Juiced squeezes out a fresh date

THQ today announced that Juiced is headed down the home stretch to a May 2005 release date. The street racing game that combines arcade action with tuner-car simulation will be released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC.

Juiced follows the fast-and-furious idea behind most street racers, allowing gamers to race rides for dough, customize cars both cosmetically and functionally, and earn some much-valued street cred from rivals and shops. The game will also feature a single-player campaign mode and an online mode for multiplayer racing action. The title is currently in the garage getting a tune-up at the request of its new publisher, adding more tracks, cars, and graphical enhancements.

"Every developer dreams of having a few months to polish their creation so that it truly matches the original vision they had for it," stated Colin Bell, the founder of developer Juice Games. "That's exactly the opportunity we've been given by THQ."

Juiced's release date has already skidded out a few times thanks to the title being juggled by the hands of several publishers. The game was originally picked up by now-defunct Acclaim, who showed the game in its E3 booth earlier this year.

Since Acclaim shut its doors in August, the title had been the focus of a bidding war between several companies, including Atari, Midway, and Electronic Arts. Take-Two was practically ready to take a deep whiff of that brand-new-car-game smell when its $10 million proposal fell through. Ultimately, THQ emerged the winner with a $10.5 million deal that officially went through in November.

For more information on Juiced, be sure to check out our previous coverage.