Project CARS had hoped to imitate Gran Turismo in the gameplay department – but we don't think that anyone expected it to challenge Polyphony Digital's seminal series in the release date drama department, too. Having been pushed out of the holiday season, the Slightly Mad Studios developed simulation was all set to release in March, before being dumped into April. Now it's set to deploy in mid-May, according to publisher Bandai Namco.
"Despite our long heritage and pedigree in making critically-acclaimed racing games, Project CARS is by far the grandest and most intricately detailed of them all," studio gaffer Ian Bell said in a press release. "Despite therefore the game being 99.9% complete, the remaining 0.1% attending to small issues and bugs has been tricky to anticipate. We're absolutely dedicated to delivering a ground-breaking experience, and by targeting mid-May fans can be assured that that's what they'll receive."
This has been a big day for delays, with Uncharted 4: A Thief's End also pushed back. Of course, the good news is that developers appear to be responding positively to the cock-ups that occurred last Christmas. "There's a high expectancy from racing fans around the world that [this game] is going to be an exciting new contender in the simulation racing space," added Bell, "and we firmly believe that gamers deserve it to be in its most complete and polished state when they come to play it on day one."
Honestly, while it's disappointing, we reckon that this is the right approach. To make up for things, the British-based studio will be offering "some free content" to players as compensation, which it promises will be revealed shortly. Has this delay put a puncture in your anticipation for Project CARS, or are you just happy that it's getting the extra polish that it deserves? Make a pit stop in the comments section below.
[source bandainamcogames.eu]
Comments 12
Hahaha! The amount of times this game has been delayed is hilarious!
I don't mind games being held back to make sure they work properly but how about they don't give an initial release date until they know for definite that it will be ready? GTAV for the PC has had THREE different dates since it was announced and The Witcher 3 has had numerous dates too.
Ugh
There's an increasing amount of pressure for this to be as good as the quite stupendous Driveclub , maybe they're feeling the heat after Driveclubs intial little hiccup . Hope they can make a great game , everyone seems to be talking this up so cant wait for May or whenever.
Don't crap your pants, I rather put up with delays than with the crap EA and Ubi are pouring into the world.
@get2sammyb Completely agree that these delays are the right thing to do. As you say the developers seem to have realised that buggy messes are not the way to go.
My two hopes are that these delays are not just all talk and they will actually put out a quality game upon release, and that developers announce delays as early as possible to give the consumer the information they deserve.
Good god, how many delays is that?
After seeing DriveClub being delayed, and then released like that, it does not make me hopeful in delays being the right thing to do.
They are hiding something. I hope I'm wrong.
This sounds like the result of poor software project planning. In my experience bug fixing always takes longer than most people expect. The less years of experience the project manager (and programmers) have, the more likelihood there is that they'll fail to plan enough time in for the final chunk of bug fixing of development.
The fact that Ian Bell describes the remaining bug fixing work as "0.1%" is probably reflective of a corporate attitude that is dismissive of the realities of why so many software projects end up being delivered late. Bug fixing takes time. It can take a long time.
I won't be surprised if it's further delayed.
Still looking forward to it though
Driveclub is at now a pretty good game, wasn't so much at launch time because i believe a longer delay was needed in that games case to polish it off so it could have launched the way it is now rather then how it did.
I'm highly anticipating Project Cars, i don't believe there is another type of racer like it on console, and im glad there delaying it to make sure it's the best it can be, i however wish they never even gave a release date at all and kept mum about it until they were 100% satisfied with what they were going to put out, they keep crushing people every time they say there ready and then pull it back again because they found something else wrong.
As much as delays are quite annoying I do rather prefer that they polish the game instead of publishing it with small bugs or little annoyances. After experiencing GT5's delays these small delays are easy to bear.
@GhastlyMagician I completely agree with you. It would be nice if they would either plan better and give out a realistic date, or if that is not possible wait with giving a release date until they are confident they can meet the deadline
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