New Madbox console suggested by Slightly Mad racing game studio

A new console, 'the most powerful ever built', is on the go at racing game studio Slightly Mad. — AFP Relaxnews

Slightly Mad Studios, the racing game developer behind the Project CARS franchise and two Need For Speed titles, is floating a concept for the Madbox, "the most powerful console ever built", for release in 2022 or thereabouts.

A racing games studio is changing gears with its concept for a 4K console with Virtual Reality support.

The Madbox would be "the most powerful console ever built," according to Ian Bell, the CEO of Slightly Mad Studios.

Ian Bell announced the concept in a Jan 2 posting from his brand new Twitter account.

Retweets from the official Slightly Mad Studios account and two senior staff members at the British company, Game Director Paul Rustchynsky and Art Director Alex Perkins, provided initial credibility for the new account.

Slightly Mad was behind 2015's computer and console release Project CARS and its 2017 successor Project CARS 2.

An ambitiously realistic mainstream racing simulation, Project CARS also saw Slightly Mad launch its own crowdfunding platform instead of an industry-standard Kickstarter.

Development was shaped by interaction with a community of early adopters via a rapidly updated PC edition of the game, as the studio grappled with numerous home computer configurations; both Project CARS and Project CARS 2 support VR on PC.

The Madbox would be "equivalent to a very fast PC two years from now," Bell told Variety when asked to elaborate, targeting a release in "around three years" and "competitive with upcoming console prices".

Maintaining the title of "most powerful console" in 2022 would mean outpacing both the incumbent Xbox One X as well as the PlayStation 4's successor, expected for announcement sometime in 2019.

Factoring into Bell's statement is the likelihood that Slightly Mad has obtained work-in-progress or target PlayStation 5 specifications.

Having described the Madbox's VR potential as 60 frames per second "per eye" on Twitter, he clarified to Variety that he meant 120 frames per second overall, an improvement on the current 90Hz VR baseline.

Bell said that "multiple investors" were "already offering the required funding for us to see the product to completion" under a "partial ownership model".

"We're already in early talks with areas that are, let's say, not particularly open to other vendors at this moment," a possible reference to China, the world's largest gaming market.

"It's still early days and we're looking at the best offers," he said, inviting further investor discussion.

More information is expected later in January, according to Polygon's follow-up statement; Variety was told that concept imagery would be made available in "four to six weeks" – early to mid February.

Development on Project CARS 3 is at an early stage of development, according to Bell's posts on community forum GTPlanet, and its release may coincide with that of the Madbox. – AFP Relaxnews