Powering three years of car demolition antics, the online multiplayer mode for Eat Sleep Play’s debut PSN effort Calling All Cars has a had a solid run, but a lack of community interest led to its eventual closure today.

Transparent as ever, studio lead David Jaffe admitted that the game was far from perfect in a recent blog post, noting that it lacked the sort of charm that kept players coming back for more.  While Jaffe acknowledges that adding trophies and leaderboards would have helped mitigate the issue somewhat, a nagging thought made him feel there was a gaping hole left in the core experience itself, which in turn had the consequence of making extended play sessions lose their novelty quick:

I think we did a really good job making a fantastic piece of bubble gum that was sweet and jam packed with sugar and had a hell of a bang when you put it in your mouth. But for some reason I still have not totally figured out, the flavor faded VERY fast. You could come back to it after 2-4 weeks and have that same great experience, but it was always a really short ride. Some folks say leaderboards and trophy support would have helped.  And they would have, for sure. But the core game was lacking something that kept people coming back…I think most likely in our attempt to create a fast, furious, pick up play party game that reminded us of the classic SNES and arcade games we grew up on, we neglected the depth.

Sounds about right to us. While fun at its core, Calling All Cars lacked the necessary depth to reach that next plateau. Above all, what’s important is that Jaffe is recognizing these mistakes, which means we can expect a better quality product next time around.

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND [David Jaffe]

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