2003’s The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a cult-classic, GTA-inspired open-world game. Fans have been clamoring for a remake, remaster, sequel, or some kind of revival for years. It may finally actually be happening, as series creator Matt Groening offered a tantalizing tease at Disney’s D23 event this weekend.
A fan in the audience said since Disney is producing a The Simpsons Movie sequel, might that also mean Hit & Run will get a follow-up? Groening, admitting he might be “speaking out of turn,” teased, “I think the original game is coming back in some form.”
This led to cheers from the audience. However, longtime series producer Matt Selman quickly chimed in with, “Or not.”
The suggestion here is that Groening may indeed have spoken out of turn and shouldn’t have said what he said. In any event, Selman agreed with fans that a new Hit & Run game “would certainly be a treat.”
Also during the panel, Groening shared some history about an earlier The Simpsons game, 2001’s Road Rage, saying he was told by higher-ups that calling a game “Road Rage” might lead to more road rage incidents in real life. After that game sold well and was received positively, no one had a problem with the Hit & Run title, Groening said.
Selman went on to say another issue that had to be sorted out was that Road Rage’s concept was obviously inspired by Sega’s Crazy Taxi series. Selman said an exchange of money fixed the problem.
“The lawyers of Crazy Taxi said, ‘you can’t rip off Crazy Taxi.’ And, money changed hands,” he said.
In March this year, Selman said he knows people love Hit & Run and the team has a “never say never” attitude about a possible revival of some sort.
He helped write the game, and admitted he had “no idea” it would become such an enduring success. In 2021, Selman told IGN that he would “love” to see a remaster of the game, but said such a project might be a challenge due to the “complicated corporate octopus.”
The original main cast of The Simpsons came back to voice their characters for Hit & Run, and it probably wouldn’t be cheap to have their voices either re-recorded or re-licensed for a potential remake/remaster project. And that’s just one consideration, as The Simpsons has different stakeholders and beneficiaries who would presumably need to sign off in some way. Another issue at play could be how Disney bought many of Fox’s entertainment assets, including The Simpsons, since Hit & Run was released.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run was developed by Radical Entertainment, a studio that closed in 2012. One of the studio’s founders, Ian Wilkinson, started a new company, New Radical Games, which offers services like work-for-hire and co-development for mobile and console projects. The studio’s website also states that it does porting and remastering.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run was originally released for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox, with a PC port following. Presumably, any new game would be released on modern platforms.