Project CARS 3 To Be The Spiritual Successor To Need For Speed Shift

Now and then, Slightly Mad Studios’ CEO, Ian Bell does browse the forums over at www.gtplanet.net. Not so long ago, Mr. Bell posted a comment on their forum in which he confirmed that Slightly Mad Studios are planning, or already developing a new Project CARS title.

This week he revealed some more inside info hinting that Project CARS 3 will be the spiritual successor to the Need For Speed Shift title, released back in 2009. This might shatter the hopes and dreams of Project CARS fans who were expecting a fully fletched sim racing project as the follow- up to Pcars2. However, from a commercial point of view, going for a wider audience by developing a career-based console race game makes sense, as it would target a much bigger market.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with a good and fun semi-arcade racing title, some might call this a missed opportunity, as the in-house Slightly Mad Studios Mad engine is surely capable of delivering a hardcore simulation. Currently, Slightly Mad Studios is proving that point, as they are also using the said engine for the upcoming Project CARS Pro title which will be an automotive industry exclusive product.

Ian Bell said: I’ll let you know that pCARS3 will be more ‘focused’… More ‘fun’… We went to insane lengths with variation in pCARS2 and with that comes infinite balancing issues. We’ve learned a lesson here and although we have no intention of reducing content, we know what we need to fix, where we made design decisions that were, let’s call it, ‘sub-optimal…

pCARS3 will be more of a spiritual successor to Shift, but with all of the sim goodness , everyone appreciates… The key focus though is on fun and not biting off more than we can properly chew and digest.”

We will keep you posted when more info becomes available.