Ubisoft has new racing simulator in the works – Gaming News
Ubisoft may be working on a new racing intellectual property (IP), with the next-generation consoles as the target hardware. According to a report by The Examiner, the new racing franchise will be called “The
Crew.”
The Examiner has further revealed that Ubisoft has handed over the developing duties of the game to a French studio Ivory Towers.
The development team is said to include the former Eden Games employees, who already have plenty of experience working on making racing games. Some of the games to their credit include Need for Speed: Porsche
Unleashed for the PlayStation, V-Rally 3 for the Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2 and PC, and Test Drive Unlimited series for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.
A visit to Ivory Tower's website revealed that there are indeed new opening in the French Studio, including that of a senior gameplay programmer. The website has detailed the role of a senior gameplay programmer
as, "working exclusively with Ubisoft, the Ivory Tower development studio is recruiting a Senior Gameplay Programmer to work on an ambitious project using next generation technologies".
While The Examiner has mentioned that the new Ubisoft racing simulator will be targeting Sony’s and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles, namely the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it has not said anything about
the possibility of a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 port of the game.
The Examiner has also mentioned that sources close to the development of “The Crew” have revealed on condition of anonymity that the new racing IP will be "realistic title, possibly being positioned against Forza
and Gran Turismo".
Forza Motorsports and Gran Turismo have been developed by Turn 10 Studios and Polyphony Digital respectively for multiple platforms. Both the series have established themselves as the leading brands in the racing
simulation genre, raising the bar so high that no other game has been able to offer them a substantial challenge as yet.
Electronic Arts (EA) tried out its luck in the genre with Need for Speed: Shift but the response the game got was enough to convince the publisher to shift its focus back to a different genre of racing.
Ubisoft has refused to comment on reports regarding the alleged development of “The Crew” for the next-generation consoles, thus neither verifying nor denying the report that has surfaced.
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