EA, NASCAR swap paint over license

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Feb 26, 2009 11:40 am PT

Publisher puts brakes on new games as license expiration looms; racing league reportedly considering going for nonexclusive deals.

NASCAR has gone around the track many times with Electronic Arts, but it appears the wheels may be coming off the partnership. Electronic Arts today confirmed reports from ESPN and Sporting News that it has no plans to release any more NASCAR games this year. Furthermore, the licensing deal between the two is set to expire before 2010.

Why even put a roll bar on that kart?

That means EA's annualized sim series will be taking some time off, as this summer will not see a follow-up to last June's NASCAR 09. According to Sporting News, both parties had begun to question the need for annualized releases in the series, considering that the drivers and tracks didn't change much between years. Additionally, NASCAR licensing managing director Blake Davidson told the site the racing league was also rethinking the need for an exclusive deal with a gaming publisher.

The most recent NASCAR product released by Electronic Arts was NASCAR Kart Racing for the Wii, which arrived in stores earlier this month. Timed to coincide with the start of the season, NASCAR Kart Racing was a lighthearted take on the sport, with a variety of real-world and fictitious tracks and drivers.

Although EA has been making NASCAR games since 1997, it has had exclusive rights to the license only since 2003. Prior to that deal, the field of competing NASCAR publishers also included Sierra and Atari.

63 Comments

  • stopdroproll001

    Posted Jul 10, 2009 1:48 pm PT

    finally. ea's last decent nascar game was nascar thunder 2003.

  • Kris024

    Posted Apr 30, 2009 3:15 pm PT

    How can they say that most drivers haven't changed during years. From 2008 to 2009 only about 5 drivers stayed in the same cars. Everyone else has either changed sponsors, paint schemes, teams or manufacturers. NASCAR 09 is so 2008 by now and I think many people are waiting for a new game that is more current. And it says the contract expires in 2010. EA could make at least 1 more bloody NASCAR game in that time and I don't mean that NASCAR Wii Kart game that looks like something I could pick up at McDonalds in a Happy Meal. Besides I don't really picture anyone else making NASCAR games other than EA. They just need to do better like in NASCAR 06 and NASCAR 05.

  • jcopp72

    Posted Mar 21, 2009 8:33 pm PT

    well i cant say that i'm mad about this, as EA has been a disappointement more and more year after year, i just hope that someone will start making this game again and actually make it better.

  • MAJORMOIST

    Posted Mar 16, 2009 8:55 am PT

    Best news I've heard. I'm a big NASCAR fan and EA keeps letting me down. The only one I enjoyed from them was the 2005 Chase for the Cup (with Harvick on the cover). They changed things up a bit. Then they kept a RE-RUN going with that new idea. I think hard core fans want better A.I. cars, handling cars, drivers from all three series,etc. Sierra made a pretty awesome sim on computer. It would be awesome if they would come back and try making a console version with a good stock car wheel- with feedback- could be purchased. They could also provide better online servers rather than EA's crappy, lag experience. Ea's problem: never listening to it's gamers at least in NASCAR. I hope their Kart game fails because of their greed before customer satisfaction principals.

  • Mr_Versipellis

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 1:03 pm PT

    Bad news for EA...

  • warlock3

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 7:34 am PT

    There has not been a decent playable NASCAR sim since NASCAR Racing 2003.EA 's attempts were a disgrace at best.Unplayable and un-fixable.
    Papyrus and Sierra had a fine thing going for sim racing fans before the 200 lb gorilla showed up(EA)

  • dmjohn22

    Posted Mar 2, 2009 6:05 am PT

    Good .......Anything that takes EA down a notch is wonderful. Even with all their money they cant seem to take time on a project to perfect it.

  • lanmanna

    Posted Mar 1, 2009 8:29 pm PT

    Doo doo doo doo. Can I get a Daytonaaaaaaaaaaa?!?! Lets go away(lets go away).

    Anyone? Anyone?

  • pjr2682

    Posted Feb 27, 2009 10:33 am PT

    THANK GOD! this is the best news i've heard since my g/f told me she's dropping twins on me! OH YEAH!!! Nobody should have exclusive rights to anything when it comes to games. Variety is the fruit of life afterall. Nascar games have gone downhill lately so I can handle not have a new release if it means that us the people get better products out of it. YOU GO NASCAR! No more EA greed!

  • ckat609

    Posted Feb 27, 2009 6:31 am PT

    Thank you NASCAR!!! EA's other games should follow this "non annual release" initiative... It gets tiring and expensive having to shell out $60+ every year!

  • turb06

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 10:05 pm PT

    give it to simbim, then we will be able to play a decent NASCAR game.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 9:12 pm PT

    Maybe the games would be better then

  • nate_c-12

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 8:07 pm PT

    Sweet. Competition keeps the games innovative.

  • sherif77

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 8:01 pm PT

    DAMN U EA

  • sherif77

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 7:49 pm PT

    THANK YOU GOD. THANK YOU GOD. I am so happy to hear this. Please give the lic. to someone that knows how to make racing games fun. I can only imagine if this type of game is made by someone like Code Masters, or giving it back to Sierra/Papyrus, or even the makers of Forza 2. Anybody but EA please. THIS IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD NEWS.

  • Stec13

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 7:40 pm PT

    PLEASE bring on the Sierra/Papyrus Nascar games where it was done right!!!!

  • reichmtk

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 7:24 pm PT

    Yeah! Maybe We'll see the return of Sierra/Papyrus quality games!

  • Frenoir

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 7:13 pm PT

    i for one am sort of glad that EA sports is not makeing the game but i was really looking forward to a new one because the EA servers for the online on the 360 suck a** on Nascar 09 the last good nascar game that i enjoyed was Nascar simraceing even though the online does not work the last console on i liked was Nascar 2005 chase for the cup even though it didn't support 4 player i was kind of mad when i found out that they got rid of the 2 player split screen in nascar 08 and 09 maybe who ever takes over the games they will put the 4 player split screen of nascar thunder 2003 back in

  • andrewjs04

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 5:50 pm PT

    How about go back to Sierra

  • rarson

    Posted Feb 26, 2009 5:02 pm PT

    Finally! Maybe NASCAR has finally realized that they can get more exposure and better quality products on the shelves if they don't let EA hoard it all to themselves.

    As for the idea of Simbin making a NASCAR game, no thanks. Simbin has repackaged the same game over and over again. It would be GTR all over again (for like the tenth time) with NASCAR textures. Simbin doesn't know how to make a good racing sim.

    Papyrus made, far and away, the best racing games ever. Some of the ex-Papyrus guys have started a company doing proffesional-quality sims at iracing.com.

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