Electronic Arts is officially ending the Project CARS franchise. The racing series has been around since 2015, and was acquired by the company as part of its purchase of Codemasters back in 2021. The series was developed by Slightly Mad Studios. In a statement provided to GamesIndustry.biz, EA confirmed the end of the series, while also indicating that the publisher would try to move staff “into suitable roles across our EA Sports and racing portfolio.” As of this writing, it’s unclear exactly how many staffers will be impacted as a result of the decision.ย
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“Decisions like these are very hard, but allow us to prioritise ourfocus in areas where we believe we have the strongest opportunity tocreate experiences that fans will love. We are focusing on our strengthsin our racing portfolio, particularly licensed IP and open-worldexperiences, and expanding our franchises to be more socially-led withlong-term live services that will engage global communities,” the statement reads. “Games areat the heart of sports and racing entertainment, and with shifting fanexpectations, we recognise the need to evolve our games beyond pureplay, providing experiences for fans to also watch, create and connectwith their friends.”
From the statement, it sounds like EA simply had too many racing franchises to manage. While the death of Project CARS is sure to disappoint some fans, it makes much more sense for EA to consolidate its racing releases to make sure that the quality does not suffer. Hopefully, EA will make good on its word and move these employees into roles that make sense.
It’s worth noting that no entries in the Project CARS franchise were actually published by EA. Four games were released in total, with three numbered entries released between 2015 and 2020 on PC, as well as PlayStation and Xbox platforms. All three of those games were published by Bandai Namco. Last year also saw the release of Project CARS GO on mobile devices.
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