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Canceled "Driver 5" Concept Art Emerges

Art suggests that the game, which never made it out of pre-production, would have featured destructible environments.

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New details about a never-before-seen and ultimately canceled Driver racing game have emerged. Unseen 64, a well-sourced sleuthing site, has dug up details on "Driver 5," a racing game in the works for a short time at Sonic & All-Stars Racing studio Sumo Digital.

The game was apparently going to be published by Ubisoft in early 2011 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. This was likely the game Ubisoft referenced in a financial forecast back in 2010.

Driver 5 reportedly entered pre-production around that time. Sumo, a third-party studio, previously worked on Driver '76 for the PSP, so the studio had an understanding of the series.

Concept artist Christian Bravery was tapped to create concept art for Driver 5. You can see one of his creations above, and more over at Unseen 64.

Driver 5 reportedly never made it out of pre-production, as Ubisoft chose to drop Sumo Digital as a partner and instead give the game to Ubisoft Reflections. That studio ultimately went on to make Driver: San Francisco.

Based on the concept art, it appears that Sumo's vision for Driver 5 was going to include destructible environments of some kind. That's not altogether surprising, as Sonic & All-Stars Racing also featured environments that fell apart over time.

Image credit: Unseen 64

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rlakhani

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If they had released it, would we have found ourselves driving uphill to unlock new areas in their typical ubisoft open-world?

I believe it was a good decision to cancel it, unless it was something like Driver SF.

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jenovaschilld

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Loved the first two driver games- it will be hard for them to recreate those successes without bringing on some pro talent or risking the IP to young, hungry talented new developers willing to take some risks not an accountants check off list.

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MODNAR11

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I stand by the opinion that Driver San Francisco had the best physics model and the best car list of any open world driving game ever made. I still boot it up every now and again to tear around SF. If it had a proper multiplayer free roam mode I would still be playing it. I really really hope it gets a worthy sequel.

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rlakhani

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Agreed.

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foxhound_fox

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The one game last generation that everyone should have bought and played. San Francisco was outstanding and really tried to push console racing games forwards... and nobody noticed.

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PS2fweak

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<< LINK REMOVED >> I definitely wouldn't go that far, but it was surprisingly fun.

If you don't expect much, you might be pleasantly surprised, but telling people it was essentially the best game last generation will just disappoint people. It was stupid fun, and actually people did notice, but it was a hard sale at full price.

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masterpnut3

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Driver 3 parallel lines on ps2 was terrible. That was my only experience with driver series. Everything was off in that game.

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Avatar image for deactivated-58a78a043e9d4
deactivated-58a78a043e9d4

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Parallel lines was the 4th game and was considerably better than 3 (though still not exactly good).

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masterpnut3

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I meant Driv3r never played Parallel Lines. The mechanics were not good in 3. I did give it a shot a few times though.

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LoganGTA5

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Original Driver on Playstation was sooo good. It's a shame what happened to this franchise. Too bad.

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Empty_Hat

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Driver was great on PS1, since it was first true 3D "GTA". But the devs never managed to capitalize on that and adapt to new technologies and trends and the game was basically doomed.

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normanislost

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<< LINK REMOVED >> oh they did try with driver 3 and failed horribly

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pez2k_

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Driver SF was a really great game - the storyline excuses they made up to omit on-foot action but still allow the player to switch cars at will were a fantastic design decision, and let them include some really interesting game modes. One in particular was team races, where your goal was to finish both first and second, but the clever approach was to simply 'possess' traffic cars and use them to destroy the opponents.


Now that Reflections are presumably done with their art support for The Crew, I'm hoping that they are allowed to produce a proper followup to SF.

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rlakhani

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<< LINK REMOVED >><< LINK REMOVED >> Absolutely.

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drocdoc

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When are we gonna get a racing gaming with good customization options like the "Midnight Club" Series. I still play MC:3 Dub Edition on my PC using the PS2 emulator and 10 years later no racing game even comes close to that level of customization (except MC:LA for ps3 and 360). It seems like every new racing game tries to go for more of a simulator type game rather than an arcade style which is more fun.

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sergih123

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I want a fucking new TDU 3!

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normanislost

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screw driver I want a new stunt man

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pez2k_

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Stuntman was sold to THQ, who are no longer in business. The first game had very split opinions too, hence why Reflections never made their own sequel.

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hamza345

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The crew was trash,Ubisoft should have made a new driver instead of wasting their time and money in crappy Crew.

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4KGamer_LMXXX

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I hope they're not ditching the Driver franchise. San Francisco was actually pretty decent, a sequel with improved gameplay & 'next-gen' graphics isn't going to hurt anyone.... Or maybe a reboot with Driver 1 like gameplay? That could be interesting...

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electronic_eye

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The image above doesn't really look like concept art to me, though I guess it could be a more fancy type. Looks more like they may have done some prototyping and this was a screen capture from that. We'll probably never know for sure.

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Avatar image for deactivated-58a78a043e9d4
deactivated-58a78a043e9d4

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<< LINK REMOVED >> Look at the dashboard and the guy's face, they're painted. It is concept art.

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deactivated-58a78a043e9d4

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"That's not altogether surprising, as Sonic & All-Stars Racing also featured environments that fell apart over time."

I initially read this as "Sonic & All-Stars Racing also fell apart over time." I thought: burn!!

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pelvist

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The first two Driver games where brilliant for their time, (though the second one was really buggy) the first game really set some standards.

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vader501st

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It was a smart move. Driver San Fran was a great game.

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DaVillain

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DaVillain  Moderator

Can't say I'm surprise. Driver was awesome back on PlayStation, Driver 2, that game was full of glitches, and the gameplay was unbearable. Driv3r was not as good, the on foot shooting flat-out-sucks, and that was the last straw for me with Driver series. Never bother with San Francisco.

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Avatar image for deactivated-58a78a043e9d4
deactivated-58a78a043e9d4

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<< LINK REMOVED >> It's a shame Driv-three-r's gameplay was so rubbish because it was probably the best world out of the lot, especially driving up those country lanes in Nice.

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deactivated-584419ec3a052

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I wouldn't mind a new Driver game. I'm in the small camp that also enjoyed San Francisco.

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H20-XCV

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Garbage

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lewisholyland

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Driver? is that still a thing? Never really liked any of them.

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