PC2 Project CARS 2 announced with crowdfunding options

[Alex Franchini]

Slightly Mad Studios has officially announced a sequel to Project Cars today as Project Cars 2 is now official, and the WMD crowdfunding campaign has gone live.

Apparently the first big difference with the first title is that PCars 2 will feature off-road racing, along with Touge and Hillclimb events.

The crowdfunding tool-packs, which you can see on the WMD page, start from 50 British pounds and go all the way to 10,000 pounds.

Here's the shortlist of the PCars 2 features:

• THE LARGEST TRACK ROSTER EVER – 50 unique locations and 200+ courses including ‘loose surface racing’ on dirt, gravel, mud, and snow. All will have dynamic time of day and weather allowing you to play anytime, anywhere

• THE WIDEST VARIETY OF MOTORSPORTS with 8 different disciplines now including Rallycross, Hillclimbs, and Touge. 200+ cars from over 40 different vehicle classes including never-before-seen Concepts and Banned Race Cars

• CO-OP CAREER – Play as the Teammate Driver, Spotter, Driver Swap, or Co-Pilot. More choices, more opportunities, more strategy, greater risks and greater rewards

• SEAMLESSLY CONNECTED – Socialize and compete via Online Track Days, have players from around the world take the place of AI-controlled drivers in your solo play, and get news updates on the Driver Network around you

• PRO ESPORTS RACING – Skill & Behavioural-based matchmaking, create your own Online Racing Leagues, and Live Broadcast and Spectator functionality

• YOUR HOME FOR RACING – Your own personal, customisable Test Track to tune and test your cars. Invite others to showcase your passion for racing and learn race craft and engineering with the Project CARS Academy

Update: First videos already out on YouTube
Update 2: Videos have been removed from YouTube

 

[Yuri]

I read this news article and seriously laughed out loud. Absolutely hilarious.
It is on days like this that I take comfort in the fact that there are still GOOD, honest, developers, such as Reiza Studios. With them you know you'll never get that kind of crap.
Maybe even Codemasters with DiRT Rally can be classified under that category, the way they're going at it.

Reiza keeps their artist buisy by making new free content, now that's what I'm talking about. I'd happily pay more on release if I know the game will be held up to date and fixed

 

[Rivvern]

Thank god i didn't buy PCars 1. I would have felt forced to buy PCars2.
I want to throw my money at a developer caring and supporting their game for a long time.

 

[MrBiscotte]

Yea , i'd rather donate 50£ to Reiza Studios

Yes, me too !!!

 

[Andy Ainsworth]

Thank god i didn't buy PCars 1. I would have felt forced to buy PCars2.
.

I did and I don't!

 

[Karl de-Boorder]

Didn't Marco or someone from AC say that SMS had 140 people working at SMS?So they have already moved a vast majority of staff off their existing faulty product and on to the next?

:/

 

[Yannick Van Broeck]

When I look over at the pCars forum I see so many people defending this decision, it's like many are fine with it

This is beyond me...

 

[ML2166]

I fully understand why......

but it's a shame people cannot actually write what they are genuinely feeling at the state of the current game and what the announcement of the new one does.

Can you imagine how ripe the true language (wanting to be used) behind all these comments really is. Thankfully for MR Bell and the SMS henchmen comments on here are I would suspect very very heavily watered down. Careful you don't drown Mr B.

 

[David Ignjatovic]

This is just about beta testers and unpaid marketing, granted the investors factor in their return, so they'll happily excuse every fault and hype up the new game.

 

[Martin Larsen]

When I look over at the pCars forum I see so many people defending this decision, it's like many are fine with it

This is beyond me...

They proberly are thinking: wow! that game sounds awesome!! But they dont remember sometime ago when people thought the same about another game called...Project Cars..

So I still dont play a proper career because of bugs, the menus are full of ''coming soon'' etc etc and they are working on pCars2? Well, I see somebody learn from EA and want to be the new EA...So I guess it wont be a Project Cars 3 it will be: Project Cars 2018, Project Cars 2019, Project Cars 2020 etc..

 

[Rob Every]

In many ways I admire the balls of the man.

He has literally no shame, you can't argue with that level of ego. To do this to the tens of thousands who backed the original game, at whatever level is simply ignorance of the highest order. (On VR there is now infighting between junior and senior members, nicely done boys)

I do not think I have ever seen anything like it. Has anyone else? Within 2 or 3 months of a games release has the next one been announced and the funding plate ben thrust?

I would never compare them to EA, most EA games I have played work fine, they are patched nicely and considering the price you are paying it is what I expect. Obviously I ahve not played this game so largely my comments re based on others views who I respect. But it does seem a somewhat ridiculously dumb decision.

I am simply staggered, but also have a pinch of admiration for the man, tainted with a rich dislike.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Hell, he might have given EA a new idea; wouldn't be a bit surprised to see EA offering the chance to 'experience' dev builds of Battlefield 5 for $100.

SMS promised a complete sim and instead delivered a screenshot generator with more bugs than features; I would rather buy $80 worth of hammers and smack myself in various body parts with each of them than give a pennies worth of support to Project Marketing Concept 2.

It is bad enough that pumping out a half working, bug filled mess with a years worth of DLC already produced while the team works on a sequel is the norm for AAA console titles; to see members of the sim-racing community actively embracing this way of doing business is sickening.

 

[Martin Larsen]

Hell, he might have given EA a new idea; wouldn't be a bit surprised to see EA offering the chance to 'experience' dev builds of Battlefield 5 for $100.

SMS promised a complete sim and instead delivered a screenshot generator with more bugs than features; I would rather buy $80 worth of hammers and smack myself in various body parts with each of them than give a pennies worth of support to Project Marketing Concept 2.

It is bad enough that pumping out a half working, bug filled mess with a years worth of DLC already produced while the team works on a sequel is the norm for AAA console titles; to see members of the sim-racing community actively embracing this way of doing business is sickening.

Yeah, I have a feeling EA is surprised now, that they have learnd so much they can use for them self in the future..

EA when Project Cars 2 was announced?

 

[Paul Bennett]

Don't have the game and don't think I ever will. As for SMS they have investors so have to pay them back out of profits, but they have clearly got the wrong business model for PC2. Will they patch PC1 in the mean time or just sit back, this could kill crowdfunding for game developers will be interesting to see how this plays out
I'd say PC1 was developed to dominate the console market and to kill off GT & Forza, it was never intended for PC sim-racer.

 

[brooptss]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SH*TTING ME!!!!!!!????!?!?!? I'm gobsmacked, flabbergasted, shocked, disgusted, revolted and 100 other feelings. You filthy cretins SMS!! What a joke, absolute insult. To think I just bought PC a week ago. The game crashed 3 times in one session, the cars feel floaty and arcadeish compared to AC. AC+Kunoz I take back anything remotely bad I've ever said of the game, can really appreciate such a game amidst this crap, so happy to have Assetto Corsa as my main game, they listen to their community, even if updates are a bit slower. SMS = Vermin of the game development world, no better than EA, probably worse, even they don't screw their customers over with a new title a month after release of a over-hyped broken piece of crap. I'm getting a refund right now for Pcars, not a chance will I even look at this trash.

 

[Frank]

The only thing I am wondering is, how are they not running in legal issues with pcars 1 with the investors but do so in 2....

 

[Paolo9876]

Well since Projet CARS 2 will come out soon, I can hold off and enjoy Assetto Corsa and DiRT Rally at the moment, it's not like I don't have enough racing games to justify buying a game like Project CARS 1, especially now that Project CARS 2 is announced.

 

[John Peat]

Someone I know asked the reasonable question of why they were looking for funding for PC2 when PC1 was as-yet unfinished - for that question, they were instantly banned from their forum 'forever'.

I'd ask myself but I was banned from the place for suggesting that they could be a bit nicer to people (that's a first for me - banned for suggesting someone not be a troll)

I knew this would happen tho - SMS have history of delivering under the bar and then blowing-off complaints - they have no PR skills, no people skills, hate saying 'sorry' etc. - must be a blast to work there ;0

Ian Bell himself seems pleased with his 'mid 80s' (review score) game - that says a LOT about the man

 

[John Peat]

The only thing I am wondering is, how are they not running in legal issues with pcars 1 with the investors but do so in 2....

The FSA didn't rule on the last complaint - this is pretty common, they simply didn't see any wrongdoing/no-one lost out, however they didn't close the case either because these things can change/develop and - indeed - they may decide to look again at this.

Some places on the WMD site make it clear it is NOT an investment (selling investment requires a licence in the UK) but then they talk about 'investors' all over the rest of the site...

It's a Kickstarter with built-in pre-order - why they don't just call it that.

Also - why would I want to pay MORE for a game YEARS ahead of release when I know post-release they'll tell me the things I wanted won't be done and that's that??

 

[sniper420]

SPREAD THE WORD
Before voting with your money for Project CARS 2 think of how bad Wii U owners were treated and Remember they also had contribted their money on their version but look what happened.

Lets look back at the history of statements made by Slightly Mad Studio towards Wii U and the lies told. How great it all started to how bad it ended.

April 2013:

"What we´re going to make sure is that the Wii U version is not the worst
one, it won´t be a crappy version. We want people to get the game and
say `Holy s***, that looks amazing"

http://www.nintendolife.com/ne......

December 2013:

"The Wii U is more than capable of providing the core Project CARS
experience. Sure, some super-high-level graphical effects may not be
possible but in comparison it also offers a unique interaction
experience via the GamePad controller, with the second screen
potentially becoming your track map overview, rear-view mirror,
telemetry, or simply mimicking a real race car steering wheel whilst you
use the gyroscope to drive."

http://www.nintendolife.com/ne......

September 2014 :

" I've seen the Wii U version, I've seen it quite regularly. It's got dynamic time of day, weather - it looks phenomenal. And the actual console itself is quite good."

""It's not our job to disappoint those guys, So when we say the Wii U version is delayed in 2015 because we need a little more time, that's all it is. We just want to make sure it's of the same standard of all the other games. To do that, we just need a little more time."

"There is no conspiracy"

http://www.nintendolife.com/ne......

And comes...

May 2015 :

" OK I'll come clean. At the moment we're running at about 23FPS on the WiiU"

"We're awaiting/hoping for more of a hardware announcement at E3..."

(When it was made clear the by Iwata that a New hardware was not coming anytime soon or years for that matter)

Replies made to fans showing dissappointment on the situation.

"Oh please do. We really don't want people like you buying our games."

"You won't hear this elsewhere, but in the industry we call you 'The 2%'. You represent 2% of the purchases but create 98% of the hassle for developers by well, just what you've stated above. Going on channels to tell everyone 'don't buy this game!!' because you have some personal grief."

"Honestly, if your followers are like minded people we could chop a good chunk off of that 2% in one fell swoop. You'd be doing us a great favour.
Bye."

"Yup, and if you need to pass this on, we really dislike Nintendo fans"

http://forum.projectcarsgame.c......

Later the developer went on to clearify how the Wii U version of the game was always a "Maybe"

"It was always 'maybe' as we had no knowledge of the system."

"It (The Game) was changed, by vote of the members, to a PC/Xbox One/PS4 next gen game with still 'maybe Wii U' and Steam OS. The funding, as I said above, was closed long before this.

http://www.nintendolife.com/ne......

To be honest I question if there ever was a Wii U version of Project CARS. All these while the developer didn't show a "single" screenshot of the game, forget about gameplay footages and that they were hoping for a new hardware to be announced at this E3 was the worst posssible idea to play dumb. I think it's safe to assume that the Wii U version of Project CARS is all but cancelled.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

The only thing I am wondering is, how are they not running in legal issues with pcars 1 with the investors but do so in 2....

Because people are not investing in pcars2, they are buying the 'experience' of seeing how a game is made. No profits, or any monies for that matter, will be paid back.