RIP Slightly Mad Studios

Slightly Mad Studios were an independent studio with a passion for cars and making games about racing cars , the team are behind racing sims Project Cars 1 and 2 and they also created the best Need For Speed game in my opinion in Need For Speed Shift.

Today I learn that Slightly Mad Studios have been purchased by Codemasters , a company who have a passion for money and uninspiring squeals to the racing games they pump out.

Codemasters' acquisition of SMS will create a global leader in the racing genre. Their focus on AAA quality and the passion that they put into everything they create mirrors our own.

Both companies have a number of world-renowned, successful franchises along with exciting product development pipelines, supported by leading IP and some of the best talent in the gaming industry. The enlarged Codemasters will have greater scale and reach, diversified, predictable revenue streams and the opportunity to bring outstanding entertainment to a far wider audience. We welcome Ian and his team to the Codemasters family and can't wait to start working together to create the future generation of racing franchises.
www.windowscentral.com...

More racing franchises , just what the sim racing world doesn't need.

RIP Slightly Mad Studios.

a reply to: gortex

At this point, I think we're past RIP for studios, and at RIP to the industry.

Slowly but surely, every franchise/studio I've loved have whored out to corporate interest.

Most of the popular games have pay to open crates now, and the trend of "seasons" has spread like cancer. Asking players to pay 10 dollars~ per season, which only lasts a couple of months.

Some will argue, "well it's only aesthetics". But here's the thing. You have to pay for game progression now. Before, people complained of DLC's, and rightfully so, now if you just get a base level game, much of the time there is little way to progress or get anything from the game other than playing it.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

At this point, I think we're past RIP for studios, and at RIP to the industry.

I think that's right as far as triple A studios go , the majority are run by businessmen who would sell crack to their granny if they thought they could make a buck out of it.

Codemasters recent history shows why they needed to acquire some talent but that talent will likely be wasted on Codemasters existing "franchises" and new "mass market IP".

I doubt the long prophesied gaming crash will ever happen while people are willing to buy into the schemes the companies dream up but think it probably needs to happen.

a reply to: gortex

I think that's right as far as triple A studios go , the majority are run by businessmen who would sell crack to their granny if they thought they could make a buck out of it.

Yea... But the growing trend has been the big studios buying out the small guys.

Especially with the console war trying to gain exclusives.

a reply to: gortex

Would Project Cars 3 have made it a franchise?

Anyway, this is a bit of a bummer but we'll see what happens.

I've got to say though, I think the track oriented sim racing world is a little over saturated at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I own just about every sim racing game out there, and I love them, especially online.

But I would honestly like to see more games like The crew (sans the story and all the other fluff), the Forza Horizon series, or Wreckfest (current binge game). But with more emphasis on real physics, and a much larger array of vehicles.

a reply to: gortex

After Cyberpunk, and maybe a handful of other AAA games, I think we're gonna see it.

Steam and other platforms have knocked down the barriers to entry in to the industry. The distribution is taken care of and that is really the biggest factor. As long as there are pissed off gamers there will be independent studios providing an alternative to assholes like EA.

originally posted by: Metallicus
Steam and other platforms have knocked down the barriers to entry in to the industry. The distribution is taken care of and that is really the biggest factor. As long as there are pissed off gamers there will be independent studios providing an alternative to assholes like EA.

I hope you're right.

Sadly, I have a bad taste in my mouth from PUBG. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it was one of my favorites. It basically got crowd funded through beta promising to improve once they got enough revenue. It's still a mediocre functioning game after years and over a billion dollars later.

Power money corrupts, absolute Power money corrupts absolutely (most of the time).

a reply to: CriticalStinker
There used to be a time where you get a full game worth of a full price.

Battlefield 5 for example , They could not wait to release cosmetic skins but do not even put in stuff like auto-balance.

The tides have shifted between offering a experience for people who enjoy playing the product versus outright money making.

Even now when the "platform wars " are over and most games are being ported over more and more.
Should be more then enough money to be made.

I know Rockstar gets a lot of heat for being a money making triple a company too , But atleast they have free content for both the GTA 5 and RDR 2 online games.

Think they have a nice balance between you buying the game once and them releasing regular free content to keep you interested.

They overdid it with all the SCI FI vehicles on GTA 5 , but can't wait what they add in RDR 2 online in the future.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
a reply to: gortex

After Cyberpunk, and maybe a handful of other AAA games, I think we're gonna see it.

I think Cyberpunk will be alright , i have faith in CD PROJEKT RED , they delivered before.

a reply to: TheGreazel

Rockstar is probably one of the few mega studios who still haven't completely sold out.

But then again, they don't put out a game from each franchise every year or even two. They still follow a quality>quantity model.

For the most part, everything in the games can be earned through game play.

Like anything it's always easy for people to say "this band, movie, actor, studio sold out"

Reality for the people on the inside is much different just like the game industry itself is much different.

Content simply isn't delivered the same anymore so it's changed the way studios do things.

Nothing I say or do is going to change anyone's opinion any and TBH I'm not trying to do that because in life you can't make everyone happy.

I'm glad to see that people are still passionate about games as it's an important form of entertainment.

a reply to: gortex

Oh wow, thanks for the heads up.
I was looking forward to Pcars 3, but I suspect now it might not be as good as I was thinking it might be.

Automobilista 2 (which is due in March 2020) is using the Project Cars 2 game engine, updated and with a more realistic slant to it (www.dsogaming.com...) - so it might be a case of focusing on that in future, if you want a fix of Project Cars style racing.

Personally I've recently gone back to rFactor 2 a bit (although I'm still playing Pcars 2 a bit) and really appreciate it more now than ever. It's still being developed and updated, both in terms of the core game and content from Studio 397 and 3rd party content. There are significant updates coming to both the user interface and the online components of the core game in the near future too, which should improve both of those.

Personally the GT3 cars bore me, but this recent comparison of the Nurburgring in rF 2 should give you the idea if you're curious:


Assetto Corsa doesn't really do much for me - although it's more a case of lots of small things adding up to a game I don't really like as much as other racing sim's, rather than it being inherently bad - and lots of other people seem to love it.

Interesting times in the Sim racing world

a reply to: muzj03

Got my eye on Automobilista 2 , Reiza released this a couple of days ago.


I was hoping ACC would be my new go to racer but sadly not , hopefully Automobilista 2 will scratch the itch.

a reply to: gortex

Yep, agreed that does look pretty damn awesome. I'm looking forward to driving that game and testing it out.

rFactor 2 is still my benchmark for open wheelers, but we'll see how Automobilista 2 pans out when it's released. I'm not into pre-ordering anything, so I'll wait until release day, watch some video reviews and make a properly informed choice before I buy it.

eg - this rF 2 mod (ASR Formula's 1991 F1 mod - but I highly recommend all of ASR's work) is top notch and super fun (and free if you own the game):


...and for pure edge of the seat stuff, white knuckle driving there's not much scarier than the old 1986 F1 cars:



...note that the game engine has has major updates since the start of this year, especially in terms of lighting, particle effects and other graphical tweaks, so those videos don't really do it justice anymore.

The gaming industry as whole is an odd thing. Much like film or music genres, people take an idea an run it into the ground with over saturation. Gamers themselves are fickle crowd. Internet feedback has to be filtered to developers due to trolling and over exuberance “the what if this random trash item was secretly a nuke” crowd, that become upset over the item still remaining random trash. They go hand in hand with “the nerf this ultra rare drop” crowd when there was a .001% chance of drop.

Independent versus corporate was always a thing and Steam did help level the playing field. Especially with buy-in beta trials to raise capital to buy artists, writers, coders, voice over, music, etc. But sometimes you are left with something like DayZ that spent years in beta (and made some good money) only to be released as a “I’m done with it” sort of way, that is still just a sandbox with a mod list a mile and a half long. And oh by the way, for $10 you can buy a smaller world setting that increases odds of running into other players.

Which the above puts me in the over zealous crowd. But maybe because I floated an ideal for a survival game eight years or so ago that has since became a genre and still no one has hit it out of the park blending mechanics, storyline and character progression that I know of.

a reply to: gortex

More racing franchises , just what the sim racing world doesn't need.

But as feared seems to be what we have got , PC3 has been dumbed down to compete with Forza and Gran Turismo , more style over substance


RIP Slightly Mad Studios , just another of many.