Despite it being a stalwart of the early years of open-world racing games, there’s not been a new entry in the Driver franchise since 2011’s cult classic Driver: San Francisco. Well, sort of – in 2015, its branding and franchise were slapped onto a free-to-play mobile boat racing game called Driver: Speedboat Paradise in which you were tasked with helping protagonist John Tanner “bring down the speedboat mafia.” We kid you not.
That particular fever dream aside, we sort of assumed that developer Ubisoft had allowed the franchise to wither and die until 2021 when it was announced that a live-action TV adaptation was being worked on.
Driver: San Francisco screenshot
Speaking to Game File following the publication of Ubisoft’s annual earnings report, a spokesperson for the developer confirmed that the series is no longer happening, but that some other Driver-related content may well be.
“We are no longer moving forward with our partnership with Binge for a Driver series. We are actively working on other exciting projects related to the franchise and can’t wait to share more information in the future,” said the statement.
Driver: San Francisco screenshot
What exactly these “exciting projects” are is a total mystery at this point, and it’s far from confirmation of a new title. Nevertheless, we hold out hope – there are only so many projects that could be plausibly developed from a video game franchise, foremost of which are, of course, video games.
What’s more, the open-world racing genre is experiencing a bit of a boom at the moment. There’s Forza Horizon 5 and The Crew Motorfest, and they’ll soon be joined by Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown and an unnamed, ‘narrative-driven’ title from newcomers Maverick Games. There might even be a new Burnout title in the works.
Driver: San Francisco screenshot
We definitely think there’s space for something with the grittier aesthetic and darker storylines that past Driver games have done so well, maybe even with the on-foot mechanics featured in the earlier games. We’d hope for a brand-new title, but we’d happily settle for something like a remaster of San Francisco, or even the original, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Given that Ubisoft apparently “can’t wait” to share more, hopefully, we won’t have long to wait before we find out what these “exciting projects” are. But please, not another cheap mobile game.
