PS3 Ridge Racer 7 at E3

By Tom Bramwell Published 20 April, 2006

Sounds dashing.

Ever since the original PlayStation, Ridge Racer's been ever-present at the launch of new Sony console platforms - and it sounds like PlayStation 3 will be no exception, following this week's announcement that Ridge Racer 7 is in development.

RR7 will also appear at E3, perhaps in playable form although certainly as a trailer, Namco said.

Namco's Hideo Teramoto and Masaya Koyabashi, both Ridge Racer veterans, are in charge of the project which promises to bring the nitrous system introduced in Ridge Racer PSP and refined in Ridge Racer 6 on Xbox 360 to PS3.

RR7 will also incorporate 14-player online racing, and speaking in Japan this week Teramoto also hinted at something akin to co-op play.

Players will also be able to customise cars and compare them with friends' online, while the single-player game will consist of more than 160 races, Time Attack and Single Race modes. Hiroshi Okubuo will take charge of the game's soundtrack.

Fans to whom names like Okubuo and Kobayashi resound will also be pleased to learn that series mainstay Reiko Nagase, the lady who appears in the trailers and intro movies, will be returning for the series' seventh outing.

There's no word on a launch date for RR7, but Ridge Racer has been a mainstay of PlayStation launch campaigns since 1994 - so it would be unsurprising to see it lining up alongside the system this November.

It might sound like a quick turnaround, but then so did Ridge Racer 6's target for Xbox 360 launch, and in the end critics acclaimed not only its slick presentation but also its surprising and initially unapparent depth.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AtomicBanana #1 6 years ago

    will there be a 360 port? ;)

  • Santino #2 6 years ago

    there certainly seems to be a large number at the end of most of the ps3's early lineup...ridge racer 7, tekken 6, MGS 4, Grand Turismo 5, none of the previous installments made massive gameplay changes from the original (apart from the unpopular changes to tekken 4) so is everybody expected to just be happy playing yet more similar sequels with updated graphics? ah who am i kiddin most people will be just fine with it...

  • Carlo #3 6 years ago

    "RR7 will also incorporate 14-player online racing, "

    But Sony's online system is a joke! :-D

  • bivith #4 6 years ago

    RR6 was the shittiest demo i ever played on the 360. i hate that handling. it's like scalectrix.

  • Psi #5 6 years ago

    Santino you will conform!

    Now hush before I make you play ever Fifa game for the past 10 years in sequence to brainwash you!

  • #6 6 years ago

    so is everybody expected to just be happy playing yet more similar sequels with updated graphics? ah who am i kiddin most people will be just fine with it...

    Don't feel so down. The PS3 just looks like a repeat of PSP waiting to happen. The same linear emphasis of more powerful graphics and sound and more multi-media tat. No doubt we'll see massive hype and sales to start off with, followed by a rapid loss of interest and decline in sales.

    Nintendo is the real wildcard here - and they're playing their cards really close to their chest. AND, unlike both the N64 and GC, Rev will most certainly not be launching a full 18 months after the PS3.
    Edited by 2 at 20/04/06 @ 13:48

  • drumbaby #7 6 years ago

    The PS3 just looks like a repeat of PSP waiting to happen.

    Well, there's a P and an S in the name, I suppose.

  • AtomicBanana #8 6 years ago

    'Namco have an 360 emulator that runs fine on a Playstation 3 ^_^ '

    Nice troll ;)

  • morriss #9 6 years ago

    Yay! More sequals.

  • ChocNut #10 6 years ago

    Well - screw all the critics - this is something I am really looking forward to.

  • Psi #11 6 years ago

    ChocNut you don't look forward, you look sideways, rr games are all about the sideways.

  • tengu #12 6 years ago

    MrT, do you ever do anything but troll?

  • CrumpledPaper #13 6 years ago

    "there certainly seems to be a large number at the end of most of the ps3's early lineup...ridge racer 7, tekken 6, MGS 4, Grand Turismo 5.."

    ..Motorstorm, Lair, Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man, Fatal Inertia, Bladestorm: Hundred Years War, Heavenly Sword, L.A. Noire, Eyedentify, Monster Carnival, Angel Rings, Ni-Oh, Endless Saga, Redwood Falls etc. etc. etc.

    There's plenty of original games coming, if you look out for them. And to their credit, a lot of them are coming via Sony themselves. But a lot of people, initially, at least, look out for follow-ups to their favourite franchises, and so they might appear to have a higher profile, at least initially. But don't confuse that for a lack of original games..that's quite markedly not the case on PS3.
    Edited by 1 at 20/04/06 @ 16:46

  • Scientist #14 6 years ago

    I reckon Motorstorm will turn out to be the next-next gen equivalent of Smuggler's Run. Now that was a reason to buy the PS2 at launch...

  • #15 6 years ago

    MrT, do you ever do anything but troll?

    I offered a p.o.v. - that is not trolling. Sorry but I'm not a mindless consumer - I don't care for expensive multimedia tat. I have a PC for multimedia and browsing the web. I have access to a DVD player. I don't have an HDTV (and not likely to for years to come). I don't work in the games industry. Besides the DS I don't have any other console.
    Edited by 2 at 20/04/06 @ 17:46

  • Scientist #16 6 years ago

    I ain't no fool indeed.

  • Gouki #17 6 years ago

    bivith you are a true DICK

  • tengu #18 6 years ago

    MrT, if it was intended as a troll, fair enough, I called it wrong. But coming off the back of many of your posts in Sony related threads(Most particularly PSP threads, like the Ratchet and Clank one today), that's how it appeared.

  • #19 6 years ago

    tengu -

    Just to be clear about this - I don't have an anti-Sony agenda.

    And I feel pretty much the same way about the 360 - I just don't care about the additional non-gaming functionality. And would certainly not pay for it.

    FWIW, I recently got hold of a slimline PS2 and (despite it looking as flat as a pancake in pics) it's a sleek, weighty and solid piece of hardware. I had a chance to play Vice City. Fun game - but I just don't have that kind of time to get into what seemed like quite a big game, notwithstanding learning the controls on the dual-shock controller. That's the problem I find with a lot of PS games - you have to invest a lot of time before you can really get into it. Time (despite posting on EG) that I can ill afford. I've been really impressed at how SCE have steered the waters to give the PS2 an active lifespan of over 6 years - which is pretty amazing considering the competition first from GC and xbox and then 360.

    Having said that, I probably will go for the PSP though - it's on-the-go gaming and sleep mode features makes it ideal.

    Edited by 1 at 20/04/06 @ 17:58

  • tengu #20 6 years ago

    Oh... now I do feel like a twat. I appreciate you spelling it out like that MrT, rather than just having a go at me back. Sorry I started on you, I guess I really am just a bit too 'paranoid' about the posts I read on here. Apologies, really.

  • Stormflood #21 6 years ago

    But Sony's online system is a joke! :-D

    I've yet to use a PS3 online, what's wrong with it?

  • Xerx3s #22 6 years ago

    A new title in less then a year? I could be wrong, but sounds like an update from the 360 version to me. Not really supprised though.

    "I've yet to use a PS3 online, what's wrong with it?"

    Note sarcasm. But then again, considering Sony's track record for proclaiming their online system as the best and then comming up with a PoS...
    Edited by 1 at 20/04/06 @ 18:30

  • BLACKSHEEP #23 6 years ago

    14 online??? I thought the PS3 was made for Broadband!

    Well if you can chat with video then the supposed Uber-powerful console might live upto my expectations ^_^

  • Milbe #24 6 years ago

    I just hope they include some rage racer tracks like in the PSP version. This will be an excellent arcade racer no doubt.

  • captain-future #25 6 years ago

    *LOL* there's a law: New console - at launch new RR.

    but RR6 on Xbox was so boring, I really can't think that RR7 will be interesting.
    Edited by 1 at 21/04/06 @ 18:25

  • Adamsmith28 #26 6 years ago

    dont need more sequels if you have ridge racer type 4.

  • Kengro #27 6 years ago

    Goddamn... More og this crap. Is't more than enough RR games, stop it and come up with something new. I'm tired of all this old shit