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Slightly Mad Studios

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Slightly Mad Studios Ltd.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
PredecessorBlimey! Games
FoundedJanuary 2009; 15 years ago (2009-01)[1]
FounderIan Bell
HeadquartersLondon, England
Products
ParentCodemasters (2019–present)

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

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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

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Year Game Publisher
2009 Need for Speed: Shift Electronic Arts
2011 Shift 2: Unleashed Electronic Arts
2012 Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Rombax Games
2015 Project CARS[10] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2016 Red Bull Air Race: The Game Wing Racers Sports Games
2017 World of Speed Mad Dog Games LLC
2017 Project CARS 2[26] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2020 Fast & Furious Crossroads[27] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2020 Project CARS 3[28] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2021 Project CARS Go Gamevil

References

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  1. ^ "Our Heritage". Slightly Mad Studios. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Wesley Yin-Poole (2 November 2010). "Shift 2 Unleashed announced". Eurogamer.net. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  5. ^ "Shift 2 Unleashed". Needforspeed.com. 16 November 2010. Archived from the original on 7 September 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  6. ^ "Shift 2: Unleashed release date slips a week". CVG. 18 February 2011. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  7. ^ "Rod Chong Appointed Slightly Mad Studios COO". www.gamasutra.com. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Develop 100 – 2010 Edition". Issuu.com. 5 May 2010. Archived from the original on 15 November 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ a b "Announcing Project CARS". wmdportal.com. 11 October 2011. Archived from the original on 13 December 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ The end of Project CARS on ESL Play Archived 20 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine – ESL, 29 October 2018
  14. ^ "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.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ "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.
  17. ^ "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.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ Dealessandri, Marie (8 November 2022). "EA dropping Project CARS". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  25. ^ "Ian Bell Introduces New Development Studio Straight4Games". Bsimracing.com. 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  26. ^ "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.
  27. ^ 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
  28. ^ "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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