The former CEO of Slightly Mad Studios, Ian Bell, has offered his own critique of the way Electronic Arts has treated its newly acquired Project Cars IP. While the simcade racing series had its ups and downs, with Project Cars 3 being the most heavily criticized of the three titles, the franchise still had a following that is now seemingly going to be left ignored by Electronic Arts.Fans were recently taken aback by Electronic Arts unexpectedly killing off the Project Cars franchise, divesting itself from the IP. ​​​​ Initially posted as an internal announcement that wouldn't immediately get communicated to the media, EA's decision promptly got leaked, with the publisher subsequently being forced to publicly confirm that the franchise is, for all intents and purposes, now dead.Ian Bell had been working on Project Cars since the franchise's infancy, and it seems that he is deeply disappointed with what Electronic Arts has done with the series. After EA acquired Codemasters and all its IPs earlier this year, Project Cars was just one of the many racing titles that came bundled with the purchase, and the decision to axe it isn't sitting well with Bell. In effect, the former Slightly Mad CEO accused EA of looking at the bottom line rather than thinking about the people behind the IP, suggesting that the publisher has made a big mistake.
It may be worth pointing out that Ian Bell has a history with EA, as he accused the publisher of attempting to dismantle his studio by canceling the production of Need for Speed Shift 3, which left the company in dire financial straits, and poaching the developers. In the ensuing fallout of EA's recent cancelation of Project Cars, Ian Bell has reached out to a number of developers who had previously worked on the franchise, asking them to join the team at his new studio MadCoin rather than continue to work for Electronic Arts.
Even though EA has killed the Project Cars franchise, it's worth pointing out that Codemasters also had the rights to the Dirt, Grid, and F1 racing franchises. It appears that all three of these have been more valuable to their new owner than Project Cars, which may have been believed to overlap to some extent with Grid itself. Of course, EA also has Need for Speed in tow, though the arcade racer could hardly be compared to any of the new Codemasters IPs due to differences in content, vehicle handling, and the gameplay loop itself.
Considering all the Codemasters properties now under EA's control, it's not impossible that the publisher is looking to cancel more than just Project Cars. Though any such announcements are yet to be made, it's likely that all three remaining racing games will stay in development for the time being, as there's no immediately apparent overlap present between them anymore.
