CSR2 Racing Announced for Android and iOS

Racing seems to be one of the rare genres that works well on all gaming platforms. Be it consoles, PCs, or mobile devices, each of them have their fair share of racing games.

One of the smartphone's earliest and most successful games, CSR Racing, is finally seeing a sequel. Aptly titled CSR2 Racing, it's helmed by Zynga-owned NaturalMotion, the company behind the first game in the series. CSR2 Racing is being developed by its London East studio, headed up by industry veteran Julian Widdows (whose credits include the superlative Fifty Cent: Blood on the Sand, GRID, and DiRT).

Talking to Eurogamer, NaturalMotion's CEO Torsten Reil said that the goal was to make the best-looking racing game.

"With CSR2, the remit is make it the best looking racing game full stop. We have so much processing power we really can make it look amazing. We think we have console level, and in some cases we go beyond console, but it's still a mobile game. It's a big step, and we're quite proud of it."

(Also see: Top 5 Racing Games You Should Play Before the New Need For Speed Is Out)

Graphics aside, there's a bigger emphasis on showing off and customising your cars. NaturalMotion has worked with car makers to ensure that each and every detail is as it should be from the colour of brake pads to seats.

On the topic of the perception of the game being rather mercenary in its monetisation tactics, Reil was surprisingly blunt.

"There's a vocal minority that's allowed to have their view, but we need to care about what our players want. What we do is, we care about reviews from our players, direct reviews, and when we have a review that's below four out of five stars, we're worried. If those people complain about monetisation, about us being greedy, we care massively," he said.

"When you look at reviews on the app store, it's mostly people who play for free. If those people complain, we've done something wrong. This is playable entirely for free. We haven't announced the figures, but the majority of people who completed CSR1 didn't spend any money. It's an interesting discussion though - I'm not here to pander or appease those people, they are all free to play it, and if they don't want to do it that's absolutely fine!"

With Need For Speed No Limits out this year, CSR2 Racing has some competition. It will be soft-launched in a few territories before a global rollout. What will you be playing? Let us know in the comments.