the company opted to stop further development and investment. But that doesn’t mean the company is turning away from racing games altogether, as the spokesperson went on to say that they are focusing on areas with the strongest opportunities to create experiences fans will love. This includes racing games with licensed IPs and long-term live services.

With all that said, it was reported by Insider Gaming that EA also killed off the DiRT series. However, we haven’t seen any confirmation statements made on that matter just yet. It should be interesting to see if any other IPs are being killed off internally from EA as they begin to evaluate their portfolio and plan out what projects they will be investing in going forward. After all, this might be a move that expands past just the racing genre. For now, it’s purely a waiting game to see if there are any sudden cancellations going out across the company. 

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