Codemasters Acquires Slightly Mad Studios, Teases 'Unannounced Hollywood Blockbuster' Title
Codemasters has announced today that the publisher has acquired Project CARS and Need for Speed SHIFT developer Slightly Mad Studios, adding the Project CARS franchise to their critically-acclaimed portfolio of racing IPs including GRID, DiRT and Formula 1.
Previously an independent studio who worked with EA on the Need for Speed SHIFT titles and crowdfunded the Project CARS series with publishing help from Bandai Namco, Slightly Mad Studios is now joining the umbrella of developers at Codemasters.
Future Project CARS games, including Project CARS 3 and mobile outing Project CARS Go , are now owned and will be published by Codemasters.
“We are delighted to bring such an incredible racing game developer to the Codemasters family, and this unequivocally establishes us as a global powerhouse in the development of racing titles.
We share the same passion and vision and our new partnership will accelerate our growth. With more streaming services coming to market and the next generation of games consoles due in 2020, this is the perfect time for Codemasters to take its next step.”- Frank Sagnier, Chief Executive Officer at Codemasters
The press release makes mention that the developer is currently working on “an unannounced Hollywood blockbuster title” which has been rumored to be a Fast & Furious title. Back in 2017, Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell slipped out when discussing Need for Speed Payback and its similarities to Fast & Furious that the studio seemingly has a six-year deal with Universal to produce Fast & Furious games.
Adding to these Fast & Furious rumours is the addition of Paul Rustchynsky joining Slightly Mad Studios in August 2018 as Game Director on a new project. Rustchynsky has a pedigree in arcade racing titles, famously known for the Motorstorm and DRIVECLUB series, however Slightly Mad Studios' pedigree are in simulation racing games.
Could this potential Fast & Furious title from Slightly Mad be a hybrid arcade-sim type game similar to DRIVECLUB? Guess we’ll have to wait and see what Rustchynsky and his team have cooking behind the scenes.
[Source: Slightly Mad Studios]