Rockstar veteran explained why Midnight Club 5 was canceled

The racing series has a fan base, and some remember Midnight Club to this day. There haven't been new games for a long time, and in a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz (Insider Gaming), former Rockstar Senior Designer Kris Roberts, who worked on the series, spoke about the franchise's fate and explained why players never saw Midnight Club 5.

The developer said that when he left the studio, the main Midnight Club team continued development:

“It seems they even had some city prototypes; I vaguely recall London being among them. Work was underway, and they started making “Midnight Club 5,” or whatever they would call it, but it didn't last long, and the project was canceled.”

According to Roberts, one of the reasons for the cancellation was a “non-trivial conflict” between Rockstar New York and the Midnight Club team in San Diego — earlier, several deadlines were missed during the development of Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

Roberts also noted that although Midnight Club competed with racing series like Need for Speed and Burnout, it was successful. Developer data showed that players spent more time in it than in competitor games. However, he said they never received praise or recognition from New York “because we didn't measure up to GTA.”

After the new game was canceled, it became clear that there would be no more Midnight Club installments — Rockstar would switch to other franchises, like GTA:

“When they canceled it, it became absolutely clear that there would be no more Midnight Club, and everything would revolve around GTA and all that.”

Currently, an enthusiast under the nickname AMZxs is working on an unofficial PC port of the game Midnight Club: Los Angeles.