PC1 'Mad Box' Release Possibly Under Threat?

[Paul Jeffrey]

Slightly Mad Studios 'Mad Box' console future "questionable" as project suffers setbacks.

At the start of the year, Project CARS developers Slightly Mad Studios made some bold claims about a proposed new console they plan to develop - however recent events may have hurt the chances of seeing this ambitious project come to fruition.

Having achieved a remarkable commercial success with the first two Project CARS racing games, Slightly Mad Studios, via studio head Ian Bell, announced their ambitions to create and launch a brand new SMS designed gaming console into the world, one that the studio claimed looked set to be the most powerful console created to date, 4K capable and able to support VR at 60FPS.

However, since the stories first broke via Ian Bell's twitter account, the 'Mad Box' concept has hit a number of challenges, not least of which is the withdrawal of two investors following details of Google's new Stadia gaming solution.

According to Online Marketing Manager Nathen Bell, the move to taking gaming away from the traditional console based service might be hurting Mad Box in the long term:

“We had some solid investment lined up but Google saying ‘the future of gaming isn’t in a box’ hasn’t done us any favours,” said Bell. “Two investors pulled out after the announcement of Stadia. All I can say at this stage is the future of the project is questionable.”
​

Although solid news on the console remains scarce aside from some early Ian Bell twitter messages, it is still an exciting prospect to see a potential new player step up and take on the might for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo in the console gaming marketplace, and it would be a shame if these impressive sounding plans from Slightly Mad Studios fail to see the light of day in the long term.

Despite the setback, it is still early days within the project, and at this stage it is entirely possible that the 'Mad Box' console will still see a release in the long run, especially considering the questions that still remain unanswered around Stadia, and the future of cloud based gaming platforms.

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[Shovas]

Phew. Now put all those resources into making PC3 everything PC1 and PC2 should have been. Bonus points for opening it up to modders.

 

[melanieuk]

so bit baffled by the snide remarks here.

Nothing to be baffled about, it's standard here when it comes to SMS and RD Readers, such a loving relationship

 

[Miguel Batista]

Pcars2 is already awesome. For me best overall sim hands down. PCars3 should be their main focus and keeping hype for the game their main strategy imho. I think a lot of snide remarks here are because Ian Bell is not the best PR ever. He is short in his temper and bites back people who are honestly just pointing out flaws in a product they love. But i definitely want to see a PCARS 3.

 

[Sky]

Mod edit: keep it civil

not mod edit: booooooooooooooooooooo

 

[Dobermann92]

While I want to see Project Cars 3, this console thingy was a failure even in the beginning. I didn't believe that they could achieve their goals completely, because I've heard many "4k" "60fps" quality "VR" promises that even the biggest companies (Microsoft and Sony) struggled with. I think they should move on improving PC3 and bringing us a less buggy, more interesting racing sim with all the good features that the previous one had.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

While I want to see Project Cars 3, this console thingy was a failure even in the beginning. I didn't believe that they could achieve their goals completely, because I've heard many "4k" "60fps" quality "VR" promises that even the biggest companies (Microsoft and Sony) struggled with. I think they should move on improving PC3 and bringing us a less buggy, more interesting racing sim with all the good features that the previous one had.

Because when it comes from SMS everything should sound GRAND.
But in the end ...

 

[ChaosZeroJK]

Well it's a shame if it doesn't go through.
Why do people laugh at someone failing ? Why is it funny ? I don't understand this mind set.
Someone trying something new should be remarquable. And trying to make space on the market already owned by Microsoft and Sony is a bold move, but a courageous one.
I wish them all the best, and hope it goes somewhere

People are not laughing at a company for failing to deliver on a product.
People are laughing at a company for making dumb and bold claims about a product that not only didn't exist yet when it was announced (not even in a working prototype form) but also that not even multi-billion companies can dream of achieving yet with all their resources in both budget and talent pool because the technology for it simply does not exist yet; and if it does, it's still a few years off, at the very least, to be in a state in which the aforementioned claims could be taken seriously.
Also, if their most recent games are nicknamed projectBugs1&2 there's a reason. Fanboys of theirs will hate on those people pointing out simple facts and faults within those products, but if a developer studio can't release a software without that absurd amount of technical problems, it's quite hard to take them seriously when their studio head goes on Twitter (probably drunk) claiming that they will develop better hardware than other companies that have been doing so for the better part of the last 30+ years or so (with Nintendo being the oldest still in business from the mid '80s and Sony/Microsoft the last two "modern" companies still involved in disc-based systems).

With that said, this stillborn product will not make them go bankrupt so even if it doesn't happen, they're still going to stay in business. Here's hoping that "game #3" won't join the projectBugs circlejerk; here's hoping for them, anyway.

 

[aphidgod]

Exactly - I'm having a hearty laugh here but not at IanCo's failure to deliver on a product. Rather, I'm enjoying a chuckle at the inevitable conclusion to his hubris and naked hucksterism. At least with hardware he can't just release it in a half-baked state and con a bunch of simracers out of their hard-earned.

 

[David Wright]

Old news
https://wccftech.com/mad-box-trademark-cancelled/

To be honest its even older news. Over 3 weeks ago Ian Bell posted the following on twitter

https://twitter.com/bell_sms/status/1117250004232458240

 

[Will Mazeo]

I'm more surprised by the fact that they had people investing on it lol
He must be pretty good at selling an idea if he managed to convince anyone to put money on it. You'd expect rich people are smarter with their money at least when is about investing it... who the hell would try to get in the console market with the well stabilished big guys there...

 

[Ole Andreasen]

Nothing to be baffled about, it's standard here when it comes to SMS and RD Readers, such a loving relationship

AND when it comes to Codemasters too.

 

[David Peres]

Nothing to be baffled about, it's standard here when it comes to SMS and RD Readers, such a loving relationship

I'm pretty sure people would be answering the same way if the original annoucement had been made by Kunos, Reiza or Studio 397. A ridiculous move is a ridiculous move, regardless of who makes it.

And if anyone doesn't understand why the original announcement was even ridiculous in the first place then I guess you don't understand how the console market works, and that's fine... unless you're the one trying to get into that market.

 

[2112]

Well it's a shame if it doesn't go through.
Why do people laugh at someone failing ? Why is it funny ? I don't understand this mind set.
Someone trying something new should be remarquable. And trying to make space on the market already owned by Microsoft and Sony is a bold move, but a courageous one.
I wish them all the best, and hope it goes somewhere

Why would it be a shame? People laugh when expectations or ideas are not going to work even to the uninitiated. The Mad Box was going to turn out just like PC1 and 2: Unfinished, half-assed and nowhere near as good as other systems.

That there are those who think new is always better leads others to believe they can make something work because there are always those out there who will toss their money at something just because it is "new". Yugo's were new in 1986 yet no one ran out to buy them because they were "new". "New" is not synonymous with good, nor is "updated" or even "change".

New, updated or change is only better if it can fill a niche better than an existing product. As it stands now PC1 and 2 do not even meet that requirement. Their only saving grace was their on-line presence and that is being chipped away by better sims that are being released or developed constantly, such as ACC or rFactor2.

SMS should concentrate on taking a great idea and finishing it before they try to take on a market that is already saturated with capable consoles and would only result in a loss of income for SMS.

 

[Jason Mullin]

Getting knocked down doesn't make you a failure, staying down does.
They'll be back.

 

[CobraCat]

I think this project, as it was presented earlier this year, was dead before it even began. Nice of Google to give them an excuse to cancel the whole thing without losing too much face though.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This 1000% !

Such utter nonsense, once again more B.S. from SMS. They released a bunch of garbage renders and hoped the money would flow in and when it didn't they attempt to save face by blaming it all on Google. Another failed money grab by SMS, no surprise there. SMS certainly didn't invent vaporware they're simply the latest company that appears to be attempting to grift off the concept.

 

[M D Gourley]

Hmmm...pouring all that money into a business venture that may not work....I suppose that is one way to get your end of year taxes down....though I tip my hat and give them points for trying.
...joking aside, PC2 was so close with amazing graphics and weather system and I personally still enjoy it as all it needed was consistent FFB / physics and it could have been one of the great Sims....just my 2 cents

 

[schlitty]

I think the investors are the laughable part in all this. Boy oh boy do I have some land to sell to them! They're willing to be financially invested in the project in the first place. Then, despite all the obvious reasons, they only finally pull out because of... Stadia!?

 

[ChevyGuy566]

Force feedback is rubbish though

Actually with the latest custom FFB files it’s really quite good. Just under AC and rF2 imo. Give it a shot.

 

[bigmike892]

dont understand all the hype up googles ass until every single person that games has access to super high speed internet this whole cloud based gaming isnt gonna take out consoles or become the next end all be all.people hate online lag now imagine that in a single player game or driving a career mode race and getting lag cause ur connection to their cloud isnt perfect

 

[Shovas]

Actually with the latest custom FFB files it’s really quite good. Just under AC and rF2 imo. Give it a shot.

In my experience with custom ffb on an AccuForce it's now just slightly behind iR/AC (further behind ACC)/R3E/rF1 (further behind rF2)/AMS. Distance behind ACC/rF2 is about the distance of iR/R3E behind ACC/rF2. Clean up that rough ffb signal and it would be on par with those lesser titles.

The whole problem is exactly that you have to go out of your way to get the ffb files and tune the in-game settings to something satisfactory.

If PC3 just simply integrates the already good ffb solutions, cleans up the noisey ffb signal a little bit, improves AI so they're not so dumb in corners and digital in their turning, and keeps improving their multiplayer towards an iR-like platform, I'd say PC3 is easily on par with ACC and, at least as a complete package, surpasses rF2.

Not a PCars fanboy, not a hater, either. I like quality sims and I can feel there is a sim living inside the PC2 body you just have to coax it out. The combination of outstanding graphics, that performs well on lesser hardware compared to ACC, and real sim features has amazing promise. I hope they keep it up if at least to keep Kunos/SimBin/S3/S397 honest.