Racing game developer Slightly Mad Studios, known for its Project Cars simulator series as well as a crowdfunding community, is now part of Codemasters, another UK games company that also specialises in motorsport titles.

Game publisher and studio network Codemasters has bought Slightly Mad Studios, a formerly independent studio.

Both UK-based parties are involved in creating racing games, with Codemasters also acting as a publisher on its own behalf.

Established in the 1980s, Codemasters found early success through a series of games about an adventurous egg called Dizzy.

At the same time, it was producing a number of sports and motorsports titles - soccer, cricket, rugby, BMX racing, and tennis, as well as the iconic Micro Machines toy racer adaptations.

Over the last ten years, however, Codemasters has focused almost exclusively on motorsports, through the annualised licensed Formula One racing F1 titles, the rally racing Dirt franchise, and cross-discipline Grid series.

Slightly Mad's two Project Cars games have common ground with Grid, albeit with a greater emphasis on simulation physics, through a similar appreciation for multi-disciplinary motorsports.

Formula One-style open wheelers, vehicles from endurance racing, prototype racing, and touring car championships, as well as high-performance commercial sports cars have all featured.

Somewhat uniquely, the Project Cars games were funded by a community of fans through a crowdfunding platform operated by Slightly Mad itself.

Project Cars began crowdfunding and delivering work-in-progress builds to backers in 2011, with a retail release in 2015, while Project Cars 2 began crowdfunding in 2015 and released in 2017.

Earlier in 2019, Slightly Mad confirmed it had begun work on a third Project Cars game, Project Cars Revolution, though did not open a crowdfunding avenue for it.

Codemasters cited the advent of a new generation of games consoles due in 2020 as one of the reasons for the deal's timing.

The PlayStation 5 and a successor to the Xbox One line of consoles, currently referred to as Project Scarlett, are both targeting launch towards the end of 2020.

Slightly Mad projects not mentioned in the announcement include a powerful game and entertainment console called the Mad Box, proposed for release in 2022, an upcoming Project Cars game for mobile devices and a multi-year tie-in to the Fast And The Furious movie franchise.

 - AFP Relaxnews