Why was the development of the “racing version of GTA”, which sold more than 18 million units, terminated by Rockstar?

Now when it comes to open world sandbox games, Rockstar is probably the well-deserved king. Although only two series of “Red Dead Redemption” and “Grand Theft Auto” are currently popular, their sales, word of mouth and influence far exceed those of other manufacturers. work. New players may not know, the success of Rockstar is no accident. The company has a history of more than 20 years since its establishment in 1998. During this period, it has launched nearly 30 products, many of which have caused controversy among players. , there are also poor performances or even failures, but no matter what the performance is, they have accumulated rich experience for subsequent product development.

In the latest works, players can find many shadows left by the previous classic series, such as the rich NPC interaction created by “Bully Rooney”, and the investigation of various items in the environment in “LA Noire”. The news, but R Star still passed down their souls. Among the many works abandoned by R star, the most regrettable is the “Midnight Club” series. The cumulative sales of the four works are close to 20 million sets. It is entirely possible to become its ace series and eventually become R star in the long run. The victim of a goal, but also laid the foundation for the racing element in Grand Theft Auto.

Wangan, the term comes from the expressway from Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan to Kanazawa District, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture. This 62.1KM route is called the “Capital Expressway Wangan Line”. This line is almost every Sunday morning. There was no one, so it became a racing holy place for road racing fans who pursued extreme speed. Among them, there is a nearly 10KM long straight road from Kawasaki Ushimata to Dahei, and many modified cars are running at a speed of more than 300KM/H, less than two. pass in minutes. Although this kind of illegal behavior has been strictly controlled now, in the 1990s, it was the world of a group of brave people who not only pursued speed, but also a spiritual realm.

Japanese cartoonist Nan Tongchun created the comic “Wangan MIDNIGHT” with the theme of Wangan racing. It was serialized from 1990 to 2008, and a total of 42 single volumes were released. Different from another famous racing comic “Initial D”, which mainly describes drifting on mountain roads, this work emphasizes that high-performance modified cars sprint on the highway with all their strength. According to the underground racing organization founded by Eiichi Yoshida, a heavy Porsche enthusiast in reality Mid Night Club is the prototype, and the content is more exciting. It can be said to be a classic memory of the golden age of Japanese sports cars.

Game companies will naturally not miss such an attractive theme. For example, Namco Palace launched the racing game “Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune” in the arcade directly based on the original comics. The first work was launched in June 2004, and now it has evolved to the sixth generation. . The bold screen performance is combined with the steering wheel frame operation, coupled with the fun of modified vehicles with cards, online battles, etc., which are deeply loved by many hardcore racing players. The music of the game was created by the veteran arcade composer Gu Yusan. There are also genuine agents introduced in China, and many enthusiasts also organize competitions.

The Wangan series launched by R Star is actually earlier than the Namco arcade, and the game content is no longer limited to the original comics, but has moved this racing spirit to all parts of the world. The development team of this series is Angel Studios, located in California, USA. This company initially cooperated with Capcom to transplant the N64 version of “Resident Evil 2” and completely restore the 2CD game content in the cassette. Its technical strength has been fully recognized by the industry. Later, Microsoft took a fancy to it and developed the PC racing game “Midtown Madness”. In this game, players are no longer limited to the track, but can run freely in the city of Chicago. It can be said to be the prototype of modern open world racing. Angel
The performance of Studios’ multiple works aroused great interest from Rockstar. The two sides decided to continue to develop the sandbox racing game. On October 25, 2000, the first work “Wangan Midnight Club: Street Racing” was launched on the PS2 console.

In the first generation of work, the player played an ordinary taxi driver on the streets of New York. He joined the mysterious racing organization Midnight Club for honor and money. At first, the player could only operate a very slow primary vehicle. After completing the game, he defeated many powerful enemies. You can constantly update your own vehicle and finally defeat the top boss Kareem Windross.

This work utilizes the powerful performance of the new generation of PS2 consoles, and uses an open map for a breakthrough. At the same time, works such as Need for Speed, GT Racing, Ridge Racing and other works still stay in the independent track gameplay, and the shock brought to players can be imagined. The game restores the map based on the real scene. Players can experience famous buildings such as Times Square, Empire State Building, World Trade Center, United Nations Headquarters, Madison Square Garden, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and so on.

There are not many types of racing cars in the game, only a dozen or so, but the open game experience gives players a high degree of freedom of choice, which is far richer than those of fixed track games with hundreds of racing cars. Although there is no real racing authorization, However, the prototypes of various modified cars can be found in reality. The final sales volume was 2.63 million sets, and the IGN score was 8.6. It was one of the early ace works of the PS2 host.

The excellent performance of the first generation of Wangan also brought new opportunities for Angel Studios. In November 2002, it was acquired by Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar, and officially changed its name to Rockstar San Diego, which is the “Red Dead Redemption” we are now very familiar with. development team. April 9, 2003, “Wangan Midnight”
Club 2 is on sale, this time on PS2, Xbox, and PC.

The second generation of the sequel still continues the basic sandbox gameplay of the previous game. The scene map includes the three major regions of Los Angeles, Paris, France, and Tokyo, Japan. The types of vehicles and the number of characters have reached three times the level of the previous game. At the same time, the route in the game has been improved. Players can have more degrees of freedom when choosing, such as shortcuts, passing through buildings and other shortcuts. The design of vehicle damage also puts forward higher requirements for players to operate. The final sales volume was 2.28 million sets, and the IGN score was 9.1. The performance is still eye-catching.

April 12, 2005, “Wangan Midnight”
Club 3 DUB Edition is released on PS2 and Xbox consoles. The game still continues the sandbox rules. The scenes include San Diego, Atlanta, and Detroit. The DUB in the game name represents the famous American automobile media DUB Magazine. Star for brand cooperation.

The vehicles in this work are actually debuted with brand authorization, including classic racing cars of many brands such as Cadillac, Chevrolet, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, etc. The ability of the vehicle can be improved, and the appearance can also be changed. At the same time, the long-awaited online multiplayer mode has been added. Not only can you play against people from all over the world, but you can also form or join clubs. The final sales volume has increased significantly to 7.36 million sets, with an IGN score of 8.8.

At this point, R Star’s Wangan series has entered a mature stage. Now, this game has the characteristics of modern sandbox games. The implantation of real brand racing cars makes players feel very immersed, and the rich map content and networked multiplayer mode completely get rid of The shortcomings of traditional racing games are simple and boring. It is worth mentioning that Need For Speed: Most Wanted (commonly known as Need for Speed ​​9), which was released later in the same year, also adopted the same sandbox map + challenge BOSS growth model, becoming the most popular in the series. A good work, the racing game has begun to have a new development direction.

The launch of a new generation of consoles gave Rockstar’s open world creativity a real space to play. On October 20, 2008, “Wangan Midnight Club:
Los Angeles is available on PS3 and Xbox 360.

In the previous Wangan games, limited by the hardware performance, the whole world could only be displayed in the form of several small sandbox maps. This time, using the greatly improved functions, a complete large map has been realized, although on the surface, this game only has one in Los Angeles. City, but the area is far larger than the sum of the previous three cities, which makes the player experience more seamless and complete, while the details are richer, the new 24-hour day and night cycle system, weather effects and traffic prosperity greatly increase the game. fidelity.

This work has added the highly playable police element in the GTA series. During the free roaming process, if the player runs a red light, speeding, or driving off the road, the police will approach the player. At this time, you can choose to escape and enter A tense chase mode with hefty fines if caught. At the same time, the game also added one of the GTA series logos, the R star logo yellow oil drum, a total of 60 distributed in Los Angeles, players can find them to unlock achievements or trophies.

The game finally sold 5.89 million sets, with an IGN rating of 8.5. This game is the last of the R Star Wangan series. The overall gameplay performance has reached its peak. Many players have become the racing version of GTA. There are still a large number of fans today. On the latest Xbox console Run in backward compatible form.

The four works in the Wangan series have a total sales volume of more than 18 million sets, and all of them have an IGN rating of 8.5+. Both sales and word-of-mouth are top-notch works. Such excellent performance will definitely be regarded as a trump card by other companies. But for Rockstar, this kind of pure racing sandbox game has a limited ceiling, so he chose to integrate this once brilliant series into the wider world of GTA.

So we see that in the follow-up GTA works, whether it is a drag racing shootout or traveling around the world, cars are an indispensable tool. At the same time, various famous vehicles also meet the needs of players for collection and MOD customization. Every time in GTA When driving, you can experience the familiar feel of the Wangan series. This kind of gameplay for a large number of people can be said to be one of the core systems of the entire game. Many players even play GTA as a racing game.

The Wangan series has also allowed Rockstar San Diego to accumulate rich experience, gradually evolving from an independent studio to a top development team in the industry, laying a good foundation for the success of the “Red Dead Redemption” series. Comprehensively looking at the development of this series, it is very important to the current Rockstar. Both of its two super ace cards are of great significance. The game did not fade out due to poor performance, but in the form of inheritance and reincarnation, it radiated new charm on a larger stage.

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