In a turn-up for the books, former Slightly Mad Studios chief Ian Bell has taken to Twitter to announce a brand-new sim racing title – GTR Revival.
“Decided to make the follow-up to GTR 2 with the original team,” posted the erstwhile Project CARS franchise creator.
“Myself, Stephen Viljoen, Andy Garton, Stephen Baysted, Henrik Roos, Johan Roos, Vik Klomiets everyone of note who made GTR 2 what it was.”
For some context, the original GTR was an official game of the then FIA GT Championship and released as a simulation-focused title for PC in 2004 created by SimBin.
Then, a cooperation between SimBin and Bell’s Blimey Games! was founded, where they released a classic-car spin-off entitled GT Legends in 2005 and a lauded sequel, GTR 2, in 2006.
However, the team then split, with Ian Bell creating the Slightly Mad Studios team to develop Need for Speed: Shift, Shift 2: Unleashed and Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends. It then crowdfunded the initial Project CARS in 2015.
The other part of the GTR team, still called SimBin, went on to create Race – The Official WTCC game in 2006, followed by Race 07 before ultimately moving on to become Sector3 Studios to create RaceRoom Racing Experience – now owned by the suspension company KW and entitled KW Studios.
To confuses things further, in 2017 a studio called SimBim UK was founded and released work-in-progress images of a new racing game: GTR 3. However, this is yet to materialise, and last year, all social media and community aspects were shuttered.
It seems part of the original Blimey Games! team have now taken matters into its own hands, and announced GTR Revival.
This follows a purchase of SMS by Codemasters in 2019, which in turn was then purchased by Electronic Arts in February 2021 for $1.2 billion.
After a handover period, Ian Bell then left the company in October, stating that Project CARS 4 still exists and could be ‘awesome’.
With Bell’s non-compete with EA now seemingly fulfilled, part of the original GTR2 team is working together again for Bell’s new Mildly Annoyed Games to create GTR Revival with “zero publisher input.”
“Hardcore, balls to the wall, no compromise,” said Bell.
In March of this year, he tweeted: “Imagine RF2 physics, tweaked in an Unreal 5 world… I do. Dreams can come true.”
In reference to rFactor 2’s tyre model and the visual prowess of Unreal Engine. We certainly hope this is what GTR Revival is aiming for. No in-game images or release date have been revealed, but we expect this to be in the nascent stages, especially judging by the Adobe Stock nature of the logo reveal.
Another sim racing platform? Count us in.
Source: Ian Bell
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