Project Cars and Project Cars 2 will be pulled from sale in the coming months due to expiring car and track licenses.
Developer Slightly Mad Studios said Project Cars 2 will be delisted on September 21, 2022, before the original title is yanked from shelves on October 3, 2022.
The studio reassured players that both titles will remain fully playable, with all features — including multiplayer — being preserved following the delisting.
“We remain focused on making the best sim racing titles, and as mentioned previously, we look forward to sharing more on the next Slightly Mad project when the time is right,” said the company on Twitter.
Project Cars launched in 2015, two years before it was followed up with a sequel in the form of Project Cars 2.
The racing franchise has evolved significantly since then, with Project Cars 3 veering away from the simulation gameplay of its predecessors into arcade racing territory when it rolled off the production line in 2020.
A spin-off title called Project Cars GO was also greenlight by Slightly Mad, which enlisted Gamevil to develop the mobile project. The game, however, was sent to the scrapheap just seven months after it debuted.
Shifting gears
Slightly Mad was acquired by Codemasters for a reported $30 million in November 2019, with the British publisher explaining it wanted to work with the studio on “new racing experiences.”
“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,” commented former Codemasters chief exec Frank Sagnier at the time.
“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.”
Codemasters was eventually purchased by EA for $1.2 billion just two years later, with Sagnier departing the company shortly after the deal was completed.