After a Rocky Launch, the Entire Team Behind PS5 Racer Wreckreation Might Be Laid Off

It’s a shame. Don’t want to see anyone losing their jobs.

(I’m not taking aim at this studio here) but games need to be finished and not a mess on release. Word spreads quickly online, and very little after the fact work can limit the damage already done.

There’s so many games released weekly (often see 40+ in the coming this week thread here) that your game has to stand out.

We just wanted Burnout 😢

I played Dangerous Driving quite extensively. I think I put in more than 25 hours and earned the platinum trophy. I went out of my way to climb the leaderboards and complete all of the survival events, end to end.

Wreckreation was supposed to be an evolution of that, and it was to some extent (physics and weight was much improved,) but plenty was just wrong about the game. It should've been more varied, there could have been more environments, and it critically needed to show that it was a major milestone for a company trying to claw its way from low budget independent to at least AA, with a big name publisher backing them.

Unfortunately, it was just too little, too late. Somebody commented on Reddit that their patience had run out. I wanted a lot more to come from these industry vets, but Wreckreation was the unfortunate result.

I guess it is what it is. EA might be the last chance to revive Burnout, and I don't fancy those odds.

Brutal market these days. Though it sounded like this game just didn’t have that much to do when playing it. Shame that the OG Burnout devs on this one are out of work again.

The game actually looks like a fun budget/mid-tier game.
The planned Crash Mode will definitely have me consider buying it.

@themightyant Tell me about it, I started Silent Hill 2 in mid October and I'm only 2/3 of the way through lol

Catch 22 here, game isn’t complete enough for people to buy it, not enough people buying means it doesn’t get the updates. Shame, I had this one on my want list but the price put me off. If it was under a tenner I think I (along with a lot of people) would have supported and they might have floated, then offering dlc to get profit would have been a better model.

Now because of this news, I won’t be buying and that doesn’t help the problem either!

I was interested in another Dangerous Driving title but the whole create your own tracks main draw of the game completely put me off it, so even in the black Friday deals, I didn't buy it.

Is a shame. I never got round to playing this, I was sort of waiting for Wreckfest 2 tbh.

@Jrs1 at least give us a remaster of 3 and revenge.

Got it day 1 to support the devs, although, yeah it should just have been a polished Burnout instead of all this try too hard to be something else. Played it for an hour, then got bored of long straight roads and weird feeling drifting mechanics... such a waste... they were going in the right direction with Dangerous driving...

@Americansamurai1 Yup that would do me 👍

No dev sets out to make a 'bad' product and in most cases, they 'believe' in their ideas, their concepts etc and pour their heart and soul into the project. But that doesn't mean that it deserves 'Commercial' success or that people should buy their Product.

A game releasing today isn't 'competing' for your time/money with just the other 'new' releases, but all the other games, products, services etc that also 'compete' for your time. These generations of Hardware have some of the 'biggest' Libraries ever - thanks to Backwards Compatibility and years and years worth of releases. Not only that, you also Services (even 'basic' Sub services) that give access to games at no extra charge and Free to Play has grown too giving gamers a LOT of choice to fill their time wihout needing to spend 'money', let alone the cost of new releases. Why spend $70 on something to play when you have 100's of games in your backlog you can play at 'no' cost, 100's of Free to play games (F2P and Sub service offerings) and if those don't appeal, 100's of Cheap games in sales before considering a full price new release.

That's just in gaming, but other distractions for your time, like youtube/twitch etc can easily fill your 'time' at no extra cost, entertain etc that you don't have the time to play games and with cost of living going up, people are not spending money as 'freely', opting to either save money or only spend it on the 'few' new products they can't 'live without'.

As much as Devs pour themselves into a project, it doesn't make it essential or necessarily enjoyable for all. Some may think Picasso's Art is 'awful' and not worth your time or money to see

@FinneasGH Same here. And at first I was confused with 2 racing games published by THQ with Wreck in the name. But obviously they are not related and are different devs.

PlayStation needs a great arcade racer. Please bring back Motor Storm. That series was great when it was a thing. So much fun too. The multiplayer was a blast, esp in Motorstorm apocalypse.

Being in the IT field, most of our experts are short or long term contractors. I'm not sure what it's like in the gaming industry but it seems like these projects would be more in line for hiring contractors. I guess they probably do, and it's the full time staff that are always in danger, at a studio?

I have no idea what this article is about because of the constant full screen Sausage McMuffin ad that keeps popping up every time I scroll...

@CaptainBiscuitJeans complain all you want man.. I’ve complained about similar ads making it impossible to read anything on the page.. I get they gotta make $$ but this sh** is really scummy and tacky

@BecauseBecause exactly the same for me. I don't want MORE stuff in games. I want less but more focused. No track building stuff and no open world where I have to look at the minimap most of the time to see where the racetrack is.

Just give me a simple but great arcade racer.
There really aren't any around on the PS5 above or including AA.

@StitchJones yes there really is none. Which is so bizarre.

I hope for Ridge Racer 8. it was already in the works for Switch but got canned.

@yazzika I agree with you 100%. Its almost like console makers and dev's have labeled arcade racers too niche to put $$$ into, yet they dump 100's of million into live service games they have no problem cancelling and taking the loss. weird times

They made the wrong game. It should have been in the vein of Burnout 3: Takedown. Closed tracks. There’s a real hunger for a remaster/remake and this could have filled that gap.

Whether long or short term staff sure. Whatever their time there, their contributions, whatever the case.

Well they had the chance, they made a generic game to compete but not appeal to people. There is a reason I play old racing games niche or popular, for their better ideas, not competing but not offering a good selling point these days.

When Onrush or Juiced 2 had more event variety and more fun for me then any others it shows I'm picky but or a reason, the proiroties for the games are clear and I'm just not interested.

Heck even NFS Hot Pursuit 2010 on Wii I had more fun then then the generic approach of the HD/remaster because it's events and presentation was way more fun, like many PS2/PSP/Wii ports or unique versions I have more fun, graphics mean nothing to me, gameplay does. I binged the Wii version, that doesn't get revived and won't ever again, it was an option they dumped to offer on Wii and nothing more.

It could have been many things but even Wreckfest 2 isn't appealing to me as it will be more of the same and offer nothing extent of personality, it has some but wow do many racing games look and offer bland progression ,event variety and rules for them. Wreckfest has no car licenses (like Flatout and Burnout which I am ok with no licenses) but the problem is they don't use that to make it better they still offer the same generic design as those with car/track licenses and just annoy me at the potential they don't put effort into.

@BAMozzy That may be true but even Indies can be similar.

Or veterans making similar. To me as someone seeking gameplay I haven't been impressed in 2 console gens. So to me my perception is very diffferent but regardless of leadership sometimes being right, sometimes being wrong, or whatever ideas from temp or part/full time staff, it's up to the mentality regardless of their studio setup.

Their ideas and their references to it/tropes and more angles they look for have been clear to me not just competition so closely.

Trends aren't bad but I find the current trends worse then past ones approaches to offering interesting ideas to them.

But that's just me, most people seem ok with them.

@yazzika Exactly this, I think it's why I didn't really get into Burnout Paradise and all the modern NFS games but on PS2 I loved Burnouts and NFS Hot Pursuit and the other linear race track arcade racer games.

Yikes I was hoping they would survive this rough launch, I actually had an interest in buying this one but the early issues made me put this in my "wait for a sale" category.

@StitchJones I miss the days when Playstation had some proper first party variety. Ever since the late PS3 era it's been a sea of cinematic action games and walking simulators.

@SuntannedDuck2 The last 2 generations are basically iterating on what really were the final hurdles of 'Game-play' creation - since then, its only improving upon and/or speeding up what essentially was created before.

Once you transitioned into actually being able to tell 3D stories with Movie Quality Audio and set Game-play in any type of situation or setting you could imagine, the rest will always be more about 'refining' and improving on what came before. Racing games went from pixels to very boxy polygons to looking like the real thing on film in certain Photographic modes. Big open expanses to explore have become quicker to travel across, more densely packed and far fewer (if any) loading areas between zones - the equivalent of elevator rides or door opening cut scenes....

Point is, if you want a game that offers a specific 'Game-play' style, chances are there are games that offer it - even in Indie that you maybe surprised to find some more unusual Game-play loops/Mechanics. There is always something 'similar', something that came before it and perhaps did it better becausse it was also 'new' and 'fresh' feeling - something newer games can't deliver...

Its new Stories or combining ideas/mechanics with maybe genres not most expect, but still deliver a very polished and cohesive package to establish itself amongst 'others' in its genre, having unique settings or at least a unique interpretation of in the case of post apocolyptic game setting.

Its more about improving Graphics for more immersion and realism which also ties into their second area of improvement, doing thatand at faster frame rates. Whatever game-play mechanic or loop has already been done so its up to developers to 'create' a reason you want to play their game through story, through its genre and its aesthetic.

this news really sucks

They should have never sold Criterion Games to EA

@JayJ I hear you. I love all their exclusives and 3rd person action games. I hope they never stop making them. However, I agree we need some diversity. They need a shooter. Killzone was like a cult classic, esp with the multiplayer, but honestly I loved that games online component. It was a nice alternative to COD and BF. Resistance 3's multiplayer was a ton of fun as well as being a great FPS campaign. Already stated Motorstorm needs to come back, would fill an arcade racer void.

The problem is that game dev'ing takes way too freaking long these days. Minimum 5yrs between AAA IP. So I understand why we're getting what we're getting. But I think the number of 1st party devs needed to grow, so you can put other teams on a FPS shooter, arcade racer, etc. Or maybe don't give them Live service crap and let them make some diff genre's. Idk man, the games industry is a crazy beast all around.

@BAMozzy Final hurdles how? A puzzle game doesn't translate to a book or board game well, shooters sure but maps can be pretty static (with many characters sure, but onces without and just loadouts, why not some things move or do more in the maps), RPGs are just long movies with errands and dialogue but less interactivity, and stats as a supposed excitement. To understand the power of a character sure but after a while it gets boting. Also like Conception's 4 quad turn based, patented or not, where is more then the things we have gotten with turn based RPGs? Sigh.

I can play as a bar of soap and it can have any mechanics to shape shift, use bubbles, have weight mechanics, whatever, I don't care what the character or scenario or safe story or a deep story with a bar of soap and other characters. If the level design/abilities are interesting I'm happy, aka programming/level designers and animators. Yet we get the bare minimum and it's disappointing.

The last modern racing games I enjoyed was Onrush, maybe Grid Legends, Wreckfest was fair, but 2 I hope has more or it's just safe and boring. Otherwise been playing dirt bikes, ATVs, annual ones like WRC, MotoGP, F1, and others of the past arcade/sim in search of mechanics and I have found many, not just oh it fits those scenarios.

Why would I care if they had more reference/tropes and more grass/buildings or NPCs, I couldn't care less. If more NPCs sure for quests/other things, lively sure. But more grass/buildings couldn't care less, I'm fine with grass texture terrain or flatness. I hate OLED/nits, I don't care what lighting/shadows or Ray Tracing, why not use ray tracing for lighting puzzles? But nope. Why not a percentage of light used in interesting ways, blocking it out. Adding more to light puzzles, but we don't.

Water being more interesting not just 'wow it looks nice' that has been stagnant, it moves, but not enough, fair scripted moments but not much great puzzles or other scenarios.

PN03 had weird movement, Baby Steps isn't comparable but could be just not for combat focus. People look at Baby Steps as goofy, in a serious game people would write it off more. I've played old/modern weird controls games before and had fun with them being that way over normal controls.

Under The Skin or other disguise/perk focused games.

Echoes of the End finally improved and refined water rising/lowering, gravity walls, or other mechanics. I was glad to see some game bring them back.

Ratchet/Mario galaxy has planetoids, Kya/BOTW had wind in different ways.

2D 3D of Mutant Muds/VB Warioland, Super Paper Mario, Crush.

Progression/event rules of racing games (not just race/drift or time trial or other genenric ones these days, what to '2' or so. And repeat that for 20 hours, come on, the rules or strategy are so repetitive now, i don't expect 5 disciplines of racing, I mean use the cars in interesting ways, have an imagination for event types, not everyone has to have fuel, cone challenges and more like even GT4 to 7 do but others as just racing can be boring).

I get it for graphics sure, but gameplay, making it accessible to everyone, easy to understand, sure, but some gameplay ideas have been dropped and not continued, that's my point, I don't talk popular games I talk niche games as well, not giving them another go and playing it safe Indie/AA/AAA in the modern era, or Indies only look at the popular which is annoying, others have returning very slowly.

Part 2:
Others compete with similar ideas or players or even UI, we have to use the same and not relearn or push other types of mechanics for safe reasons people don't want to, (varies per setting and stories they want to tell). Indies either are creative or nostalgic and boring and offer nothing because they are too nostalgically inspired but don't have the skill level to recreate or offer gameplay on the same level as those skilled to pull off some things in niche or popular games 20+ years ago. I know I play the niche ones and popular trends of the past, play the modern ones and compare, Indies, AA, AAA, whatever.

Gaming doesn't have to be a book/movie with themes/and lessons, it has an interactive element and the interactive part making it a game is lacking for casuals/idiots or devs that also fit that state of mind.

I'm sorry but I'm not seeing it. Left behind game ideas I can research in less then 5 seconds, like anyone else watching cat videos or having a narrow view of what they experience and refuse to research (or different animations for combat or platforming) does creative or not, sad for marketing or gave up and followed others.

Making movie style quality is not a bad thing, but I was fine with it when it was 'some of' not ALL of it.

Oh Returnal being fine but is that 'all Housemarque' need to make in the future for their budget or people wont respect them? Is that the mentality nowadays for studios having a budget? If so that's delusional. What they want to do is up to them, but just making a point.

Same with racing, the 'can only be a simulator or has to have real licenses/brands' and players wont take anything else because forget the rest we had, realism is all gaming is, since when?

NFS Unbound having garbage limited playlists of races. Yeah great repetitive design. But it's cell shaded characters or smoke trailers. Inertial Drift/Distance are great, alongside Woden GP a GT clone in UI/progression but isometric, a fair spin but still inspired. Same with other games out there. Everything else first, but not the gameplay.

I mean how many human characters are easy to relate to types, generic animals as 'animals' and don't have more imagination applied to them unless anthropomorphic and some animal perspective drama or whatever. But just reskins of human characters in movesets. Wow what an upgrade.

I don't play old games because the characters were wish fulfillment type super humans or heroes, I played them because the mechanics were fun, the pacing and showcasing them in level design was interesting. The story/gameplay was better balanced, not the basics of game mechanics to walk, collect, fight, loot, etc. but more story/graphics.

If they focused on gameplay we would see more graphically interesting games. That's also a point.

Even when people explain situations of gameplay like Raycevick did of what you do in Assassin's Creed to me I was like yeah, outposts, collecting, talking, combat, (they said it differently but I'm outlining it a simpler way) but you can say that but the interactivity is still the bare minimum despite the scenario. Rules that are easy to understand then 'weird' because it's too much for casuals brains or even hardcore's brains. Again I'd play as a bar of soap I don't care. It's how it plays not what it looks like.

Part 3:
For average people I get it for immersion, but to me at least programming/animation/gameplay has to be immersive, not something with tropes or real world logic limiting games because they don't have an imagination, that are fair to have/bend or easy for idiot casuals to understand and compare to reality and their narrow view of how fiction can be applied and doesn't because people's imagination or what can be recognised can't be pushed further by limitations or devs mindsets, pubs leadership or customer's acceptance of what is allowed in media limiting things more and more.

Not all generic characters leads to boring games (many like Mario/Pitfall Lost Expedition have great movesets and fit cartoony logic but are more fun to play yet are human, but not generic realistic human and story first games approach). Some have great gameplay but many do because graphics/story get the focus and basic gameplay repeats for years and console generations over and over again.

Gameplay is repetitive and stagnant yet story/worlds/graphics get pushed more and more.

Otherwise I commend your fair angle and comment.

But otherwise I swear I live in a boring world with boring people and some fair rules but also people being really not worth my time or creative enough and so we get boring products with too much restrictions, some valid, others not and annoying to see stuck in the state they are in.

@SuntannedDuck2 I know what you mean, they were more creative with 'less' - where are the car 'combat' games or other 'niche' variations on those basic game-play mechanics.

Well that comes down to cost as they make them to 'compete' graphicallly and on performance (unless indie - but then its also likely 'nostalgic' look) and potential revenue. It's cost vs potential sales revenue and ideally as a producer of product, you want the cost low and revenue high to be successful. Selling a 'small' budget game to a small global audience can be profitable but through more budget, more sales required and with so much competition and even decent games struggling to hit their required sales, mediocre or even 'Niche' games are certainly going to be a big gamble.

That's also why they are iterating on 'past' successes and big sellers (not those with 'cult' followings) - its expensive to invest 'years' of staff work hours, all their expenses and marketing etc to bring that to public access so they want to invest in the 'least' riskiest ideas...

That's why independent Studio's are more likely to see the more 'experimental' or niche game-play styles being offered and triple AAA is becoming the big mainstream versions of the most popular styles of games. But really its down to popularity, cost, potential revenue, can they do something 'better/different' enough to become successful when so many others already exist....

@BAMozzy Business wise yes but like I said Indies can be sometimes creative or nostalgically boring and repetitive due to their narrow experience of games too. They don't always try something different either. In terms of what they can develop sure I get that, but otherwise they don't even cover well what they can do in interesting enough ways so they still seem safe or empty and the 'illusion' to me is not effective if the gameplay shows how empty the game actually is.

Also companies want to be accessible (in cases that can be fair, it varies per accessibility for those that can't play, or add a skip feature and make it for trophy hunters or whatever, or give hints and so on options) and boring but also by doing that, 'everything works' but why not make more side areas for hardcore players? Oh we can't do that. Why not?

Oh we can't have 2 systems, well maybe offer it via DLC or offer a toggle. Oh we can't do that.

@SuntannedDuck2 But that's on the developers and what their aim is - is it to 'sell', to tell their story, to 'create' that 'something' you find fresh, new or unique enough that it feels like you've waited a lifetime for someone to make - the 'tools' and technology are all there and have been so that's why its 'iterative'.

If you wanted to do something in game, by the 360/PS3 era, you basically could and since then, its all about 'refining' and improving on QoL aspects - loading times, seamless transitions between environments (inside and outside for example) because 'every' game-lay mechanic has been done and in full 3D with home cinema quality audio and resolution - now just need to bring the 'quality' of the visuals and frame-rates up to show 'meaningful' technological upgrades but nothing stopping 'Devs' from creating ANY game, but arguably they are most likely looking to win a 'Popularity' contest and appeal to the Most people to maximise revenue rather than try and invent some new or bring back some 'obsolete' game-play mechanic and risk their Studio/Career if it fails to meet expectations 'financially'. Regardless of how critically acclaimed or 'beloved' by the few that bought, if not 'commercially' successful, it can kill their studio/career so the risks to trying something 'different' - when even making some changes in sequels is 'too much' for some gamers, is perhaps too high for many to gamble on.

@StitchJones Yeah I agree new AAA game development has slowed down to such a crawl I don't even bother anticipating games until they are almost out. I think AAA has been in this big massive budget massive production era and it's become unsustainable, they're just spending too much time and money on these games and it makes it so they only go with the safest bets and don't do anything more niche.

@BAMozzy fair point but there is a reason I talk gameplay and don't care what their tropes passionate story is.

Ambition isn't practical I get that but even still.

Indies it varied I have seen more in other genres be terrible yet puzzle/adventure have benefited excellent. Adventure gamss need story and generic mvoesets but that's fine.

Other genres are weaker for doing so.

I think structure not their emotional themes, r3lating and all that othwr stuff and other factors. Thats why I don't care what their characters or world are.

I care about mechanics and controller gimmicks. Or word play I guess.

Like music I don't care about the human singer (I don't need a human element like our brains want I don't care for it to hear them, see them, be convinced by them and whatever emotion or passion or whatever, i seek passion in interesting ideas not commencing thr same ideas in illusionary ways, but I am not robotic and want anything to be put out either) I do the instrumentation. Sometimes I do lyrics but very very rarely. I don't judge by voicr I judge by words not themes. So to me 99% of the time its sound design.

Same woth games. I don't care about their game because it's a movie/book and converts. Businesz wise sure.

Generic characters to convey their world then their world speaking for me. Their mvoesets speaking for them.

Showing not telling me. Showing their lighting, their water physics, and more. I don't care about reflections unless its used in interesting ways. I've seen old gamss have repeated footage of the player or fake footage. Seen reflections without ray tracing. The enhancements help but for thr amount of power I couldn't care less.

The reference used is fine but I don't care how most use it personally.

I can play as an animal if irs interesting not because its an animal, acts like an animal or petting an animal when a lot can be done.

Oh or not jyst making anthropomorphic animals and doing noteworthy them but writing as movesets are human like wow what a skin change. Sigh.

I want to feel it not hear it or see an illusion if he physics and movesets are boring. If that makes sense? For such a different angle to explain that.

Thats more my take on things.

@JayJ Yes agreed 100%. But its the big budget and long times that give us AAA sony masterpieces. There's so many people laid off in this industry, good people. What I think the fix is, don't stray from what they're doing. Like I said, we get masterpieces. They need to have two teams, so at the least, 2 games are in full production at the same time. Give these laid off people jobs for pete's sake.

There's no reason why ND can't have Intergalactic going in full production and then have a 2nd team either working on TLOU3, starting to piece that together, or whatever they chose to come after Inter. So when the main hands on deck have Inter. content complete, but in the bug fixing/polishing faze, they can bounce over to the next project. That could easily cut 2 years off development time. If we got most AAA every 3years, instead of 5 I would be content with that.