14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is not continuing development on the NASCAR racing game this year. The only NASCAR property that the publisher is set to work on in 2009 is Kart Racing, a Nintendo Wii franchise aimed at more casual gamers and offering less rigorous gaming mechanics. The decision was made because the more family friendly title has a chance to sell more than the hardcore racer and because Electronic Arts lacks the resources to continue supporting both.
Randy Chase, who is a product marketing manager at Electronic Arts, declared that “The old game was more for the simulation players, the serious gamers. This is more lighthearted, something that's more fun for the entire family. We look at it as a respectful caricature of the sport.”
NASCAR officials are not very satisfied with the move made by the videogame developers. This is the last year of the current exclusive agreement between NASCAR and Electronic Arts and you could see a NASCAR game created by another company as quickly as 2010.
Blake Davidson, who is in charge of managing the NASCAR licensed products, said that “We're in the process of figuring out what's the best model for us and how do we position ourselves in this space. Do we continue with an exclusive model or go nonexclusive? Do we need annual releases? This is a very important category for us.”
NASCAR gets quite a bit of revenue out of licensing the teams, faces of drivers and tracks for videogames. The association has some problems related to the economic crisis and is looking at entering into more license agreements, non exclusive, in order to boost revenue. Electronic Arts says that pre-order numbers for NASCAR Kart Racing are bigger than those for the last “real” racer, NASCAR 09. This could have something to do with the fact that Electronic Arts is releasing the game at the start of the racing season rather than in the middle of summer.