Racing Genre on Life Support

[Light Buster]

After reading Game Informer's 2015 GOTY rewards on their magazine, it is no surprise that almost no racing games have been released last year, aside from Forza 6 and Need for Speed. Do you guys think that this is the end of the racing game genre?

[TheConzio]

You may be on to something. I've started to notice the decline in racing games as well over the previous years.
There was only about 6 titles last year IIRC that were mainstream games. Those games being NFS, Forza 6, Project Cars, F1 2015, Fast Racing Neo and Ride.

[Light Buster]

I'm not sure if I'm right but when Sony made the biggest injustice to shut down Studio Liverpool and the Wipeout series with it, the number of racing games began to decline. I don't believe it will happen but if Wipeout makes its much needed return the racing game genre will return to it's former glory.

[stinkleroy]

I honestly don't think Sony shutting down SL is the reason for the decline in racing games, although it's a really nice thought :)

Gaming is now huge amongst the general populous and not just for us nerds anymore. I feel like the games being made these days and the genre of them tells us a lot about what is going to happen in the future. I already feel like a lot of games are too easy, dumbed down for the 'average consumer' to make as much money as possible and not put people off buying it. Also racing games generally require a certain amount of skill which will keep a lot of the casual gamer type from playing them.

Take the recent Need for Speed game for instance, I played that and finished it in 4 days...not even that 4 nights really, and I haven't played a racing game for a looong time, it should not have been that easy. I remember spending about 2-3 months trying to beat NFS Underground 2 back in the day and that was joyful. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the new NFS but I felt swindled that it was so easy...whereas people who don't usually play racing games will feel great about themselves.

It's all about the money now, welcome to corporate gaming, it sucks. Maybe someday we will get a really cool indie racing game, here's hoping! :)

[Hybrid Divide]

I think one year is too small a window to call the racing genre on life support.

Things come in waves, and racing is in a low wave at the moment. It'll ramp back up. I'm confident of that.

Still hoping WipEout gets resurrected, of course.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Asphalt 8, Real Racing 3 and GT Racing 2 would all like a word with you, Hybrid. What do these games all have in common, besides being racing games developed for smartphones?

They are all microtransaction based. Pay-to-win. Freemium

The three games I listed are designed to milk as much money from you for horribly diminishing returns. Unless you are a masochist with a gigantic wallet, there is no reason to play them, and sadly this is what the future has in store for racing games. Imagine if WipEout started running on that model; you would have to pay for new ships, pay for fake currency, pay for single-race boosts like "zone ship" or "infinite Hyperthrust", pay to keep your ships maintained, upgrade them just to qualify to participate in half the campaign, and wait 7 hours per upgrade installation unless you pay up.

The only way to stop racing games from dying completely would be to abolish this microtransaction model.

[Snakenator1]

I think one year is too small a window to call the racing genre on life support.
Things come in waves, and racing is in a low wave at the moment. It'll ramp back up. I'm confident of that.

That pretty much sums up the entire gaming industry, and yes one year is not enough of a time window to say that the entire genre is dying out. Big racing titles take time to develop, Fast Racing NEO which is one of the best racing titles recently took 3 years to develop. So right now we're just going through a phase where new titles are being created and thus the line up will in turn not be as spectacular as in past years. So the statement of the genre dying is unfair as developers are still making the games, I mean would you like Wipeout to turn into COD where a new game is released every year and is basically the same crappy game everytime? I wouldn't, I would rather wait a few years between instalments.

@Amaroq: you do realise that free-to-play games aren't going anywhere as it is now a part of the gaming industry. If you abolished it then hundreds of people would lose their jobs, the gaming industry would lose a significant amount of revenue and millions of people would hate your guts for such a move. Granted they're a waste imo but we have to accept that they give people joy and create jobs for developers to.
Wipeout would never become Free-to-play as Sony aren't that stupid to just simply give up the rights to the franchise or do such a BS move without losing a significant amount of their fanbase and customers.

[Light Buster]

So the statement of the genre dying is unfair as developers are still making the games, I mean would you like Wipeout to turn into COD where a new game is released every year and is basically the same crappy game everytime? I wouldn't, I would rather wait a few years between instalments.

I do agree. But I felt that the loss of the Wipeout series when Sony closed SL is and will always be to me one of Sony's biggest injustices, which is why I have very little faith in them ATM and I will never buy a PS4 from them until Sony comes out and state that they made a mistake on that very day and show me that they are willingly to rectify that error by showing that they are putting money into it over their other IPs. After all, people have been asking for that series to return.

I know I sound selfish but that's is the main reason why I dislike Sony ATM and I will never purchase something from them, with the exception of Project DIVA X, but that won't be coming over to the US anytime soon. I have played the new NFS, but my main issue with the game is that I have to be online constantly to play it. ATM, I have no access to online capabilities due to an unsolvable personal confrontation with my parents. Forza 6 kept my attention for a while but I felt the urge to play it dwindle away quickly. I felt those games lacked repeatability compared to WOHD.

I just hope that Sony finally comes forward with a new Wipeout game and restore the series to it's former glory.

[amjw]

trackmania is pretty popular on PC.

but yeh, wipeout needs to make a return imo.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Well on the bright side, the fall of WipEout has created an Anti-Gravity Racing power vacuum... Just look at Fast Racing Neo, Formula Fusion, and the various WipEout Fan-Projects like BallisticNG and Slipstream GX... and a few other studios are probably working on their own Anti-Gravity games. It would only slightly surprise me if, at some point in the near future, we saw a WipEout-ified version of Gameloft's Asphalt series, or an Anti-Gravity spinoff/sequel to Rocket League.

[blackwiggle]

Sony had told SL after the HD DLC was released that it thought the 'Racing' genre had run it's course and that no new Wipeout's would be made.
It was only because of the VITA that I suppose SL weren't shut down earlier.

The only other sort of racing games I've played on the PS have been F1 1997, the first two GT games and 1 NFS, plus Grid 2
The totally simulation bored me mid way through the 2nd GT, so I never bothered with any later ones, NFS was a PS+ freebie which I also lost interest in, Grid 2 lost me after trying to play the shambles of it's online portion of the game, but even before that I was getting bored with it.

I think it might come down to actually driving with a controller that puts most people off racing games generally, if you play with a steering wheel they play a lot better.
But saying that, and having bought two different steering wheel/ pedal systems over the years, I just can't be bothered hooking the bloody thing up, then having to pack it away again afterwards.

Wipeout and may F-Zero /Star Wars Pod Racer on Nintendo were the only racing games I really got into, as I guess they were the only ones that I felt actually suited playing via a standard controller.

[AdHoc]

Sony had told SL after the HD DLC was released that it thought the 'Racing' genre had run it's course and that no new Wipeout's would be made.

Source?

[AGgamer]

It was only because of the VITA that I suppose SL weren't shut down earlier.
Not true. SL was working on a WipEout for the PS4 when they were shut down. So clearly this was a big bag-over-the-head-and-a-kick-in-the-nuts out of nowhere type thing.

[Amaroq Dricaldari]

Studio Liverpool probably wouldn't have been killed if Sony gave their own studios more time to actually develop Vita games, or released the Vita Specs (software and hardware) and/or Dev Kits to the studios earlier on. The Vita's operating system, if I'm correct (I at least hope I am) was based on an Android kernel, using an ARM CPU. That would have been really useful for Studio Liverpool to learn a lot sooner.

I also think that they could have saved money if they made 2048 with the intention of being both for the PS Vita and the PS4, which may or may not what they have been trying to do, but there are some rumors that they were working on something completely different. Still, if they had saved their money, Sony probably wouldn't have shut them down so readily.

However, it is mostly Sony's fault too... if you're running out of business, you should SELL your best studios, not kill them off because they are within a particular region that's doing badly. Not only will you only kill off an awesome franchise, or several for that matter, AND make a bunch of people lose their jobs... you will also lose money yourself.

...I hate Sony, and was very reluctant to buy a PS4. For instance, why do I need two PSN accounts to play a splitscreen game? And where's my Start and Select buttons?

[blackwiggle]

Source?

Colin Berry posted that years ago at this forum, head designer of Pulse at SL

[AdHoc]

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwxpVs3DTuQ

[Hybrid Divide]

Interesting video. Looks like the racing genre is alive and well.

Glad to see FF in a high position on that list, even if their footage is nowhere near current.

[XoPachi]

Well on the bright side, the fall of WipEout has created an Anti-Gravity Racing power vacuum... Just look at Fast Racing Neo, Formula Fusion, and the various WipEout Fan-Projects like BallisticNG and Slipstream GX... and a few other studios are probably working on their own Anti-Gravity games. It would only slightly surprise me if, at some point in the near future, we saw a WipEout-ified version of Gameloft's Asphalt series, or an Anti-Gravity spinoff/sequel to Rocket League.

RedOut is another one that comes to mind that's in the works. I also found this top down one called The Next Penelope that's not too bad a game.
Not sure if it was mentioned, but Grip (Rollcage) also just hit early access. I don't think any hope is lost for any genre. I've been very optimistic about a lot of things as of 2015. Things just seem to be looking up. And the fact that a lot of these have online is a plus. c:
I also have this one game called Radial-G that's a sort of WipEout on the F-Zero style "tube" tracks.