If you thought that the earlier news of Project Cars‘ development and future prospects being cut off at the knees by EA this week, was the last you would hear of the matter – you thought wrong. Following on from the revelation that Project Cars will be no more, one of Slightly Mad Studio’s co-founders and former CEO, Ian Bell has hit out over the decision via social media, signaling his displeasure over the decision.
Bell left in October 2021, mere months after Codemasters and by extension Slighty Mad Studio had been acquired by EA stating at the time that “with the studio’s future now assured”, the time was now right to depart. Right now, Bell is likely feeling vindicated or horrified that he couldn’t change things, given EA’s decision to cease work on the IP. Bell took to Twitter to voice his disgust at EA’s decision-making and what it means for the numbers/people working at Slightly Mad Studio, saying “EA, keeping on being awesome… I said my bit and I stand by every word as they continue to prove them. How are those numbers (sorry I mean people, with hopes, dreams and families) looking, at the bottom of those the spreadsheets?”
As it turns out, Bell has had some nasty run-ins with EA over the years. In a 2017 interview, Bell was asked about Slightly Mad Studio and their previous works with EA IP, including Need For Speed. To the line of questioning, Bell said,
“We had made a game called Need for Speed: Shift, we had made a game called Shift 2, and EA came to me and said, two months into Shift 2, can we give you 1.5 million if you agree not to talk to any other publishers, to agree any other games, or work on any other arrangement with any other publisher, and we’ll give you 1.5 million and we’ll sign Shift 3?
So, I said OK, that sounds like a good deal. I took the 1.5 million, I paid the guys loads of bonuses, and two weeks before we were due to start Shift 3 they cancelled it with no warning. They said ‘we are not doing that anymore’.
They sent emails to three, four, five of our key people. And two of which actually left, because we were in trouble. We had nothing left. We were done. They literally destroyed our company, they tried to kill us, they tried to steal our technology as well.
In closing that section of the interview, Bell placed a bow on his thoughts, saying
Those guys are arseholes. We have no respect for EA. I’ll never do a deal with them again, no respect for them, they’re horrible human beings, they’re corporate monsters.
It’s fair to assume that with this news, Bell’s thoughts of EA will not be changing for the better.
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