EA Kills Project CARS As Part Of 'An Update To Our Racing Portfolio'

Wow. Wonder if racing games (or interest in them) is starting to decline?

For the better. The third one was an embarrassment to the brand. Clearly the top guys at SMS know no better. It doesn't change much for the employees because they are going to get moved to Codemasters' various studios

Disappointing but unsurprising.

Project Cars 3 tried to move into the arcade racer market and failed (imo). EA have a long successful franchise with Need for Speed that has that side already pretty much locked down for them. So such a failure wasn't ever going to end well for the franchise.

Personally I think they should have stuck to the sim racing side. That market on console is pretty much just ACC atm.

I think it would have given them more room to grow on what was a decent foundation with pc 1 & 2.

Importantly sim racing is not an area EA have any real foothold on so this may have given them some breathing space to grow that side of the racing genre.

Sadder at the possibility of losing the Dirt franchise. Really liked those games. Dirt 5 took a more arcade direction but still loved it.

EA always does this. If you want your product to survive, be it indie or not, don't sell to EA. They will destroy you.

I mean, didn't we all know this was coming the moment EA bought Codemasters? I personally poured one out for the studio the second I heard the news.

It's a damn good thing that Microsoft has the Forza franchise and that Sony has.... Gran Turismo..... because if not EA would essentially own a racing monopoly on consoles.

Need For Speed, Dirt, F1, GRID, Burnout, Project CARS.. all under one roof, and we know EA isn't about comeptition, they buy up competing franchises just to kill them off. We all know we'll never see another Burnout, and we just saw whatever the **** they turned NFS into.

I don't think they'll outright "kill" Grid, but I'm not holding my breath on seeing anything else from that series any time soon.

@Kaloudz I don’t think so but EA bought up codemasters which basically gave them slightly mad who made project cars. Because of this purchase they also have NFS, Burnout, Grid, Dirt and F1. They can’t keep all of them active (Burnout is effectively dead at this point too) and PC it seemed like the obvious choice to can.

@Kaloudz i don’t think so. I’m not a fan of simulation racers but there’s a market out there for them. If anything licensing is likely an issue when creating these games. I’ve never been fussed by real cars in games but it’s likely an appeal and expensive.

EA turning everything they touch to DiRT

@Kaloudz Not remotely. Racing games are arguably doing better than ever, partly thanks to Forza Horizon 4 and 5 which were/are huge games.

It's more that Project Cars isn't necessary given their overall racing library of stuff that's pretty much hardcore sim like Dirt Rally, all the way too casual arcade style racers like Need For Speed. Project Cars occupied an awkward middle ground and the third one was not very well liked etc.

It's no surprise they stated they are more concentrating on open world experiences, again mainly because of Forza kind of setting the bar for open world racers and being quite so popular.

I just hope they keep the Dirt series, it's the best Rally series ever, by a country mile.

@Kaloudz I wouldn't think so. In fact, I know that during the pandemic, [sim] racing saw a big boom. I think Project CARS found itself in a stiff market, having to go up against similar titles that are equal to if not better than it is (Gran Turismo 7 on PS; Forza Motorsport on Xbox/PC; and also the Assetto Corsa series). "Dirt" may have been only had a smaller segment of the racing community (arcade rallying). Dirt Rally on the other hand is beloved by sim-racing/rallying enthusiasts --- and I for one am just happy that EA did not kill that off ...

@eagletrippin @Raffles @ParsnipHero @elpardo1984

So, based on all your comments, you'd say this was more about EA trimming down on their racing game portfolio to (trying to get the words right here) prioritize what they think has more longevity, as well as popularity?

As for Dirt, I thought I read somewhere today that that is also on the chopping block.

@Kaloudz yea, I think so.

@EVIL-C This. What I have always known EA for is buying studios that made games that I loved, only to cancel everything and shut them down. They are simply the worst, and everything they make these days is awful.

@Kaloudz Absolutely yeah, it's pretty much exactly what you just said. In the case of Project Cars, it does make sense tbh. If I were in charge of EA I would probably do the same thing.

As for Dirt? That would be horrendous if they canned Dirt. OK even if they are taking over WRC it kind of makes sense, as they would essentially be competing against themselves and simultaneously spreading themselves thin.

However even if Codies develops WRC, I can't imagine it ever being as good as the Dirt series, as ultimately they won't have as much freedom to make it as they see fit.

Also to put it simply, Dirt Rally 2 is better than every WRC game put together.

@Raffles Yeah I'm sure I read today over on Push Square that they're canning both Project CARS and DiRT, the latter is supposed to be turned into the next WRC game.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/11/ea-reportedly-writes-off-project-cars-dirt-franchises

I think you're absolutely right. I'm not the biggest fan of racing games myself. I think the closest I've ever enjoyed to a sim game is Forza Motorsport. I tend to lose interest when it comes to those sorts of sim games that get that hyper realistic that the game becomes far too hard for casuals like myself - Project CARS being a prime example of that.

I've enjoyed DiRT in the past though. I certainly struggled with Really, but I remember enjoying it all the same. Though, as alluded to above, I lean more heavily on having my hand held in these sorts of games 🤣

Forza Motorsport is comfortable I think. The only place I tend to struggle in those games is with the DIY your own vehicles. I usually just download someone else's hard work 😅 I don't drive in real like due to my seizures, so I don't know the foggiest about cars you see. Hence the lazy route haha.

Very interesting comments. So the best rally game would be Dirt Rally 2?

If true, I’m gutted for Dirt. The more arcadey thrills of 5 were superb.

We need a rally sim and a rally arcade IMHO. SEGA rally / dirt for arcade and WRC for sim.

I can see why though. Codies can’t spread themselves too thin and Forza has the driving scene sown up.

@Kaloudz yeah pretty much, not necessarily a good thing as it limits the number of games we get. But then Forza provides so much of my racing needs I find I don’t play them even when they’re on gamepass.

@elpardo1984 Oh god I'm with you there. I suck at racing games but the collision physics on FM make my day. I love 'em.