Codemasters is bringing the next game in the Grid racing series — Grid Autosport — to PlayStation 3, Windows PC and Xbox 360 on June 24, publisher Bandai Namco announced today.
The game will draw from Codemasters' TOCA Touring Car series and will incorporate features based on community feedback collected from fans of the Grid franchise, professional racers and experts from U.K.-based magazine Autosport. Like its predecessors, the game will be "all about the race," according to a press statement.
Grid Autosport will feature a career mode in which players can dedicate themselves to one racing discipline or challenge themselves in all of them. This includes several different mini-modes such as endurance and tuner events, as well as touring cars and street races. The title includes 100 routes across 22 locations for racing.
Autosport will also sync with RaceNet, Codemasters' online multiplayer portal. Players will have access to Racing Clubs for clan-based online competitions as well as weekly challenges, Party modes and competitive split-screen modes.
"The design philosophy behind Grid Autosport was to create a really focussed racing game," chief designer James Nicholls said in a press statement. "We've jettisoned anything that doesn't support the on-track competition and we've chosen a selection of cars and tracks that will give players a range of different racing experiences. That variety is crucial.
"There are five very distinct ways to race — this isn't a game where basically every race is the same and the cars and tracks change," he added. "You need to adjust your tactics and learn different techniques to succeed in each racing discipline and each car has its own character too. Our AI will act and react in different ways depending not just on how you race, but the style of racing you are competing in and that's vital in authentically capturing the feel of say, Touring Cars compared to Open-Wheel Racing."
In a post on NeoGAF, Codemasters community manager Ben Walke (under the username CodiesLoore) explained that the decision not to publish Autosport for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was because they didn't want to rush development — and wanted to leave the former console generation on a high note.
"We genuinely want our first next-gen outing to be something really great, we don't want to have to rush and only put out a handful of tracks," Walke wrote. "We've got 22 locations in Autosport, the bulk of those are real world circuits, would all those have made it if we were to support next-gen? Doubtful.
"Secondly, we're working our tech for next-gen now, as such, we're not quite ready," he added. "Again, we don't want to rush. Thirdly, after Grid 2 we sort of had something to prove, we wanted to leave the 'old gen' with a bit of a bang so to speak."
