The end of an era...

[RyokoMaruyama]

This gets more and more questionable by the second. This was clearly not done in good faith.

[Konan]

It came pretty much out of the blue for the staff as well...

[Mahjik]

It's very strange to me that PCARS1 and 2 got delisted so close to each other, when other games that get delisted due to licensing go down with a year or two of space. What's more strange was that apparently PCARS1 was up on the Steam store until yesterday.

All of this is really fishy, and Ian Bell probably had no idea that this would happen to the extent that it did. Perhaps it was a threat to comply to the live service model that Skate and The Sims did?

Also, it would be nice if anyone uploaded the WMD builds for 1 and 2 just for archive's sake, since the IP is pretty much dead in the water now. RIP.

Keep in mind there are two different publishers involved here. Bandai Namco is responsible for pulling PC1 and PC2 from the stores. They own that IP. EA is responsible for shacking PC4.

[EmilGlockner]

Farewell, pCARS! It has been an awesome time. Thank you, Slightly Mad Studios!

[Cholton82]

PCars 1 was the game that got me into Sim racing , When PC2 came along I don’t think I played another game for a year.
When the 3rd came out I gave it a hard pass and stuck with PC2 and made the move to PC.
Forever grateful for those two games and the hundreds of hours of fun playing them.
Hope all those employees find work

[Sum Dixon-Ear]

[shiftee]

Gutted, devastated, frustrated, yet not really surprised.

I hate how most publishers don’t think Sim can sell. EA could’ve grown their own big Forza, GT competitor… But chose to stay with the arcadey casual racers. I think PC4 had a higher sales upside than those same arcade racers, but you would have to show a little trust. I wish the team could go independent, what a frustrating ending to a brilliant development team.

[MaximusN]

Very bad news. Although I'm wondering if the engine can still be licensed and/or improved upon. I guess not so our(/my) only hope ex-SMS people will flock to Reiza and build AMS2 into something (more)awesome. Not sure about the details of the deal, but I guess an AMS3(or something else even by Reiza) would need a new deal to be done and I don't think EA would bite.

Also wondering what Ian has planned(and was able to negotiate when leaving) as he must have seen this coming a mile away. I really hope it s something about being allowed to use the engine if abandoned.

I'm still hopeful, but EA is on my avoid-if-possible-list for now.

[Mahjik]

Very bad news. Although I'm wondering if the engine can still be licensed and/or improved upon. I guess not so our(/my) only hope ex-SMS people will flock to Reiza and build AMS2 into something (more)awesome. Not sure about the details of the deal, but I guess an AMS3(or something else even by Reiza) would need a new deal to be done and I don't think EA would bite.

Per Ian's Twitter comments a while back, it sounds like Ian hired back the original group that moved with him from SimBin to Blimey!, to SMS.

[nono782]

Sad news, Pcars 1 was my first sim and this license will remain special to me.
I hope Assetto Corsa 2 will be great, I was expecting PC4 and AC2 in 2024, now it’s just AC2 !