Opinion: Project CARS is back

This opinion piece was originally part of a prior Traxion email newsletter – sign up to receive these early, direct to your inbox, every week.

The Project CARS series of simulation-like driving games inspired a generation. It took a serious driving experience and democratised it by being both crowd-funded and released on consoles.

Developer Slightly Mad Studios hit the zeitgeist, positioning itself as more unforgiving than Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, but still including a single-player career and varied real-world content.

It spawned online leagues, gatherings and esports series – a dedicated Pro version even helped form entire VR simulation experience centres.

The 2017 sequel was undoubtedly the best of the breed, but perhaps focused too much on ice driving and rallycross instead of quashing some of the original’s idiosyncrasies.

All the while, enigmatic (some may say quixotic) Project CARS founder Ian Bell was building a loyal following of devotees eager to defend each move.

Project CARS 3 was the beginning of the end, however. Moving to a more accessible style of game wasn’t a cataclysmic mistake in of itself. But, the spin-off wasn’t billed as a spin-off – Bell revealed recently that one idea was to call it Project CARS Sideways, which would have been preferable in hindsight.

Combine that with the sub-par Project CARS GO mobile game and torrid Fast & Furious Crossroads, it’s little wonder the studio was snapped up by Codemasters.

From there, while working on Project CARS 4, which was touted as “awesome”, Codemasters was sold to Electronic Arts for $1.2 billion, subsuming that work-in-progress simulation and then subsequently cancelling it.

The dream was over.

Or was it?

Bell has dogmatically persevered, forming and funding a new company – Straight4 Studios. In the process, he’s gathered some of the Project CARS and even earlier GTR development team. Then, a deal was struck with the Farming Simulator purveyors, GIANTS, for both graphical and publishing support.

The new game, cheekily entitled Project Motor Racing, is shaping up through a series of classic GT car teasers. Rather excitedly, Traxion is travelling across Europe as you read this to try it for the first time.

While not quite Chariots of Fire, there’s a business backstory here of perseverance and tenacity.

Will it pay off? We’ll let you know soon…

This opinion piece was originally part of a prior Traxion email newsletter – sign up to receive these early, direct to your inbox, every week.