Slightly Mad Studios

Slightly Mad Studios Ltd. is a British video game company whose headquarters are in London, England. They primarily develop racing games and simulators.

Slightly Mad Studios
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
PredecessorBlimey! Games
Founded2009[1]
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
Products
ParentCodemasters (2019–present)
Websiteslightlymadstudios.com

History

On 12 January 2009, the company acquired the business and assets of Blimey! Games.[2][3] In September 2009, Slightly Mad Studios released Need for Speed: Shift with Electronic Arts.[4] Its sequel Shift 2: Unleashed was announced in November 2010 and released in March 2011.[5][6][7]

The company uses a distributed development structure, with developers living across the world and working remotely.[8]

Slightly Mad was ranked as the 17th most successful developer in the Develop 100 list for 2010.[9]

In 2012, the company released Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, which focuses on Ferrari's history across Formula One, rallying and sports cars.[10]

In 2015, Slightly Mad launched Project CARS, a community-developed racing simulator.[11] In 2017, Slightly Mad Studios released the sequel Project CARS 2.[12] This title was developed using community-based development, pre-alpha testing, and funding, in an attempt to bypass normal publishing costs. This was the first title of a series of similarly-developed games. Project CARS was featured in eSports competitions by the ESL from 2015 to 2018.[13][14]

On 2 January 2019, CEO and founder of Slightly Mad Studios, Ian Bell, announced via Twitter that the company would be creating its own video game console, which will be called Mad Box. Bell claimed that the console would be "the most powerful console ever built", saying that it would be capable of running games at 4K resolution, at up to 120 FPS, and will support most major virtual reality headsets at 60 FPS per eye. It's considered that the console should be equivalent to a "very fast PC 2 years from now". The company estimated that the console would be released in 2022. In addition to their console, Bell announced that the company would give developers free access to its proprietary game engine to develop games for their console. The company does not currently intend to have exclusive titles for their console.[15][16][17][18]

On 25 May 2019, it was announced that upcoming racing title Automobilista 2 developed by Reiza Studios will be using the Madness engine developed by Slightly Mad Studios and used for Project CARS 2.[19]

Slightly Mad Studios was acquired by Codemasters in November 2019 for about US$30 million . This includes the rights to the Project CARS titles and a yet-unannounced game.[20]

Games
Year Game Publisher
2009 Need for Speed: Shift Electronic Arts
2011 Shift 2: Unleashed Electronic Arts
2012 Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Rombax Games
2015 Project CARS[11] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2016 Red Bull Air Race: The Game Wing Racers Sports Games
2017 Project CARS 2[21] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2020 Fast & Furious Crossroads[22] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2020 Project CARS 3[23] Bandai Namco Entertainment
2021 Project CARS GO Gamevil
TBA World of Speed Mad Dog Games

References
  1. "SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS GROUP - OUR HERITAGE".
  2. "MobyGames: Blimey! Games". MobyGames. Retrieved 28 April 2009.
  3. "Blimey! goes Slightly Mad | Game Development | News by Develop". Develop-online.net. 12 January 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  4. Crossley, Rob (23 March 2009). "EA Dates Need For Speed Shift Release | Edge Magazine". Next-gen.biz. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  5. Wesley Yin-Poole (2 November 2010). "Shift 2 Unleashed announced". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
  6. "Shift 2 Unleashed". Needforspeed.com. 16 November 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
  7. "Shift 2: Unleashed release date slips a week". CVG. 18 February 2011. Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
  8. "Rod Chong Appointed Slightly Mad Studios COO". www.gamasutra.com.
  9. "Develop 100 - 2010 Edition". Issuu.com. 5 May 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
  10. Meunier, Nathan. "Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends Review". IGN. News Corporation. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  11. "Announcing Project CARS". wmdportal.com. 11 October 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  12. "Racy: Ex-Stig And The Crowd-Sourcing Portal". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. 11 October 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  13. Slightly Mad Studios and ESL partner to make Project CARS an official eSport game - AR12Gaming, 9 September 2015
  14. The end of Project CARS on ESL Play - ESL, 29 October 2018
  15. "Slightly Mad Studios' CEO Reveals Details on New Console (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  16. "PS5 vs Xbox Two console war shaken up by shock Mad Box reveal". TrustedReviews. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  17. "CEO of Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios teases new console on Twitter". Polygon. 2 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  18. "Mad Box: a gaming console that wants to take on Xbox and PlayStation". TechRadar. 3 January 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  19. Papadopoulos, John (25 May 2019). "Automobilista 2 will be powered by the Project CARS 2 MADNESS Engine, releases in December 2019".
  20. McWhertor, Michael (28 November 2019). "Codemasters acquires Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios". Polygon. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  21. "Project Cars 2 is racing to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in late 2017". venturebeat.com. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  22. Project CARS maker Slightly Mad working on Fast and Furious game - PC Games Insider, 13 December 2019
  23. "Project CARS 3 Will Be a 'Spiritual Successor to Shift'". gtplanet.net. 31 December 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
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