There are a few studios out there bigger than Rockstar Games. The gaming giant is known for heavy hitters like GTA, Red Dead, and even one-hit wonders like L.A. Noire. Like many developers, Rockstar was also all-in on the arcade racing craze in the 2000s. Midnight Club was their big racing series during that time, and it was a gigantic hit.
It took the arcade racer scene by storm as Rockstar perfected the idea of open-world street racing. Midnight Club: LA, in particular, was a definitive racing experience that added seamless open world, deep car customization, and a visceral sense of speed. That was in 2008. 17 years later, you have to ask yourself why you never hear about this franchise anymore.
The Rockstar Of Old
Midnight Club isn’t the only big franchise that Rockstar has abandoned. While primarily known for GTA and Red Dead these days, they were highly inventive and creative developers in the 2000s that worked on games that pushed boundaries. They still continue to do so, but now it’s more on the technical end rather than the chaotic, creative end.
You don’t have to look further than Bully and Manhunt to understand this statement. All of these games were unique experiences that were often imitated but never duplicated. Bully was a game about a new student at a boarding school who was pulling pranks on teachers, getting into fights, and causing all sorts of trouble.
Manhunt was Rockstar at its most controversial. This was a brutal stealth-horror game that can still give you nightmares. You were put in the shoes of a death-row inmate forced to star in a disturbing film by a mysterious director. It involves a lot of gore, jump scares, and disturbing imagery.
Then you have Midnight Club. This racing game ditched sanctioned races on tracks and dropped you into living, breathing cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. Take any shortcut, blaze through parks, and smash through storefronts to get ahead. That’s the idea of racing in this game. The fourth game, Midnight Club: LA, was a massive recreation of Los Angeles. It featured a 24-hour day-to-night cycle, dynamic traffic, and a deep level of car customization. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen it return since.
The Industry Shift To Open World Games
Now you can shame Rockstar all you want for not carrying on with the Midnight Club franchise, but look at it from a business perspective. One of the big reasons why the franchise was abandoned was that Rockstar, along with the industry, started focusing more on big, open-world games that generate more revenue. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and GTA V are perfect examples of this.
When GTA V Online started gaining popularity, Rockstar took the opportunity to double down on monetization and events, generating more revenue. It became so successful that people essentially started living separate virtual lives in role-playing servers. It is speculated that this is one of the reasons why GTA 6 development was delayed for so long, as Rockstar was busy generating revenue and devising new ways to increase revenue from GTA Online.
Despite its own problems, GTA Online draws in around half a billion in revenue for Rockstar just from microtransactions and purchases of DLCs.
When you’re bringing in that kind of money, why focus on older titles when you can release a blockbuster that generates residuals for years to come? Of course, this is a bit of a disappointment for old-school fans. You just know that a lot of your favorite Rockstar games from your childhood will never come back if the bigger picture is so different.
Why Midnight Club Might Never Come Back
So, those are just some of the reasons why Rockstar doesn’t return to Midnight Club. The series had a great run that spanned six games over eight years, and it was consistently wowing people with unique open-world freedom and authentic street racing culture. Its final installment was also a success, selling millions of copies and solidifying its legacy. But, rather than looking at why this series hasn’t returned, you have to understand why it definitely won’t return in the future either.
GTA 6 will undeniably be a gigantic success, and Rockstar has already fused its learnings from Midnight Club into GTA V. Racing is a big part of GTA Online, and it will undoubtedly be a major part of GTA 6. There’s no reason for Rockstar to invest in a separate racing series when the flagship product offers street racing and much more. Rockstar’s creative genius isn’t gone; it has just all been consolidated. Still, at the very least, they can give us a remastered collection for modern consoles.
