Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell has today confirmed that Project CARS 3, which was only announced recently, will see a change in direction.

Posting on GTPlanet (post 106), Bell admits that Slightly Mad Studios had bitten off “more than we can properly chew” with Project CARS 2 and they are now looking to shift (pardon the pun) the centre of attention back to a more focused and fun experience.

“We’ve learned a lesson here and although we have no intention of reducing content, we know what we need to fix, where we made design decisions that were, let’s call it, ‘sub-optimal’” stated Bell. “pCARS3 will be more of a spiritual successor to Shift, but with all of the sim goodness everyone appreciates.”

“Shift” of course refers to 2009’s Need for Speed Shift title published by Electronic Arts. If you’ve played Shift before you will have noted that Project CARS feels like a natural evolution of it so it comes as no great stretch of the imagination to think that Slightly Mad Studios may be aiming for an experience somewhere in the middle of the two titles.

No other details on Project CARS 3 are currently known, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on any developments.

Slightly Mad Studios are currently working on a professional-grade version of Project CARS going by the name of “Project CARS Pro” (as seen in the images above) set to launch sometime in 2019 as a “unique and distinct product with the ability to create unparalleled client experiences”.

Keeping on the Project CARS front, the development team are also working on a mobile version of Project CARS entitled “Project CARS GO” brought about via a new partnership with the Korean mobile game publisher Gameliv.

If that wasn’t enough to get your Slightly Mad juices flowing, the seemingly very busy team are also supposedly developing a Fast & Furious game that has yet to be officially announced.

Sound off with your thoughts on this new Project CARS 3 development in the comments below.