#racing #games #coming #Electronic #Arts #including #Project #Cars
Last week, the giant Electronic Arts was a central player in video game news with the revelation of the financial results for the year 2021 and, in particular, the exchange of new information about its games in development. With the passage of Codemasters under the leadership of EA, the American group has considerably strengthened its capabilities for the development of racing licenses and this is explained by Tom Henderson in a new paper.
Here are the six racing licenses in development at EA
It is through a new article published on Exputer that Tom Henderson, the famous journalist and insider, has detailed the upcoming racing games that are currently in EA’s pipelines. With the acquisition of Codemasters for $1.2 billion in January 2021, Electronic Arts has acquired a legendary studio in the history of racing games, in particular thanks to the legendary licenses that are TOCA (now Grid), Colin McRae Rally ( now DiRT) or even F1. .
project cars 4
In his article, Tom Henderson first explains that Project Cars 4 is in development even though no official announcement has been made to date. It was the ex-CEO of Slightly Mad Studio, Ian Bell, who gave a very explicit clue about the possible development of a fourth work.
Tom Henderson’s sources within EA have also confirmed the thing as well as the name of the title to be simply called “Project Cars 4”. Very little information is known so far, but the title should return to its roots with a hardcore racing simulation formula reserved for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC for a possible release around 2024.
world rally championship
In a second step, it is the DiRT license that is addressed. The release of a third installment of DiRT Rally was shelved last year after Codemasters obtained the rights to exploit the World Rally Championship, the WRC. Again, few concrete details, but Tom Henderson has been told by sources that this license will launch annually with a deal running from 2023 to 2027. It’s easy to imagine a model modeled after that of the F1 license with the WRC. This new game will use the Unreal Engine with a first release scheduled for the end of the current fiscal year, ending April 1, 2023. Also note that a mobile adaptation would be considered.
F1 2022 and F1 2023
The Codemasters F1 license has seen a real explosion in terms of interest and popularity among the general public in recent years. Each work is eagerly awaited by an assiduous and passionate community. On July 1, F1 2022 will be the first episode to be released under the auspices of Electronic Arts with new features like cross-play, F1 LIFE mode and even supercars. As for F1 2023, it would already be in development at Codemasters. It would offer a real technological breakthrough fully utilizing the capabilities of the 9th generation consoles, a redesign of the game engines, and also an extension of the F1 LIFE mode called F1 WORLD.
need for speed
Criterion Games was unable to work in the best conditions on the next installment of Need for Speed as the studio had to help with the development of Battlefield 2042. Therefore, the new Need for Speed has been delayed to 2022 and the title should come. between next October and December. However, the Codemasters Cheshire teams, which were initially supposed to provide some support to Criterion Games, are now working fully with the studio on the development of upcoming licensed games, including this year’s. Tom Henderson also informs us of the existence of a car encounter based game project at Codemasters Cheshire, again according to insider sources.
need for mobile speed
The mobile gaming industry is central to many very large studios and Electronic Arts is no exception to the rule. A Need for Speed Mobile was leaked this week showing a map based on the one in Need for Speed Heat. The title would be a fully multiplayer open world racing game playable on mobile devices, but without a story. Tom Henderson specifies that this choice would herald many microtransactions.
As for GRID and Burnout, Tom Henderson has not passed on any new information. The recent flop of GRID Legends will force Codemasters and EA to step back from the license and proposed formula while Burnout’s return could be considered, but not for quite some time. By then, the publisher could look into remasters, but nothing is certain on that side and public feedback could be more than mixed. In any case, racing games still have a bright future ahead of them and Electronic Arts now has a larger team than ever before.