New leaked demo confirms old Ridge Racer 8 Switch rumours

Years ago, Ridge Racer was one of the benchmarks for arcade racing games on consoles. But the market has changed too much since a game has been released on par with the franchise... or even the genre, which has been losing popularity gradually. Seven years ago we told you that a new Ridge Racer 8 was coming as an exclusive for a newly launched Nintendo Switch.

Thanks to the internet, a build (an executable code, shown as a demo) of what this title originally looked like has now been uncovered. It was being designed, corroborating the original leak, by Bandai Namco Studios Singapore, before being moving onto a Metroid Prime 4 that also ended up cancelled.

Ridge Racer Switch used the Unreal Engine 4 graphics engine. The code dates back to 2017, which coincides with a possible 2018 release with Nintendo Switch in full swing. Bandai Namco seems to have other plans in mind, so it doesn't seem like fans will get a new entry to the franchise in the near future.

Do you still have hopes for Ridge Racer going forward or have you already parked your expectations? Maybe they'll pick it up now for Switch 2 given Nintendo and Bandai Namco's close relationship?