Don't expect a new Project Gotham Racing game any time soon
"I don't think we would ever have three console racing franchises."
Don't expect a new Project Gotham Racing game any time soon.
Rumours have swirled for some time now that Microsoft was planning a new entry in the racing game series, created by Bizarre Creations, for Xbox One. But, according to Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer, there's nothing PGR-related in the works - and it sounds like there won't be anything PGR-related in the works for quite some time.
"Maybe," he said on an IGN podcast when asked if PGR was part of Xbox One's future.
"The Kudos system we had in PGR was the real secret sauce. That was the thing people really loved. It had a great feel. It was there at launch, which I think was important, for both the original Xbox and Xbox 360.
"It's funny. I was playing the new Need for Speed on Xbox One the other day. That team and EA are doing an amazing job. The next game looks fantastic in that arcade racer space.
"Some of the rumours around PGR were probably us working on Forza Horizon with Playground, and people were guessing it was a PGR game."
Project Gotham Racing was an Xbox launch title. Its sequel, Project Gotham Racing 2, launched on Xbox in 2003. The third game in the series was an Xbox 360 launch title. The last proper game in the series was 2007 Xbox 360 title Project Gotham Racing 4. Since then, nothing.
Now, with Bizarre Creations no more, Playground's superb Forza Horizon established and Turn 10's Forza 5 due out alongside the Xbox One, it seems there's little hope for a return to PGR.
"We talk," Spencer said. "Alan Hartman [Turn 10 studio manager] and I talk about PGR. We're full in the racing space right now when we think about our franchises.
"But I know there is a lot of love for that franchise out there, and it would be interesting to think about what we could do. I don't think we would ever have three console racing franchises. That seems like a lot for a first-party, with Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport."
Then, the merest hint of a tease:
"Forza Horizon is not PGR from an arcade style, but it's not me sitting on a circuit running lap after lap," Spencer said. "It's more of an open world. There's maybe an opportunity for us to look at some of the stuff that worked in PGR and think about how to..."
Images courtesy of Cover Galaxy.