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NASCAR Heat Evolution announced - Monster Games - PS4, XB1, PC - September 13

B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
PR here:

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina – May 20, 2016 – Dusenberry Martin Racing (DMR), NASCAR’s exclusive console simulation-style video game licensee, today announced the future of NASCAR gaming with NASCAR Heat Evolution – launching September 13, 2016. Marking the debut of the NASCAR video game series on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One, and also arriving on Windows PC, this new title will provide fans with a brand-new and authentic racing experience.

NASCAR Heat Evolution will immerse fans in the door-to-door excitement of stock car racing and allow users to live the experience of taking the checkered flag. Whether a casual or hardcore gaming fan, NASCAR Heat Evolution will dynamically adapt to any skill level and deliver a true-to-life racing experience. The new game will feature all of the top drivers, teams, and incredibly detailed tracks and environments, giving fans the opportunity to feel what it is like to be a racing legend.

“Our company is a team of highly skilled gaming vertans with a proven record of success in NASCAR game development and publishing. Our commitment to the NASCAR community is to consistently deliver fun, engaging and high-quality NASCAR games to the market,” said DMR Chief Executive Officer Tom Dusenberry.

DMR, whose licensing agreement with NASCAR Team Properties runs through 2020, partnered with Monster Games to create NASCAR Heat Evolution, bringing more than 100 years of combined NASCAR games experience to the project.

DMR President Ed Martin said, “To deliver an all-new NASCAR game experience, we assembled an all-star team of NASCAR game experts and started with a clean sheet of paper. What the DMR and Monster Games teams have come up with is going to amaze NASCAR fans.”

From the same legendary team that created the critically acclaimed NASCAR titles NASCAR Heat and NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona, Monster Games has a clear vision for NASCAR Heat Evolution.

“The Monster Games team is thrilled to partner again with Tom, Ed and the Dusenberry Martin Racing team. We have been working on NASCAR Heat Evolution for 18 months and are excited about what we have created. From day one, our goal has been to deliver a fun, engaging and realistic racing game designed for NASCAR fans,” said Monster Games President Richard Garcia.

“The gaming space allows fans to consume our sport on a daily basis, ultimately helping grow and diversify our audience,” said Blake Davidson, Vice President of Consumer Products and Licensing, NASCAR. “Our fans have eagerly anticipated the arrival of a new NASCAR game, and we expect that NASCAR Heat Evolution will be well worth the wait.”

DMR has also partnered with Toyota, an Official NASCAR Partner, in a unique video game cover athlete competition. The first Toyota driver to cross the finish line in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be the cover athlete of NASCAR Heat Evolution. Choosing a cover athlete from an on-track competition is a first in video game history. NASCAR Heat Evolution will mark the first time Toyota or any of their eligible drivers – Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. – will be the face of a NASCAR video game. Toyota and DMR are developing an innovative in-game branding partnership that will elevate the racing experience for video game fans.

Fans that are ready to strap in and feel the adrenaline of a NASCAR racing experience have the opportunity to pre-order NASCAR Heat Evolution now at NASCARHeat.com, GameStop, Target.com, Walmart.com and the PlayStation®Store. NASCAR Heat Evolution will take racing fans to a level of realism, excitement and authenticity that has never been seen on a console before.

NASCAR Heat Evolution will be available on September 13, 2016 in North America for the PlayStation®4 system, Xbox One and Windows PC. More information can be found at NASCARHeat.com, with additional details to be released in the coming months. Fans can also follow NASCAR Heat Evolution on Twitter via @DMRNASCARHeat and @DMRacingGames.

About Dusenberry Martin Racing

Dusenberry Martin Racing is a digital games publisher and developer focused on delivering fun and engaging NASCAR-branded games. The company is dedicated to bringing high-quality digital and socially interactive game experiences to the marketplace. DMR launches its first PlayStation®4 system and Xbox One game, NASCAR Heat Evolution, in September 2016. The company is headquartered at NASCAR Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.dmracing.org.
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Interesting tidbits:
DMR has the NASCAR license until 2020
Monster Games working on a multiplat game
Cover will be whichever Toyota racer crossing the finish line first at the 2016 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway
 
B

Borman

Member
One of the problems Nascar games always seem to have is coming at the end of the season. It just doesnt make sense.
 
O

Onaco

Member
It's pretty bad when you have to say how many combined years of Nascar game experience you have. How much experience do you need to make cars go in a circle?
 
L

LewieP

Member
Seems like a waste of obvious talent to me.

They've worked exclusively with Nintendo for the last decade. I wonder why they are not working on another Nintendo title. I'd have loved an Excite Truck follow up, and Monster Games probably would have been my first choice to helm a new F-zero.

Anyone played any of their previous Nascar games, or indeed any of their releases from before they teamed up with Nintendo?
 
J

Jebusman

Banned
Ok look, I love "driving in circles" jokes as much as the next guy, but there is still actual skill involved in trying to keep up the speeds they're going at when surrounded by 30+ other cars.

Even for games, it's one of those 'We need to nail the physics just right for something like this". It's not literally just make them "go around in a circle".

NASCAR is essentially an extremely long drag race, which requires a circular track to not make it the length of the earth itself.
 
J

Joseph Merrick

Member
great. 3ds ports was a waste of the obvious talents in this studio

LewieP said:
Anyone played any of their previous Nascar games, or indeed any of their releases from before they teamed up with Nintendo?
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all their driving games pre-nintendo were fantastic. my favourite is viper racing, with its crazy physics and super fragile cars. really great.
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
serenewarfare said:
Seems odd to make this announcement so quickly after Forza did their NASCAR stuff. Seems to invite an immediate comparison.
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Well Pr says they have the license until 2020 so maybe they had to wait until Forza released their content to announce it? Idk though haha but that's only thing that makes sense
 
M

metsallica

Member
LewieP said:
Seems like a waste of obvious talent to me.

They've worked exclusively with Nintendo for the last decade. I wonder why they are not working on another Nintendo title. I'd have loved an Excite Truck follow up, and Monster Games probably would have been my first choice to helm a new F-zero.

Anyone played any of their previous Nascar games, or indeed any of their releases from before they teamed up with Nintendo?
Click to expand...
Who says they aren't?
 
A

Akiraptor

Member
Onaco said:
It's pretty bad when you have to say how many combined years of Nascar game experience you have. How much experience do you need to make cars go in a circle?
Click to expand...

Yeah must be the same with baseball and soccer games. Just smacking a ball and running. Can't be too hard, right?
 
L

LewieP

Member
metsallica said:
Who says they aren't?
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I meant at least for this specific title. Surely Nintendo would have had some work for them in the run up to NX launch?

It's noteworthy when a studio that has spent the last decade working exclusively on Nintendo published titles announces a non-Nintendo game.
 
C

Chris R

Member
serenewarfare said:
Seems odd to make this announcement so quickly after Forza did their NASCAR stuff. Seems to invite an immediate comparison.
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Forza stuff is a few tracks and a few cars, not every track and every car. Since I don't own an Xbone I didn't do too much research into the handling the Forza versions of the car would have, but that is another thing that could be different.

Plenty of room for both to exist.
 
L

L~A

Member
LewieP said:
Seems like a waste of obvious talent to me.

They've worked exclusively with Nintendo for the last decade. I wonder why they are not working on another Nintendo title. I'd have loved an Excite Truck follow up, and Monster Games probably would have been my first choice to helm a new F-zero.

Anyone played any of their previous Nascar games, or indeed any of their releases from before they teamed up with Nintendo?
Click to expand...

I dunno, looks like a filler/code for food project.

Then again, not everyone is Next Level Games, I guess.
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
LewieP said:
I meant at least for this specific title. Surely Nintendo would have had some work for them in the run up to NX launch?

It's noteworthy when a studio that has spent the last decade working exclusively on Nintendo published titles announces a non-Nintendo game.
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Not only that, but if DMR has the license for the next 4 years it's a good bet they will have Monster pumping out these titles once a year
 
G

Gunstarheroes

Member
As someone who loved Nascar Heat as a kid, this is something i never thought i'd ever see. I'll probably grab this for nostalgia and to support Monster Games. You guys can't bring me down.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this is their only project set.

Having driven by their office before, they're very small, and I was under the impression they were soft merging with another studio, which by the press release it sounds like that was this North Carolina developer-publisher.
 
U

udivision

Member
The thing is, when coming up with a poster for the game, they drew logos for Steam, PS4 and XB1. And then they realized Nintendo wouldn't have a console that could run the game until 6 months after the planned release.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
I hesitate to draw sweeping conclusions from this, but it doesn't *seem* like a good sign regarding the state of Western first-party development for NX.
 
A

AndyMoogle

Member
Father_Brain said:
I hesitate to draw sweeping conclusions from this, but it doesn't *seem* like a good sign regarding the state of Western first-party development for NX.
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While I don't expect great third party support for NX, I don't see this as a sign that it can't possibly be released on NX. The console doesn't even have an official name or a release date set, so I don't really see the point in saying that they are going to release it on a console that is coming at least 6 months after this game is out.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
AndyMoogle said:
While I don't expect great third party support for NX, I don't see this as a sign that it can't possibly be released on NX. The console doesn't even have an official name or a release date set, so I don't really see the point in saying that they are going to release it on a console that is coming at least 6 months after this game is out.
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I said Western first-party development, not Western third-party development, and that's what I meant.

If Nintendo were serious about diversifying its currently very Japan-centric first-party software portfolio with Western markets in mind, you might think they'd start by strengthening and expanding their current Western partnerships. That Monster is instead now developing their first multiplatform third-party title in over a decade isn't enough to draw a sweeping conclusion from, but it's not a good sign.
 
B

Branson

Member
Had no idea that Monster was merged into DM for this. That actually gets me optimistic about it since they did some of the best console NASCAR games. They kind of brought a PC sim ideal into it.
 
K

KingBroly

Banned
Father_Brain said:
I said Western first-party development, not Western third-party development, and that's what I meant.

If Nintendo were serious about diversifying its currently very Japan-centric first-party software portfolio with Western markets in mind, you might think they'd start by strengthening and expanding their current Western partnerships. That Monster is now developing their first non-Nintendo first-party title in over a decade isn't enough to draw a sweeping conclusion from, but it's not a good sign.
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...what

This game is a marketing tie-in to Nascar's Playoff system. NX wouldn't be out by the time this game comes out, even if it was hitting this year.
 
A

AntMurda

Member
They probably signed a contract with Nintendo to develop x amount of games, and pretty much decided it was time to move on after the last first-party port.
 
L

LewieP

Member
KingBroly said:
...what

This game is a marketing tie-in to Nascar's Playoff system. NX wouldn't be out by the time this game comes out, even if it was hitting this year.
Click to expand...

And many people would have hoped and assumed that instead they'd be developing an NX title for Nintendo.
 
F

Father_Brain

Banned
KingBroly said:
...what

This game is a marketing tie-in to Nascar's Playoff system. NX wouldn't be out by the time this game comes out, even if it was hitting this year.
Click to expand...

*sigh*

The point is not whether or not this particular game is coming to NX. The point is that Monster's decade of exclusively developing Nintendo games for Nintendo platforms is over.
 
U

udivision

Member
KingBroly said:
...what

This game is a marketing tie-in to Nascar's Playoff system. NX wouldn't be out by the time this game comes out, even if it was hitting this year.
Click to expand...

I guess the assumption is that Nintendo delaying the NX launch meant that all of their (associated) devs would probably be working on something for the NX. Assuming development is wrapping up now or soon, they probably only have time for a launch window port, unless they'll be put on something coming out later.
 
J

jesterkap2

Neo Member
Their old NASCAR games were great. Dirt to Daytona in particular was really awesome. I'm interested in this game, but I can't say that I'm not disappointed they aren't making a new Nintendo racing game like F-Zero or Wave Race or even a new Excite Truck/Bike.
 
L

LewieP

Member
KingBroly said:
I get that, but I don't really see much success coming from this.
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Well clearly something has happened. Either they've entirely parted ways with Nintendo, or they've decided to no longer limit themselves to just making Nintendo games, and are stepping out on what had appeared to have been an exclusive relationship.

I wish them well, but I'm far less interested in a Nascar game than I would have been of a new Excite game from them. I don't begrudge them from finding work from wherever makes sense for them to go looking, but I am a little disappointed, both from the perspective of this particular studios output and from what it could possibly suggest about Nintendo's ongoing relationships with the Western studios that they have long term relationships with, but no actual ownership over.
 
B

Branson

Member
KingBroly said:
I get that, but I don't really see much success coming from this.
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If the game is good enough people will buy it. The key is getting away from the terrible games from ETX the past 5 years. New branding will help like this and not just calling it 16. People know that Heat was a great series, so hopefully it does well. We need more decent oval racing content out there, since everyone just focuses on road racing for some reason and completely ignores a huge part of racing culture.

I'm cautiously optimistic, but the talent is there at least.
 
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