There are a-lot of reasons why there "MAY" not be another cart sim from
Papyrus.
This is all specualtion on my part, but until I see something on the shelves
I think my
feel for this is sound.
The original plan was to use the GPL engine to produce a Nascar3 sequel,
this is on track for Fall of 99.
After the N3 project was done, a Cart version, also using the GPL engine,
would be done. In fact, Papyrus did re-license the CART name for the year
2000 (and also 2001 I think). But there are several factors that
will probably delay or stop any cart product.
1) Sierra is in a Corparate Nightmare. The parent company that used to
own them, got caught cooking the books and faces mega financial problems.
Cendent Software(the umbrella that owns Sierra & Blizzard) sold the Software
section to a French company. No one can say what direction this company
will move Sierra, but the successful flight sim division is getting gutted.
Over 30 layoffs have been reported at the Dynamics Portland offices.
Papyrus has already let go a large group of artists. One only has to
connect point a to b to see(pun!) that "ANY Papyrus/Sierra project not
substantially completted is in danger of being discontinued.
N3 is in good shape and probably will ship sometime this year, but I don't
think any real work has been done on a CART product and that make's it a
very likely target of the AXE. (anyone seen that Reno AIR Racer papyrus was
talking about...???)
2) Racing sims have to compete against products like Halflife and
Homecomming. Now that Sierra is cash strapped, the "smaller"
narrow-interest products like GPL will compete for $$. With Halflife
selling like mad and the reviews for the upcomming Homecomming looking good,
Sierra might be forced to limit it's sim lines.
Looking at Xmas sales, Even the mega Falcon 4.0 did not do well compared to
the arcade or Real time strategy categories.
3) Any Nascar product will sell gobs and oodles(sorry technical term
there) A cart product will have a dedicated core audience but any Joe-Bob
or Billy-Bob, or Sue-Bob will buy a box with Nascar splattered across the
front.
4) Aside from David Kaemerer(sp?) How many open-wheel tech weenies are
left at Papyrus? Granted the
technology based on the GPL engine should be portable to any type vehicle,
but if you don't have religious ZEALOTS working the coding magic, you'll end
up with NFSII.
While I would love to see a CART sim...I will remain doubtful.
dave henrie
