Racing publisher Codemasters has picked up Project Cars developer Slightly Mad Studios in a £23 million/$30 million deal that will see the entire 150-person studio join the company.
Codemasters has been developing and publishing games for more than 30 years and continues to churn out racers, from the annual F1 series to the off-road Dirt Rally 2.0. Slightly Mad Studios, meanwhile, released its first game, Need for Speed: Shift in 2009, eventually starting its own racing series, Project Cars, in 2015.
Its last game, Project Cars 2, is the "apex of apex-hitting sims," according to Phil Iwaniuk's Project Cars 2 review, "but leaves casuals behind." Though it might take racing so seriously that it puts off novice racers, Phil still found it a very convincing sim and gave it an 89.
The deal includes Project Cars and an "unannounced Hollywood blockbuster," according to the announcement. Slightly Mad Studios was already working on the third Project Cars game and is also developing a mobile spin-off, Project Cars Go.
The biggest racing publisher acquiring one of the best racing developers around sounds like pretty good news, especially if it means more Project Cars. The Hollywood blockbuster is likely Fast & Furious, which CEO Ian Bell teased in a livestream with SpotTheOzzie.
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