As I was compiling the list of games and titles I've been involved with over the years for this website, I started thinking about which of those games would make my Top 3 on the proviso that each entry had to be a specific game, not a franchise, and that the top 3 could only contain one entry per franchise. I eventually came up with a list and I thought that, while it's subjective and personal to me, it would be fun to share. There'll be 3 parts to this series.
Above: Box artwork used by PlayStation for various Formula One and Wipeout games developed by Studio Liverpool.
So, without further ado, at #3 it's:
This was the first F1 game Studio Liverpool developed under a 4-year exclusive license from Formula One Management (FOM). Up until that point and for most of the early 2000’s, FOM only awarded non-exclusive licenses which led to Sony, EA and Ubisoft and even Infogrames all making or publishing F1 games. This was at a time when the sport itself was not undergoing the kind of growth in popularity we’ve been seeing over the last few years on the back of Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the expansion of the race calendar.
In those days, it was all about who managed to come out first with the new season’s liveries, tracks, rules and regulations. New tracks were always tricky to get right as in some cases they hadn’t even been built yet or were still undergoing re-development like Hockenheim in 2002. At that point, the liveries for the cars were also in flux almost right up until the first race as teams were always chasing sponsors. Getting the cars, the tracks and the advertising hoardings around the side of the tracks signed off was always a time-consuming process where you had to be meticulous, otherwise you might incur delays in getting the approvals you needed to launch the game.
Above: research is tough but someone's got to do it (Monza, 2003)
The 2003 F1 game had one of the shortest development periods of the 6 games we developed under the exclusive license. The reason for that is that the 2002 game launched quite late the previous year and so effectively we just continued developing that game to create the 2003 version. The upside of that was that it turned out to be a very accomplished title, since we were able to concentrate on ironing out the issues we wanted to from the previous release and adding all the new stuff, without worrying about another developer beating us to market. I think it made us create the best F1 game we had produced up to that point and it set us up very nicely for the next 3 years. Its two BAFTA Games nominations that year – one for Best Sports game and one for Best Racing game – are a testament to that.
Above: Fernando Alonson and Jenson Button promoting Formula One 2003 at the press launch (Nurburgring, 2003)
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