Codemasters racing games have always driven on a narrow section of road, with side A being the lane for arcade style racing, while side B led to an off-ramp for realistic physics. Still, it’s usually the best of both worlds, but for section of gaming fans who like to keep things real, GRID 2 is going to be that much less inviting, as the in-car cockpit view is being ditched.
Talking to PCGamesN, GRID 2 executive producer Clive Moody explained that the reason why the cut was made, was that percent-wise, too few people used that feature;
There seems to be some confusion about where we get our data from to help us make these decisions. While we do use research and focus groups, the most important data source for us is the enormous amount of telemetry data we can obtain from our servers that tells us exactly how and what our players are doing across all our games.
So it’s not a case of just a sample of people we’ve spoken to in research. It’s a fact that only 5% of Codemasters Racing game players ever used the in-car view. By making this educated call, we can use the extra available memory to make the on-track racing a truly mind-blowingly immersive experience.
We can author and run higher resolution vehicle models with more detailed geometry. We can feature higher resolution external vehicle textures and work further detail into our environment textures.
We can dedicate more processing power to our improved physics systems, integral to the GRID 2 experience, and push other systems to the next level, such as particles and real-time lighting.
The first GRID game has sold almost 2 million units since its release. If the sequel performs as well as the original, then with a little bit of maths, 5% of 2 million is equivalent to 50 000. Anyway you slice it, that’s still an ass-load of gamers who aren’t going to be playing a game in their favourite perspective.
And it’s those gamers who really stick around, as they’re the type of players who tend to make use of steering peripherals and wireless wheels. personally, I prefer the third-person racing view, but then again, I race casually. Heck, I’m still playing Project Gotham Racing 4, one of my all time favourite games in the genre, in that perspective, but at least I have the option to switch if need be.
What do you fellas think? Is this the right move for Codemasters, or is this an el cheapo method of saving some costs?
Last Updated: August 14, 2012
