Summary

  • In case you've probably forgotten, Driver is still an active series, that's at least according to Ubisoft.
  • While the live-action series has since been canceled, Ubisoft says it still has projects in the works related to Driver, per Stephen Totilo's newsletter.
  • A remake or sequle to Driver has not been rumored, though Driver has constantly been in the news since its inception for a movie.

Do you remember Driver? Believe it or not, the series has been around since the 1990s, and while it hasn't had a new entry since 2011's Driver: San Francisco, the series is still alive. Well, at least that's according to Ubisoft. And alive can really mean anything.

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The update on Driver comes via Stephen Totilo's Game File newsletter. In it, Totilo revealed that Ubisoft informed him that while its planned Driver live-action series is no longer a thing, the franchise still has projects in the works. Projects, as in, more than one. What exactly those projects entail isn't known, as the series hasn't had an installment in a decade-plus.

Ubisoft Can't Wait To Share More Later

Back in 2021, Ubisoft announced that it had partnered with Binge.com on a live-action Driver series. At the time, Binge.com was touted as an emerging streaming service, though it has yet to actually emerge. It was supposed to launch a year later in 2022, but that never happened, and a post from 2023 made it seem like this year would be the year it finally launched. However, we are now seven months into 2024 and Binge's website still has no updated information.

Flash forward to today and that series is no longer happening, according to an Ubisoft rep. (Hat tip to Video Games Chronicle for the transcription) “We are no longer moving forward with our partnership with Binge for a Driver series,” the rep told Totilo.

And while that might have signaled the end for the future of Driver, Ubisoft still maintains that it has projects related to the franchise in the works. “We are actively working on other exciting projects related to the franchise and can’t wait to share more information in the future,” the spokesperson said.

Those projects could really be anything. While it is known that Ubisoft is actively working on remakes of both Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell, nothing has been said about Driver. More so, the franchise lacks the sort of rich history or lineage that would lend itself to a future game or remake.

The first Driver game was released in 1999, with two sequels coming shortly after. Those sequels were followed up by spinoffs before the series released its final entry, Driver: San Francisco in 2011. And with racing games not nearly as in vogue as they once were, it would arguably be hard to justify a big-budget reboot.

At the same time, Driver has consistently been linked to live-action works, the Binge.com endeavor notwithstanding. All the way back in 2003, a movie was allegedly in the works with a planned release for 2004. Of course, that never happened, though a potential script for the film was leaked online in 2006.

In other words, while a game is probably unlikely, though never say never, another crack at the live-action space isn't impossible. The landscape of video game adaptations has dramatically changed from 2003 to now, and even from 2021 to today. More so, regardless of the series' success, its plot, which is genuinely pretty neat, would lend itself well to a show or movie.

However, for all we know, the "projects" Ubisoft has in the works will be a crossover with The Crew and an activation in XDefiant. But, hey, we're willing to be surprised.

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