Why does nobody like racing video games anymore? – Reader’s Feature

Forza Horizon 6 – the last of a dying breed (Xbox Game Studios) Surprised by the fact that Forza Horizon is now the only widely successful racing game, a reader tries to explain why the genre has fallen out of fashion. Before I started writing this, I had no idea the Need For Speed franchise was 32 years old. That’s what Wikipedia says, but I’m not going to pretend I played the original in 1994. The first one that I definitely remember playing was Need for Speed: Underground in 2003 on the PlayStation 2. At that point they were knocking out yearly sequels, and it was one of the biggest franchises around. All my friends played them and it was one of the biggest things around for casual gamers in particular. It’s pretty obvious why: who doesn’t fantasise about driving fast cars, without having to actually be all that good at driving. That’s the appeal of arcade racers and back in the 2000s it made total sense that Need For Speed, and things like Burnout, would be some of the biggest games around. But then those sort of games slowly started to disappear, replaced by boring sims like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, until things got so bad that Need For Speed doesn’t exist anymore. I never understood why you couldn’t have both arcade and driving sims at the same time but for years Gran Turismo and its sort were dominant… until they went away as well. It’s hard to tell how much that’s to plan, given how long Gran Turismo games take to make usually, but Forza Motorsport definitely isn’t coming back, because Microsoft has laid off most of the developers. But now we’re in a situation where both arcade and serious racing games aren’t being made. They do still exist, but they’re much more niche than the used to be, and a lot of them are PC and/or indie only. The only exception is Forza Horizon, which is massive. And that only makes me even more confused as to why there aren’t more. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Forza Horizon is great but it’s not original or so amazingly better than any similar game that you can understand why it has no other rival. It’s probably fairly expensive to make, which could explain things to a degree, but I still find it very hard to understand how one of the most dominant genres two decades ago is represented by basically one game now. Star Wars: Galactic Racer is coming out in a few months, and I don’t think it’s going to be a big hit, not so much because Star Wars is in decline but because arcade racers are! Game genres go in and out of fashion and I miss real-time strategy games too, but at least there you could understand that people were getting fed up with the lack of innovation – and they didn’t work very well on consoles. But driving is such a basic pleasure I don’t understand why it’s not bigger. I guess nowadays, with open world games it’s maybe seen as just a side thing you do in other, bigger games. It’s not like anyone wants a dedicated horse racing sim, despite that being a thing you do in so many role-playing games. Ignoring the fact that the driving isn’t very good in GTA Online, there’s not really that many open world games where you can drive that it seems like it would wipe out a whole genre. And again, how does Forza Horizon remain popular? Ther are some new racing games coming up that I’m interested in, like Clutch, by some former Forza Horizon devs, and the new Crazy Taxi. But it’s slim pickings. With Need For Speed dead and Burnout too, presumably – since it’s also owned by EA – I just don’t think things are ever going to turn around. If there was going to be a sudden flood of Forza Horizon clones it would’ve happened years ago and instead racing games are only getting more and more rare. By reader Eddie Star Wars: Galactic Racer – at least future racers aren’t entirely dead (Secret Mode) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. Arrow MORE: The PS5 is going to be the last console and Sony know it - Reader's Feature Arrow MORE: How PlayStation should have handled the news about going all-digital – Reader’s Feature Arrow MORE: The 10 best Arcade Archives games on modern consoles - Reader's Feature GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.