Rumour: Ridge Racer 8 Might Not Be Drifting Onto The Nintendo Switch After All

Shame if true... would've loved a AAA arcade racer on Switch.

(wistfully looks at OutRun's decaying corpse for any sign of life)

I didn't even know there was a Ridge Racer 8.

@MarioFan02

A collection of Outrun 2, Outrun Online Arcade and Outrun 2006 on the NX would be awesome.
Too bad Sega is content with giving us the same games over and over and over again.

@KitsuneNight Umm...that would be because it was never announced. Did you read the article?

@MARl0

All I was saying is that I didn't even know Ridge Racer 8 was a thing rumor based or not.

@KitsuneNight but aren't those all basically the same game? outrun 2006 had outrun 2 SP in it, and online arcade is just 2006 but stripped down as far as i can tell
that would practically be the epitome of giving us the same game over and over again

I honestly forgot about this game.

Was grateful for the 3DS version. Would have been thrilled with a Switch one ):

Booo...

Games companies are getting lazy, they can't write their own engine anymore. Unreal engine is too slow for a racing game like Ridge Racer, it won't be able to reach 60fps on Switch.

Speaking of games not coming, does anyone else feel like the consistency of good games coming has slowed down drastically? It’s almost like a surprise Nintendo Direct is coming in the next week or two, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

@gloom When do you feel that it has "slowed down"'? I'm still trying to catch up with all the great games released in the last couple of months!
If you mean that there are not many "big" releases slated for December (other than Alien Asolation), that's just the usual Christmas lull: Companies usually release their big holiday games in the previous weeks or months, to give their distribution and promotion branches enough time to get the product to the stores and into the wish list of potential buyers.
Same with the Nintendo Direct: Why tell your customers now about future releases, when you want them to spend their Christmas money in your products? As far as I can remember, Nintendo has never done a Christmas Direct, which makes total commercial sense. What they usually do is begining-of-the-year Directs; after the Christmas spending spree is done, they tell their costumers what's coming in the following months.

It shouldn't be exclusive, but I really want another ridge racer.

RIDGE RAAAAAACCCCEEERRR

Honestly I'd be perfectly happy with a port of Burnout Paradise, which should be more than doable given the hardware that game can run on. ANY competent AAA non-kart racers would be nice.

Meh not interested

@somebread

Yeah mostly.
But if its just Outrun 2006 people wil complain.
Best to just give people one mega Outrun collection with the original,
Outrunners,
Power drift,
and Outrun 2
2006
and Arcade .

...I'd buy it.

That would be very disappointing! It's my favorite and only Racer. Horizon Chase Turbo was nice, but nothing can beat a Ridge Racer!
Maybe I have to undust another console again.

Ridge Racer still alive? Thought it died with the PS2, nobody I knew talks about this dead franchise at all nowadays not even my PS3/PS4 folks who mostly play all things PlayStation. If it's not coming to Switch it doesn't have to, nobody really care or miss it at all.

For my Nintendo DS, I remember buying Super Mario 64 DS and Feel the Magic at launch but doesn't remember Ridge Racer DS for some reason. I remember I bought 3 games but only could name the two, didn't realize the other was Ridge Racer DS until now. That's just how obscure the game was to me.

I just don't get why Doctre81 has so few subs.

This seems like a perfect ip to resurrect on Switch. Shame it looks like it’s already DOA

@retro_player_22

The last Ridge Racer is Unbounded from 2012.
That doesn't mean the series is entirely dead just yet.
7 was released in 2006.

But it's clearly past it's prime .

A shame but Asphalt 8 is curing that itch anyway

They haven't made a decent ridge racer in a long time anyways so no great loss

@Trajan Knew someone would reference Kaz at some point! 👍

@Kochambra I think @gloom is on about how Nintendo's 2019 lineup ended a few weeks ago (Pokemon Sword/Shield) where generally the end is in early/mid December (the vast majority of the last decade has had a December Nintendo game). Also early 2020 is very unknown.

Don't think a Direct is coming until 2020 but rather if Nintendo has stuff to announce they'll do it at the Game Awards.

@NoTinderLife you have no idea how difficult it is to write an engine and the tools that go with it. Unreal Engine 4 can also run a racing game. The problem is the hardware, not the engine when it comes to switch. That requires those same lazy devs to get into the code and rework parts of unreal for switch. That's 2 decades worth of engine experience most teams do not have. You need a rendering engineer, core tech engineer, tools and pipeline engineer, and about a year with some luck just to fix that issue.

Its about cost, not laziness. Namco has had a hard time justifying projects cause they don't have the resources to justify a niche project. Just look at the hell tekken 7 and soul calibur 6 went through. Right now there is no telling how well Ridge Racer would do and if it justifies the cost. I love ridge racer, but is rather they wait till ps5, leverage anything from unreal, and put their talented team to work on something that can be successful with 2 million sold.

You want to place blame, point your fingers at the accountants for making the right decision.

Ha ha, when I first saw the woman in the picture I thought it was Bayonetta

Disappointing if it’s true as I love a good Ridge Racer game, that said I’m not sure UE4 would have delivered a very smooth experience; it seems to struggle to keep frame rates consistent even on the Pro and the X.

Honestly, I’d pay very good money for M2 to give Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer the Virtua Racing treatment. Those old Super System 22 arcade boards are getting harder and harder to keep running so decent emulation is becoming more and more vital.

My last Ridge Racer was Type 4 on PS1. One of the best arcade racer ever, and the last great game of the series.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah that’s what I meant. With Pokémon being the last notable game, all that we know about is Tokyo Mirage Sessions before Animal Crossing... and I’m only counting TMS as a big release because I’m desperate here. With AC coming in late March it makes me really wonder what else could possibly be coming.

@KitsuneNight To be fair Namco aren't doing much better Pac-man 1980 anyone? Dig Dug? never mind the better Arrangement versions from the mid 90's with co-op/power ups/different stages/endings and option to play the original version too honestly I don't get why they never bothered to port Ridge Racer 1 to modern systems, I mean SEGA has done Daytona USA PS3/XBLA and SEGA Rally 1994 PS2 Japan and Virtua Racing thanks to Switch so why not Namco's racers?

I mean outside mame or finding the real machines most of Namco's 3D arcade games are stuck on the PS1 in terms of ports

I would love to see Ridge Racer 1/2 and Rave Racer come to switch with online... but I bet we just get another pacman port or another early 80's arcade game

Meh... I’d honestly rather a new, really cool, Initial D RPG/story-based racer. One where you do all the racing, but there’s also RPG elements and leveling up and customization.

@KitsuneNight simply they should port the coast2coast game and voila.

😭😭😭😡😡
Am gutted if true

I don't know what the deal is, but I wouldn't blame Namco for being upset over being fired from Metroid Prime 4's development.

terrible news, been a long time since a proper console RR

Gutted if true was really looking forward to Another Ridge at long last. Should of known better than expecting today’s industry on delivering something us arcade gamers love. Namco, Konami obviously have lost the plot and have no respect for the legendary back catalogue they possess.

After Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP, namco ruined the series for me. It just wasn't ridge racer anymore.

@DeusX

Yes totally agree
The series kinda went downhill after Type 4 , though the psp games are pretty decent.

@KitsuneNight Unbounded wasn't proper Ridge Racer. the last Ridge Racer on the console side was RR7.

@HaNks
It was more like Burnout really.
But it carries the Ridge Racer name, so....

It's Ridge Racer! Riiiiiiiiiiidge Racer!!

@Kochambra I agree there have been lots of solid releases over the past couple months I can hardly keep up with. However, I was seriously hoping for a Nintendo Direct later this month, as Animal Crossing is the only first party title we know of next year, unless I'm forgetting something. (Not counting SMT×FE and Xenoblade, as those are mostly known quantities, since they're re-releases.) But you're probably right, Nintendo would be wise to wait until after Christmas, so now my hopes are dashed. Curse your sound logic!

Would have been great to see a new Ridge Racer on the Switch. I would have never thought of the title being an exclusive as it wouldn't make business sense but to see it supposedly cancelled altogether is a shame.....

Is this an article about a rumour about a rumour?

boo! hiss! I'm not happy, I want this to be true 🙁

@jarvismp that is the only thing close I agree but the microtransactions really do ruin the game.

@BANJO I've been praying since launch of the switch to get ridge racer on the console, now my hopes have been crushed 😢

@retro_player_22 the fact, that YOU don't care about this game, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't care as well.
I've played countless hours of Ridge Racer 7 on PS3 and it was one of few launch titles that I kept for the whole life span of PS3. DS version of Ridge Racer was mediocre game - 30fps, bad handling, bad graphics, it wasn't proper Ridge Racer title.
Ridge Racer 8 on Switch would be my first pre-order on that platform.

@DanTheSausage RR7 was very good game.

@retro_player_22

RR7 (ps3 exclusive) online servers still running up with a pretty strong base of daily players, it's a game from 2006.

Game servers for online matches still running up till now, 2019.

again...

Do you got it?

12 years old game with the official servers for the online matches alive.