Which type of racing/driving game that Sony and Microsoft should publish by 2023 and beyond?

I think a futuristic racer like WipeOut could be very cool. But, I have NO IDEA if such games would even sell or gain and audincens in 2023?

Not to be a Debby Downer, but I think too many racing games are TOO HARD. Its finding that feel where somoen who has never placed and Sim-Arcade racer cna still enjoy learning and yet the popel who live and breath such games can enjoy nuanced racing too.

Jeff Gerstmann talk about how he loved late 80s and early 90s spaorts games, but after 1996 all teh games just becoame too hard. I think race games are having that issue now and they are doing no better than EA Sports. There are no pickup & play basketball, football, hockey, or American football vidoe games. Most sports and racing games used ALL 14 buttons and both analog sticks on the joypad.

A game devlopers that could make a single sticks w/ four buttons sports or car game, COULD make s 'must have' game. But must have a vision and they must stick to that vision of simple controls.

@monkeyking1969: What games are you talking about that are too hard?

Forza Horizon is very approachable. Even Youtubers who don't like racing games can get into it.

Cruis'N Blast is a literal arcade game that people pop quarters into at a Dave 'N Busters.

Mario Kart 8 is the best selling game on the Switch and basically everyone knows how to play that. 0

There are niche racing sims out there (as there always have been) but racing games have tended to be pretty approachable in recent years. And that's not even getting into the indie games like Hotrod Racing and Horizon Chase.

As for the original question, I doubt Sony or Microsoft are looking to expand their racing portfolio but Microsoft obviously has the properties for a Kart racer, and seeing how Mario Kart is one of the biggest franchises on earth it might be worth a shot. Sony could bring back WipeOut but it doesn't fit well with their current strategy.

Honestly I think the biggest opening in the market right now is for a somewhat high budget arcade racer in the Burnout style. Forza Horizon can't do the big wrecks or crazy stunts those games had and a lot of people have nostalgia for that series.

Anything else is just going to end up being too niche for big publishers to bother with. This isn't 1996 any more and you can't get enough people to pay for Jet Moto to make it worthwhile. Destruction Allstars died and that was on PS+. People didn't want to play it for free.

@monkeyking1969: Perhaps futuristic racers may go digital-only.

My favorite racing game is the original Need for Speed Most Wanted that I played on the 360 with the ranking ladder, the wild FMV, the cop chases, the open world with weather cycle - just everything about it was perfect for what I hope to get out of a racing game. Forza Horizon and Burnout Paradise have nailed aspects of it, and Need for Speed has tried to do some of that again, but nothing has ever nailed it like that first Most Wanted game.

@bigsocrates: I agree that Sony Interactive Entertainment should bring back the WipEout series and I reckon that XDev should be able to develop it.

I also remembered that a lot of people skipped Destruction AllStars, because a lot of them find it a pretty weird demolition derby game, plus mediocre too.

Smaller, niche studios seem to be much more capable of really digging in and making sim racing titles so I don't think Sony or Microsoft are the ones for that genre. (That said, polyphony will keep doing what they do)

I think the big two do a better job on more arcade or simcade titles, especially with larger open world settings; because these tend to speak to the much larger game audience and they have the budget and workforce to pull it off.

@mynameisfatmike: I remembered that Need For Speed Most Wanted appears to be inspired by The Fast & The Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious in terms of street racing and car chase scenes, we'll see what will Need For Speed 2022 game is going to be like.

Meanwhile Forza Horizon series is more similar to the British Top Gear/The Grand Tour TV show in terms of racing and vehicular adventures.

BLUR 2

@redwing42: It's going to be so good if Blur 2 exist as all we know Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft about a week ago.

Ok I see and I saw that most users personally voted for Open-World Arcade-Style Racing, so I would imagine what's PlayStation's equivalent to Xbox's Forza Horizon series is going to be, I'm unsure if whichever developer will use the Gran Turismo trademark or something else.

the only type of racing game that ever did it for me and wasn't mario kart was burnout 3 and revenge so honestly i'd love something like that. ppl love paradise but the open world thing never did it for me . i tried forza but even its arcady-ness is still too simmy for my taste in a racer. i don't think they have it it takes to pull off a good kart racer when usually those use mascot characters and i don't think it suits either of those companies really, so my vote goes to traditional arcade racer.

I want more old school top down racing games like Death Rally and Ignition. And now that Microsoft owns Blizzard I think a new Rock n' Roll Racing is in order. A new Interstate 76 would be cool to since they own that as well now.

I always want something different so i voted foot race cus i have no idea what that would be, though someone should make a high budget parkour game :P.
Failing that, what does a new Smuggler's Run look like... i just like saying Smuggler's Run.

@cikame:

There have been foot racing games.

I only played the demo of Running Wild but it was like a not very responsive kart racer. The game tried to simulate the act of running by making turning kind of a PITA and it was not a ton of fun to play.

There have also been actual human racing events in Olympics style games too, of course, but those are generally just button mashing mini games and I can't imagine that Sony or Microsoft would bother with releasing that as its own thing in the year of our lord 2023.

Frankly I can't imagine a Running Wild/Mad Dash style game either. At that point just make a kart racer. As I said earlier in the thread Kart racers have the potential to be massive hits, while these things were just curiosities.

Though to be fair 989 Studios published Running Wild, and that was a division of Sony, so it's possible that Sony owns the rights to that 'franchise.'

They might be able to release it as like a PS1 classic if they ever do something like that on PS5.

release something more like need for speed most undercover with with realistic physics . much smarter cop physics . and with most wanted pink slip.

I chose futuristic racing, simply because we haven't had one made in a while now. And as much as I love the Wipeout series and would love another entry, I would also like it if another known racing developer like Codemasters also make their version of Wipeout.

@gtxforza: I don't actually think it's super likely that Sony would go head-to-head with Forza Horizon on an open-world arcade racer, because MS is able to pour tons of money into that game and release it Day 1 on PC & Xbox with Game Pass.

@gtxforza: Playground would be an excellent team to make a new Blur.

Very true!

The 2 standout racing games I’ve played in the last couple years was OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast and MotorStorm Apocalypse so something like either of those.

Microsoft Driving Simulator.

I want a hybrid of something like NFS: Underground/NFS: Most Wanted. GTA Online can actually be semi-like that with all the latest updates lol.

Or something more exteme sports as I enjoy that stuff. Used to love those MTX games.

I want someone to figure out how to make an enjoyable foot racing game that plays fundamentally different than other racing games. That sounds like a fun challenge. I feel like i should play some Mad Dash Racing. I vividly remember watching that on dutch TV (some 30 min low budget local game show) and i was amazed by how it was a game that was nothing like other games i knew. Semi-related thought: i also saw Heretic 2 on that show and was blown away by that. They made it third person? Woahhhh! Maybe i should check that out too...

Here is what I imagine for Codemasters' equivalent to Psygnosis' WipEout, it should feature hover race cars rather than anti-gravity ships while having longer racing circuits, could set in rural or urban environments.

For Forza Horizon 5's dot point I accidentally added the bracket at the end of the release, sorry about that.

@shindig: Yes, that's a good one!

@liquiddragon: So nostalgic to hear on these two!

@spliffmaster: That would be good to see a remake for Interstate 76 and Interstate 82, also don't forget about Vigilante 8 as well!

@spliffmaster: death rally was the only good racing game with guns in it .

Pure 2

Unfortunately, Black Rock Studio (The developer of Pure and Split/Second) was closed down and Disney doesn't seem to care about that, oh well, there is a coming up 3rd party racing game that I guess is going to be similar to Pure in terms of gameplay is MX Vs ATV Legends.

Right now I'm really craving a new Wipeout or Ridge Racer. Hotshot Racing scratched some of that itch, but I'd like to see a game like done with a bit of a larger budget.

I'm actually surprised that outside of Trackmania and some mobile game stuff we haven't really seen a free-to-play racing game succeed in the market. Most people are absolute dirtbags when racing online so the racing would have to be something that encourages bumping and crashing. Something like a Wipeout or Motorsport could be a perfect fit for a game like this. Sell a season pass, new vehicles and cosmetics for those vehicles just like in Rocket League and release new tracks seasonally.

It's about 10 years without a new installment of Ridge Racer for consoles and PC, I really want to see Ridge Racer 8 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X!

90s arcade racing

Oh, for the foot racing games, it may sound very doubtful for Sony and Microsoft to publish them in the near future.

As a love letter to Ridge Racer and Daytona USA, it sounds good to me.

@gtxforza: I'm not really a huge racing fan but if someone manages to make a spiritual Successor to Split/Second I would be all over that. Racing games need more exploding gas tankers and the ability summoning a 747 to crash into your opponents.

@merxworx01: This would also give me MotorStorm: Apocalypse vibes.

@gtxforza: I've never played Apocalypse but a copy of the first Motorstorm came with my PS3 and it was amazing. Based everything I've read from racing fans it had rubber banding and too few track but none of that mattered to me. I found banking on the side of a canyon in a ATV while knocking MXbikes into diesel trucks and watching swamp runners and buggy getting smashed trying to bottle neck between rock formations more fun than circuit or vanilla road racing but clearly I'm the minority seeing as Mototstorm kind of racing don't really exist anymore(afaik).

I would agree that Motorstorm Apocalypse looks inferior to its two previous installments because for taking place in an apocalyptic city rather than proper locations for off-roading such as rain forest, desert, etc.

If MotorStorm reboot exists, I want the game to retain the same driving model but have improvements plus having multiple environments too.