Should we be worried about CarX Street? That's the question on a lot of gamers' lips right now, but is concern warranted? We go through everything we've seen and read about CarX Technologies' upcoming arcade racer right here!
Should we be worried about CarX Street?
After the roaring success of CarX Drift Racing Online, there was always going be another racing entry from CarX Tech. In 2019, we had that confirmed as CarX Street was officially announced.
At that time, nobody would've expected that the game wouldn't be released as we're heading towards the end of 2022. CarX Tech originally aimed for a November 2020 release date, before it was delayed to November 2021.
There were two more delays since then, with September 2022 and now December 2022 listed as the release date. That's a total of over two years of delays, more than double the intended development cycle.
So, should we be concerned? Well, there's two viewpoints when it comes to this, let's start with the positives.
Why delays aren't a big deal
Delays to video games and media in general is nothing new. However, the frequency of delays has increased hugely since the pandemic.
Timescales are tight enough in normal times and even though the worst is over, the effects on games that have been developed during it is still significant.
Although they may not seem like it, delays aren't necessarily a bad thing. Look at Red Dead Redemption 2, for example. RDR2 was delayed by a year and when it launched it was one of Rockstar's best games ever.
Delays give developers more time to perfect their product. It also helps to ensure that the game releases in the quality we expect. The last thing we want is CarX Street hitting virtual shelves half-baked.
Why this could be cause for concern
One delay is one thing, but three is bordering on unheard of. There's no guarantee that CarX Street won't be delayed for a fourth time into 2023 either.
The pandemic hasn't helped with this, and the fact that CarX Tech are an independent studio doesn't either. Just look at Need for Speed, for example. Even with the resources of EA, Criterion still haven't got the game out yet.
There is a very large elephant in the room though, that a lot of people won't know about. CarX Tech are a Russian company. We won't get into what's happening in Ukraine, but it's more than fair to say now is anything but a stable time for Russia.
We don't know how this and the sanctions are affecting CarX Tech and in fairness, they're still active on social media. On the flip side though, their posts on Street's Steam blog have dried up.
There have been 11 posts in 2022 so far, way down on 2021 and only four of those have been in the past six months. Hype and content should be ramping up in the run up to a release, not going down.
A quick look on their website will show the vast majority of their downloads and players are in Russia, China and other parts of Asia.
On top of that, the longer a game is in development, the features that were developed out of the start of the cycle are more likely to be out of date when the game does launch.
For example, let's say that the customisation features were the first developed for CarX Street. If this was back in 2019, then it might not be up to standard by 2023.
Just think what has happened in the last four years, we're in a whole new console generation now. If developers released a game only on PS4 and Xbox One, it'll be like a gaming dinosaur.
The same is true for PC as well, and this is the sole system that CarX Street.
The proof will ultimately be in the pudding when CarX Street launches and we're hopeful that it'll be great. However, nobody can deny that there's cause for at least a little concern.