New "authentic" GRID announced; here's why it's not coming to Xbox One or PS4

Veteran racing game developer Codemasters today officially announced GRID Autosport, the next entry in the series due to launch June 27 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. It's not coming to Xbox One or PlayStation 4, and that's because Codemasters did not want to "rush" it, community manager Ben Walke said.

"Regarding next-gen, ultimately it comes down to a few things. The first is that we genuinely want our first next gen outing to be something really great, we don't want to have to rush and only put out a handful of tracks," he said on NeoGAF. "We've got 22 locations in Autosport, the bulk of those are real world circuits, would all those have made it if we were to support next gen? Doubtful."

"Secondly, we're working our tech for next-gen now, as such, we're not quite ready. Again, we don't want to rush," he added. "Thirdly, after GRID 2 we sort of had something to prove, we wanted to leave the 'old gen' with a bit of a bang so to speak."

GRID Autosport is described as an "authentic" racing game. In the lengthy announcement post on Codemasters' website, Walke admitted that GRID 2 strayed too far away from its core fanbase for some aspects.

"While we were patching GRID 2 and releasing new content, we were busy gathering feedback. We devoured the comment threads under articles about GRID 2 on gaming websites, took stock of our reviews, and of course, digested all the comments on our social channels and forums where we received direct feedback," he said. "It's this feedback that helped create GRID Autosport. With GRID Autosport we had the opportunity to make a much more focussed motorsport game."

The blog post also touches on the handling mechanics for GRID Autosport. Walke says "it's definitely not a full simulation," noting that it should feel "authentic, not clinical." GRID Autosport will include five "disciplines," and each has their own unique style and feeling. On top of this, every discipline has a number of dedicated series within them, so that "you don't just get five broad experiences, but also different racing experiences within those styles."

Finally, GRID Autosport contains 22 total locations with a combined route list of over 100. Some of these include Hockenheim, Sepang, San Francisco, Jarama, and Yas Marina. Codemasters points out that there are more circuits in GRID Autosport than there are in GRID and GRID 2 combined. The game also includes Career and multiplayer modes

You can read the full GRID Autosport blog post at the Codemasters website.