Project Gotham Racing seems unlikely to make a come-back any time soon, according to new insight from Microsoft’s Phil Spencer. He says the racing genre is now too crowded for it to return, during IGN's Podcast Unlocked.
When asked if the PGR series was partof Microsoft’s plans for Xbox One, Spencer replied, “Maybe,” and added, “The Kudos system we had in PGR was the real secret sauce. That was the thing people really loved. It had a great feel. It was there at launch, which I think was important, for both the original Xbox and Xbox 360.
“It’s funny. I was playing the new Need for Speed on Xbox One the other day. That team and EA are doing an amazing job. The next game looks fantastic in that arcade racer space. Some of the rumours around PGR were probably us working on Forza Horizon with Playground, and people were guessing it was a PGR game.”
The future of the franchise has hung in the balance since developer Bizarre Creations was shuttered by parent Activision. That said, the PGR series does come up in conversation at Microsoft.
Spencer revealed, “We talk. Alan Hartman [Turn 10 studio manager] and I talk about PGR. We’re full in the racing space right now when we think about our franchises. But I know there is a lot of love for that franchise out there, and it would be interesting to think about what we could do. I don’t think we would ever have three console racing franchises. That seems like a lot for a first-party, with Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport.”
He concluded, “Forza Horizon is not PGR from an arcade style, but it’s not me sitting on a circuit running lap after lap. It’s more of an open world. There’s maybe an opportunity for us to look at some of the stuff that worked in PGR and think about how to…”
