PC1 Project CARS delayed to May

Alex Franchini · Mar 11, 2015

Slightly Mad Studios just sent us a press release announcing another delay for its racer, Project CARS.

This is just another one in a long string of delays: the latest release date, April 2, has been pushed back to "mid-May 2015".
Here's what Slightly Mad Studios' head Ian Bell had to say about it:

“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. 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’s what they’ll receive”

Furthermore, Bell added that all players are going to receive exclusive free content "as compensation for this short delay and as acknowledgement of how grateful we are. This gift, that we’re sure is going to excite fans, will be available from day one and revealed shortly".

What do you think of this? Are you disappointed or do you think that this delay will benefit SMS's crowdfunded simulator?

Ricoow · Mar 11, 2015

They are living up their name: making people slightly mad

Is SMS the new Rockstar?

Zytok · Mar 11, 2015

As long as it doesn't become the new Duke Nukem Forever or Daikatana, I think they can be excused a little more polishing time.

Mark Sheepwash · Mar 11, 2015

On the plus side my fanatec clubsport v2 wheelbase isn't coming until mid May so good timing lol

Sabine Schmitz · Mar 11, 2015

PaulH said:
Well that's disappointing news, I pre-ordered it about a month ago, not too worried about reviews myself as there is alot of footage and users here on RD, its got to be better than Shift2U right?....right?

a friend of mine pre-ordered back in september 2014...

Dinca Andrei · Mar 11, 2015

More time for me to play the beta and maybe convice me....since i am not sure i will buy it...

Pär Öqvist · Mar 11, 2015

Dinca Andrei said:
More time for me to play the beta and maybe convice me....since i am not sure i will buy it...

Well sounds like they are not ready. And since you are beta testing you have already bought it? Do you mean you plan to sell your copy? I may be buying.

Zytok · Mar 11, 2015

Not necessarily, if he only put in the minimum contribution then he only gets a discount off the full price

Andrej Svajger · Mar 11, 2015

Mid-pack Jack said:
Looking at some of the posts on WMD, I'd say that SMS/WMD have shafted a great many people that had INVESTED and didn't even own a PC capable of playing the game. A sorry state of affairs indeed. Investors that helped develop the game and are now told to go and buy the console version. Un-frikken believable.

Back to the delay, it was needed. LATEST BUILDS ARE NOT GOOD IN MY SUBJECTIVE OPINION.

Sorry Andy, where did you find anything of what you're talking about? And it's not investors but testers, some of the guys "invested" but the rest of us paid a lot less and i must say, it's been a great, not always positive, experience. We had the game in its development phase watching it grow and get better on a daily basis. And yes, i can understand people that preordered the game not being happy with another delay. For those of us, that have the game already, it was expected and the right thing to do. Go check the thread we've received by mail. And yes again, there are so many good & great racing games out there, but in the end it'll be pCars that will set new standards for game as a whole package. I hope so and until then, what a sweet choice to make : AC, pCars, rF2, GSC, iRacing, RRRE .....

PS : Hope that pCars2 will be PC version only, going multiplatform is pain in the .....

Sheamus Power · Mar 12, 2015

Said it before, going to say it again. I'm disappointed, not in the developers, but in myself because I won't be able to handle the anticipation up to the next 'maybe' release date

This is a result of something that's come out in the gaming industry though; game developers are afraid of releasing something that isn't fully, completely and absolutely polished because of the furor over BF4/AC:U release and other games that have had buggy releases. SMS and Bandai probably want to avoid much backlash and finish the game to a standard they think the fans will appreciate. (I totally agree with this, it's a shame that developers and publishers feel the need to do this now, but the trust between fans and big-name developers has gone to the dogs. A finished game is better than an un-polished one released to satisfy the fans' impatience)

From videos and commentary by people I trust, the game does look almost finished, but some issues are /almost/ there. Maybe not enough for another month's delay, but I'd bet SMS and their large testerbase know more than I do

Here's to May! (Maybe)

William Wester · Mar 12, 2015

pCARS will be worth the wait, it's getting VERY good. Had a couple of fantastic races tonight other than blowing my engine on the last lap of my TransAm race at Laguna Seca. Graphically it looks fantastic at a much better frame-rate but not at the expense of FFB and physics - the whole package is really shaping up. I have been on again/off again on my confidence level for it being a great sim, but lately I'm seeing much more good than not.
And as @Andrej Svajger mentioned, we have a great choice of sims to keep us busy until pCARS is finished.

Ben Milden · Mar 12, 2015

@Omari watson I so guessed this lol

Tim Lundy · Mar 12, 2015

Dan Allen said:
I've spoken to someone who is part of the Alpha/Beta and he told me that even at this stage, it's a long way from finished...

I too will wait for reviews before making any decision.

Oh well, why didn't you say this earlier? Pre-order cancelled

/sarcasm

SternLX · Mar 12, 2015

Zytok said:
PCars already features Nords and some of the cars in AC dream pack so doubt that the release of it has anything at all to do with the delay.
Not finished I'd agree with but a long way from finished is pushing things.
Bit confused as to how some people can have "helped" develop the title don't have a pc capable of playing it. How the hell have they "helped" exactly then? I know feedback wasn't mandatory but can you really be a tester/contributor if you never play or post?

Their only "Help" was kicking in 5 quid and playing the dev builds with narry any feedback. 80000 WMD members and only about 1000(if that) of them post on a regular basis.

Zytok · Mar 12, 2015

Exactly, the sense of entitlement is bewildering. Many so called helpers only posted for the first time yesterday to bitch and moan about the game either being delayed or not getting to choose their preferred platform for free on release. The whole point of this unique opportunity seems to have been lost on some.

Lan3y · Mar 12, 2015

Just played the latest build and in my opinion, compared to GSC and AC this will not be up to standard in May

Ho3n3r · Mar 12, 2015

Luckily there are enough other sims to keep me so busy that I've never had the urge to buy this.

Daniel Smissen · Mar 12, 2015

guys moan when games come out unfinished and take 10 patches to fix, people moan companies actually try to take all the time to make the game as good as they can. its sucks but if it means that there are no game breaking bugs then that should come first

Peter Hooper · Mar 12, 2015

I agree that the priority has to be to get the game right and not release it until it is but why keep giving these dates that they never keep to. Thats where a lot of frustration comes in.

Dan Allen · Mar 12, 2015

Sorry @Tim Lundy but your sarcasm is lost on me. I'm just somebody who has been patiently waiting for it for quite a while. Never put money into the project because I didn't find out about it until it was too late, so I couldn't play any builds, so how am I supposed to know what it's like. I finally managed to come across someone on Steam who had the game so I asked him what it was like. He said they were still a few months away from completion, although he did mention that there were good elements there (his opinion). Given that he's actually played the game, his opinion is valid, so it's better for me to wait.

**That's why I want to wait for the reviews. What if we get to May and it's *still* not quite there? I don't really want to go and preorder a potentially unfinished game if I can help it.**

Andy_J · Mar 12, 2015

Zytok said:
Exactly, the sense of entitlement is bewildering. Many so called helpers only posted for the first time yesterday to bitch and moan about the game either being delayed or not getting to choose their preferred platform for free on release. The whole point of this unique opportunity seems to have been lost on some.

Many people like you berate all the guys that put money into the project but don't contribute to the community in some way. Thay have all helped by putting the money in allowing the project to get started and get rolling. So despite what you say, they all have a right to say what they want and ask what they want wether they have paid 10 bucks or 1000 bucks.
They were also promised to be able to have Pcars on whichever platform they chose and now they are told they can only have it on PC. That is a kick in the never regions. Some of them literally don't have PC's.

Ah well, we can only hope the full released game is as good as you all say it will be. I am really looking forward to buying the full game and hopefully it will be this complete sim you say it will be.