Draft:William Ian Bell

William Ian Bell (born January 2, 1969), known as "Ian Bell", is a British software developer and game designer of video games. He is the CEO of Straight4 Studios and former head of both Simbin Studios AB, Blimey! Games and Slightly Mad Studios. Best known for the Project CARS series, GTR – FIA GT Racing Game, GT Legends, GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game, Need for Speed SHIFT series and the World of Mass Development crowdfunding initiative.

Early Career & SIMBIN Studios
He began his career as a "modder" in the late 1990s, creating the landmark GT Racing 2002 mod for EA’s F1 2002 with a remote team he founded and that would become known as Simbin Studios AB.

In 2005, Simbin Studios released their first simulation racing game, GTR – FIA GT Racing Game. The game was a critical and commercial success, winning PC Gamer US's "Best Racing Game 2005".

The success of GTR was followed by the release of GT Legends in 2005, a game that featured in the reference book "1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die". In 2006, Bell founded Blimey! Games and developed the sequel to GTR, GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game with Simbin Studios AB. The game went on to win multiple awards and widespread acclaim, including IGN's award for Best PC Racing Game of 2006.. , GameSpot's award for Best Driving Game of 2006, and Metacritic's #3 Best PC Game of 2006. It also won Computer Games Magazine's "Best Simulation" 2006 award and PC Gamer US's 2006 "Best Racing Game" award.

On 8 January 2009, Blimey! Games went into administration after the insolvency of 10tacle in 2008. 10tacle's assets and business were acquired by Bell on behalf of his new studio, Slightly Mad Studios Limited (SMS).

Slightly Mad Studios
Slightly Mad Studios became well known for working in a distributed development structure, with developers living across the world and working remotely, and was ranked the 17th most successful developer in the Develop 100 list for 2010.

In September 2009, Bell's Slightly Mad Studios released their first game, Need for Speed: Shift, published by Electronic Arts. It was the thirteenth instalment in the Need for Speed franchise. The game was well received: IGN awarded it an Editors' Choice award. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Need for Speed: Shift for "D.I.C.E. Award for Racing Game of the Year". In March 2011, Shift 2: Unleashed was released by Bell's team. The game was a commercial success, reaching number 3 in the UK sales charts.

Also in 2011, Bell was tasked in resurrecting the Test Drive franchise. The result was 2012's Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends. The game was released in celebration of the 65th anniversary of the first Ferrari ever built. The game was a departure from Bell's simulation pedigree and was neither a critical nor commercial success.

In 2011, Gamagio—a development division of Slightly Mad Studios tasked with developing social, mobile and browser games—was announced. Gamagio published The Walking Dead: Assault in 2012.

Project CARS & Crowdfunding
With the release of Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, Bell's SMS found itself with any future games in the pipeline. This was when Bell launched his pioneering crowdfunding initiative named World of Mass Development (WMD) in late-2012.

WMD allowed interested game development teams to produce a new game without publishers. Bell noted at the time that: "I'd love to do a rally game actually. The problem is getting someone to pay for it. We, like most developers, work hand to mouth at the mercy of publishers when it comes to the money side. We've pitched rally concepts before to publishers and even offered to go half on the funding but still no interest."

The WMD program's first title was the racing simulation named Project CARS (Community Assisted Racing Simulator) which was developed by Bell's SMS with funding from the community (around 3.75 million euros) via the WMD program. This became one of the very first successfully crowdfunded AAA titles.

Project CARS, released in 2015, was well received and a commercial hit for Bell's SMS: it had sold over 2 million copies by 2016. Along with commercial success, Project CARS began the studio's most successful franchise, with Project CARS 2 releasing in 2017 to universal acclaim, including winning "Best Simulation Game" at Gamescom 2017.

In November 2019, Ian Bell sold Slightly Mad Studios to Codemasters for about US$30 million. This deal included the rights to the Project CARS series and Fast & Furious: Crossroads—a racing and action role-playing video game based on the Fast & Furious film franchise—that was released in 2020.

Two weeks later, Bell's studio released Project CARS 3, the final instalment of the CARS franchise, that went on to secure Bell's studio its second “Best Simulation Game” award at Gamescom (2020).

In 2021, the CARS franchise saw its first mobile offering, Project CARS GO.

In October 2021, Ian Bell announced his departure from SMS after Codemasters had been acquired by EA in a $1.2 billion dollar deal.

An EA spokesperson at the time noted: "After more than a decade in the driving seat of Slightly Mad Studios, today we are sad to announce that Ian Bell will be leaving his role at SMS and Electronic Arts. As CEO of Slightly Mad Studios, Ian was a visionary and an innovator, pioneering not only a new era in racing simulation but also reimagining how games are funded and produced. We wish Ian the best as he moves on and thank him for his contribution to EA, Codemasters, SMS, and the wider industry."

Straight4 Studios
In November 2022, Ian Bell announced his new studio, Straight4 Studios, weeks after EA shut down the Project CARS franchise’s fourth instalment

Many of Bell’s SMS staff have now transitioned over to his new studio and are working on Straight4's new simulation racing game titled GTRevival