Project Cars Wii U Was Always a Maybe, Dev Says

Earlier this week, it came to light that the Wii U edition of racing game Project Cars was facing an uncertain future. Now, developer Slightly Mad Studios has spoken out to address the matter further.

In a new interview with NintendoLife, studio head Ian Bell said when the developer originally launched its crowdfunding campaign for Project Cars back in 2013, it had firm plans only for PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles, while a version for Wii U was never a sure thing.

"It was always 'maybe' as we had no knowledge of the system," Bell said. "It was again changed, by vote of the members, to a PC/Xbox One/PS4 next-gen game with still 'maybe Wii U' and Steam OS. The funding, as I said above, was closed long before this."

Although the Wii U version of Project Cars is struggling technically--the latest version runs at 720p/23fps--Slightly Mad isn't ready to cancel the game just yet. In fact, as suggested earlier, Bell said it's possible Project Cars could shift to Nintendo's next console, currently codenamed NX.

"We still haven't given up on Wii U 100 percent," Bell said. "But if we can't make it work, we will move to the next Nintendo machine."

Not much is known about Nintendo's NX. The system was announced back in March, and we've since learned that, interestingly, it's not meant to be a replacement for the Wii U or 3DS. Nintendo has said it won't talk about NX next month at E3, instead waiting until 2016 to share more information.

GameSpot scored Project Cars an 8/10. Critic Austin Walker wrote: "Project Cars offers a different fantasy, one that's a little less attractive and a bit harder to enjoy: the fantasy of learning how to do something difficult."