Games Industry Biz is reporting that EA has decided to drop any further development on the Project CARS franchise. The Slightly Mad Studios project was acquired by Codemasters in 2019, and subsequently absorbed into EA through their acquisition of Codemasters a couple of years later.
In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, an EA spokesperson said: "Today we announced internally an update to our racing portfolio. Following an evaluation of the next Project CARS title and its longer-term growth potential, we have made the decision to stop further development and investment for the franchise.
With Project CARS and PC2 both already delisted due to expiring vehicle and brand licences, it can’t be long before PC3 follows them. Stupidly (#ThanksEA) PC3 is still listed at its full price, as are all its multitude of DLC. R2000-odd to add the worst of the three titles (it’s rated 54% on Steam) and DLC to your library. A title that hasn’t been updated in any way for going on 2 years? Yeah, nah. If you’re the weird completionist collector like me, wait until it goes on steep sale again and grab it for R250. But only if you have OCD-issues. It’s genuinely not a game you’ll play.
Additionally, there’s suggestion from Insider Gaming that the DiRT franchise has also been shelved in favour of Codemasters/EA taking over the WRC games license from 2023.
That one’s been expected for a while though, rumours of DiRT Rally 3 notwithstanding. I expect to see Dirt Rally 2.0’s league and club system start to collapse (a little like the original games’ did) and ultimately, EA will pull the plug on the crossplay league tables and leaderboards too.