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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[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Alex72]

Google want to control everything thus making gaming a 100% cloud based service. This way they can deny wrongthinkers whenever they need. Shut you out from gaming as punishment for criticizing them or anyone else they dont want you to criticize. Its happening all the time that people is shut out from social media for example. Microsoft said they will scan xbox live players private measages(!) and ban people based on what they say - in private! This is yet such a service that can banish you for whatever reason they see fit.

Otherwise a cool idea. Too bad there are evil people in this world who think they know whats best for people... I dont own consoles but i wish SMS good luck with their project!

EDIT: My point was more choice for the consumer rather than less. Everything digital and only one or two massive companies as monopolies just doesnt sit well with me since they can ban you for anything they want. Even going as far as looking into your private messages is just a step too far. What people say away from anyone else is their business. Im not against illegal things being stopped but we have seen a rise in ideological thinking from large corps and even not being able to take fair criticizm of their practices.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[snyperal]

It's just one of the many broken promises. <snip>no more baldness...

On the head right?

 

[Miguel Batista]

Well far then from being able to call it "best sim hands down" having tried just 3 sims and call PC2 the best sim hands down. Try at least rF2, iR and ACC

I have never tried ACC but have played rfactor 2 and iR. I find rfactor 2 better (still debating between acc and rfactor +dlc) in terms of feel of the car but as a complete package, pcars2 wins it for me. I didn't really like iracing to be honest. Great races mind you but I can't bring myself to pay that ammount of money for a biweekly usage. And the ffb is good but not that good imho.

 

[AlexBfromG]

good thing it didnt happen, pity the customers that would have received patches that turn their product upside down.

 

[Alex72]

Your defense on freedom of speech it's kinda hilarious, considering what happened to pretendracecar.

Not sure what "pretendracecar" is, but im not talking about free speech. Im talking about you being locked out from playing your games because of what some company Thinks you did wrong. Not a good way to go if it becomes a standard.

EDIT: Guess you mean Pcars? I dont own a single one of them. I have seen what happens when more and more things get concentrated into one giant Power hungry Company while those same companies also go on a Power trip.

 

[dhmotor]

I wouldn't be surprised if the 'investors' were made up..

Someone's dad or mom. I am not as inside baseball as many seem to be on Slightly Mad. I own copies of both PCars games and they are good, but have frustrating limitations which ultimately limited my playing time. In the end software and hardware are two totally different propositions. I would not invest in a software company that suddenly changes course for hardware. There is one Apple and then a bunch of ships wrecked on the rocks - anybody want to buy my Zune?

 

[Fat-Alfie]

Not sure what "pretendracecar" is...

http://simracingpaddock.com/pc-racing/pretend-race-cars-shutting/

Talk about a power-hungry company going on a power trip!

 

[Tero Dahlberg]

He must be pretty good at selling an idea if he managed to convince anyone to put money on it.

From what I've heard that's exactly what his main skill is.

 

[gianlucaP]

ì

 

[Will Mazeo]

Read again your original post. You don't seem to know very well the drama behind pCars and the SMS.
Some year ago ther was a blog (pretendracecar) where the authors and the people in the comments were costantly criticizing and bashing some racing games and their developers. Project Cars and the SMS were one of their main targets. Ian Bell have been personally offended in every possible way. Well, one day, out of nowhere, the owner of the blog (Austin Ogonoski) made a deal with Ian Bell, became an SMS employee and closed his blog.
This to say that there are many ways in which a game developer (or a software developer, or a big dog of some other kind of industry) can silence critical voices or get rid of a competitor.
You complained about the common practice of silencing the people who criticize a product and then whished good luck to someone who did the same thing. From here my comment.

In this case PRC silenced itself, nobody forced them to do it, he simply accepted the money (job) to say nothing else. There is another name for that but I dont want trouble with the mods

 

[Nick Gregory]

Even I thought the Mad Box was pointless. What would be the difference in this or an ITX PC that I could just build myself?

 

[er185]

Mad Box, Project Cars GO, Fast and Furious game or GTR3 What will be released before?

 

[Tom Blackett]

They should stick to what they know best.. Making crap racing games...

 

[giga1tr]

OMG, what's wrong with Mr. Bell? he is slowly getting ridiculous. I like PC and PC2 but its behavior is really unacceptable

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

The Konix Multisystem has it's present day descendant. All hype and no trousers
Memo to SMS, don't give up on your day job, making simcades misleadingly marketed as simulators that keeps Youtube 'influencers' happy

 

[Fatalist88]

Oh my, who'd have thought!

 

[Zuffenhausen Weiss]

Read again your original post. You don't seem to know very well the drama behind pCars and the SMS.
Some year ago ther was a blog (pretendracecar) where the authors and the people in the comments were costantly criticizing and bashing some racing games and their developers. Project Cars and the SMS were one of their main targets. Ian Bell have been personally offended in every possible way. Well, one day, out of nowhere, the owner of the blog (Austin Ogonoski) made a deal with Ian Bell, became an SMS employee and closed his blog.
This to say that there are many ways in which a game developer (or a software developer, or a big dog of some other kind of industry) can silence critical voices or get rid of a competitor.
You complained about the common practice of silencing the people who criticize a product and then whished good luck to someone who did the same thing. From here my comment.

The legacy of PRC still lives on as 'James', found on the simracing subreddit, often ranting via his YT account and sometimes deleting his own posts when he upset too many people. One such recent example was his (now deleted) hateboners on sim racing esports.

 

[NtsParadize]

Day dreaming is never a bad thing, if you just stay there and not try to make your dreams come true. Live within your means is all I am saying, to mad's owners.

Think before you talk. Everything is this world was created thanks to a dream. You are bascially saying that we shouldn't have invented the web, the cars, the computer or the smartphones