Motostorm Apocalypse, the latest entry into what has become one of the cornerstone franchises for the PS3, was officially unveiled earlier today. The developer behind all of the Motostorm games, Evolution Studios, has opened their floodgates, and are commenting on a variety of issues within the industry. Some of their latest comments, regarding racing games, is certainly interesting, and reveals a disturbing trend in the video game market today.
Speaking with CVG, Evolution Studios’ assistant game director, Simon Barlow, talked about how racing games in general have been “stuck in a rut” for the past few years. According to Barlow, mainstream gamers are gravitating towards shooters than traditional racing games.
“The racing genre has had a disappointing few years.
“You can look up any sales figures and even extremely high rated racing titles haven’t sold as perhaps they should have done or as perhaps they deserve and so it’s in a bit of a rut.”
Barlow continued, adding that shooters are one part of a larger problem as to why people are moving away from racing games.
“I think genres are cyclical and I’m not sure why that is, I’m not sure why people have moved away from racing games.
“Perhaps the emergence of the first person shooter on consoles, a lot of people have graduated towards action games and that sort of thing.”
He certainly has a point. Some of the best-selling games this generation–Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4–all were shooters. However, with Gran Turismo 5 hopefully around the corner, anxious PS3 fans will prove Barlow wrong.
