British video game company
Slightly Mad Studios Ltd.
was a British
video game developer
based in
London
. Founded in 2009, it was best known for the
Project CARS
series of
racing games
that it developed from 2015 until the series' discontinuation in 2022.
Codemasters
acquired Slightly Mad Studios in 2019 and was itself acquired by
Electronic Arts
in 2021.
History
[
edit
]
On 12 January 2009, Ian Bell acquired the business and assets of
Blimey! Games
from bankrupt parent 10tacle Studios.
[2]
In September 2009, Slightly Mad Studios released
Need for Speed: Shift
with
Electronic Arts
.
[3]
Its sequel
Shift 2: Unleashed
was announced in November 2010 and released in March 2011.
[4]
[5]
[6]
The company uses a distributed development structure, with developers living across the world and working remotely.
[7]
Slightly Mad was ranked as the 17th most successful developer in the Develop 100 list for 2010.
[8]
In 2012, the company released
Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends
, which focuses on
Ferrari
's history across Formula One, rallying and sports cars.
[9]
In 2015, Slightly Mad launched
Project CARS
, a community-developed racing simulator.
[10]
In 2017, Slightly Mad Studios released the sequel
Project CARS 2
.
[11]
This title was developed using community-based development, pre-alpha testing, and funding, in an attempt to bypass normal publishing costs. This was the first title of a series of similarly-developed games.
[
citation needed
]
Project CARS
was featured in
professional videogaming
competitions by the
ESL
from 2015 to 2018.
[12]
[13]
On 2 January 2019, CEO and founder of Slightly Mad Studios, Ian Bell, announced via
Twitter
that the company would be creating its own
video game console
, which would have been called Mad Box. Bell claimed that the console would be "the most powerful console ever built", saying that it would be capable of running games at
4K resolution
, at up to 120
FPS
, and will support most major
virtual reality
headsets at 60 FPS per eye. It's considered that the console should be equivalent to a "very fast PC 2 years from now". The company estimated that the console would be released in 2022. In addition to their console, Bell announced that the company would give developers free access to its proprietary
game engine
to develop games for their console. The company does not currently intend to have exclusive titles for their console.
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
On 25 May 2019, it was announced that upcoming racing title
Automobilista 2
developed by Reiza Studios will be using the Madness engine developed by Slightly Mad Studios and used for
Project CARS 2
, then the game has released a year later, at the end of June.
[18]
Slightly Mad Studios was acquired by
Codemasters
in November 2019 for about
US$30 million
. This includes the rights to the
Project CARS
series and a yet-unannounced game.
[19]
On 28 August 2020 Slightly Mad Studios released
Project CARS 3
,
[20]
three weeks after the publisher launched
Fast & Furious Crossroads
.
In February 2021, Codemasters was, in turn, acquired by Electronic Arts.
[21]
Slightly Mad Studios developed a
free-to-play
mobile
Project CARS
game,
Project CARS Go
, which was released by Gamevil in March 2021. The game was withdrawn from sale in October that year, followed by the shutdown of its services in November.
[22]
Also in October, Bell left the studio.
[23]
Under Electronic Arts,
Project CARS
and
Project CARS 2
were removed from sale in 2022 as licenses for tracks and cars expired. On 8 November 2022, the publisher announced that it would discontinue the
Project CARS
series and move affected Slightly Mad Studios staff to other projects.
[24]
Bell offered to hire affected employees under his new company, Straight4 (before rebrand as Mildly Annoyed Games).
[23]
[25]
Games
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Our Heritage"
. Slightly Mad Studios.
Archived
from the original on 28 November 2019
. Retrieved
16 December
2022
.
- ^
"Blimey! goes Slightly Mad | Game Development | News by Develop"
. Develop-online.net. 12 January 2009. Archived from
the original
on 6 October 2009
. Retrieved
30 November
2010
.
- ^
Crossley, Rob (23 March 2009).
"EA Dates Need For Speed Shift Release | Edge Magazine"
. Next-gen.biz. Archived from
the original
on 11 September 2012
. Retrieved
30 November
2010
.
- ^
Wesley Yin-Poole (2 November 2010).
"Shift 2 Unleashed announced"
. Eurogamer.net.
Archived
from the original on 19 November 2010
. Retrieved
17 November
2010
.
- ^
"Shift 2 Unleashed"
. Needforspeed.com. 16 November 2010.
Archived
from the original on 7 September 2012
. Retrieved
27 December
2010
.
- ^
"Shift 2: Unleashed release date slips a week"
. CVG. 18 February 2011. Archived from
the original
on 3 October 2011
. Retrieved
26 March
2011
.
- ^
"Rod Chong Appointed Slightly Mad Studios COO"
.
www.gamasutra.com
.
Archived
from the original on 23 March 2019
. Retrieved
23 March
2019
.
- ^
"Develop 100 ? 2010 Edition"
. Issuu.com. 5 May 2010.
Archived
from the original on 15 November 2010
. Retrieved
30 November
2010
.
- ^
Meunier, Nathan (3 July 2012).
"Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Review"
.
IGN
.
News Corporation
.
Archived
from the original on 7 March 2017
. Retrieved
11 July
2012
.
- ^
a
b
"Announcing Project CARS"
. wmdportal.com. 11 October 2011.
Archived
from the original on 13 December 2011
. Retrieved
5 December
2011
.
- ^
"Racy: Ex-Stig And The Crowd-Sourcing Portal"
.
Rock Paper Shotgun
. 11 October 2011.
Archived
from the original on 1 December 2011
. Retrieved
5 December
2011
.
- ^
Slightly Mad Studios and ESL partner to make Project CARS an official eSport game
Archived
20 March 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
? AR12Gaming, 9 September 2015
- ^
The end of Project CARS on ESL Play
Archived
20 March 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
? ESL, 29 October 2018
- ^
"Slightly Mad Studios' CEO Reveals Details on New Console (EXCLUSIVE)"
.
Variety
. 2 January 2019.
Archived
from the original on 2 January 2019
. Retrieved
3 January
2019
.
- ^
"PS5 vs Xbox Two console war shaken up by shock Mad Box reveal"
.
TrustedReviews
. 3 January 2019.
Archived
from the original on 3 January 2019
. Retrieved
3 January
2019
.
- ^
"CEO of Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios teases new console on Twitter"
.
Polygon
. 2 January 2019.
Archived
from the original on 3 January 2019
. Retrieved
3 January
2019
.
- ^
"Mad Box: a gaming console that wants to take on Xbox and PlayStation"
.
TechRadar
. 3 January 2019.
Archived
from the original on 3 January 2019
. Retrieved
3 January
2019
.
- ^
Papadopoulos, John (25 May 2019).
"Automobilista 2 will be powered by the Project CARS 2 MADNESS Engine, releases in December 2019"
.
Archived
from the original on 25 May 2019
. Retrieved
25 May
2019
.
- ^
McWhertor, Michael (28 November 2019).
"Codemasters acquires Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios"
.
Polygon
.
Archived
from the original on 28 November 2019
. Retrieved
28 November
2019
.
- ^
Penzhorn, Sascha (28 August 2020).
"Project Cars 3 im PC-Test: Krasser Spurwechsel"
.
GameStar
(in German).
Archived
from the original on 22 September 2022
. Retrieved
12 September
2022
.
- ^
Robinson, Andy (18 February 2021).
"EA has officially completed its purchase of Codemasters"
.
Video Games Chronicle
.
Archived
from the original on 18 February 2021
. Retrieved
18 February
2021
.
- ^
Nelson, Jared (29 October 2021).
"
'Project Cars GO' Shutting Down Just 7 Months After Launch"
.
TouchArcade
.
Archived
from the original on 8 November 2022
. Retrieved
9 November
2022
.
- ^
a
b
Gould-Wilson, Jasmine (9 November 2022).
"Studio founder blasts EA after it cancels award-winning racing game series"
.
TechRadar
.
Archived
from the original on 14 November 2022
. Retrieved
14 November
2022
.
- ^
Dealessandri, Marie (8 November 2022).
"EA dropping Project CARS"
.
GamesIndustry.biz
.
Archived
from the original on 8 November 2022
. Retrieved
9 November
2022
.
- ^
"Ian Bell Introduces New Development Studio Straight4Games"
.
Bsimracing.com
. 30 November 2022
. Retrieved
30 November
2022
.
- ^
"Project Cars 2 is racing to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in late 2017"
. venturebeat.com. 8 February 2017.
Archived
from the original on 9 February 2017
. Retrieved
8 February
2017
.
- ^
Project CARS maker Slightly Mad working on Fast and Furious game
Archived
20 March 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
? PC Games Insider, 13 December 2019
- ^
"Project CARS 3 Will Be a 'Spiritual Successor to Shift'
"
. gtplanet.net. 31 December 2018.
Archived
from the original on 3 January 2019
. Retrieved
4 January
2019
.
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