A new non-exclusive agreement between the British Touring Car Championship and Motorsport Games allows BTCC branding in rFactor 2, plus ‘good faith’ game discussions.
Images: Taken by OverTake
It was presumed that the partnership between the besieged Motorsport Games and the British Touring Car Championship was dead and buried. But a new, non-exclusive, agreement between the two parties has been agreed.
The touring car series published, seemingly without warning, a termination of its gaming contract in November 2023.
"It is with regret that TOCA now advise that it has been forced to terminate that agreement forthwith, due to ongoing fundamental breaches of the agreement by Motorsport Games,” it read.
A BTCC game was expected initially in 2022 before being delayed to 2024 and then purportedly scrapped following the licencing fall-out.
While the game had not surfaced, official BTCC cars, liveries and tracks were created for the venerable simulation rFactor 2. Following the termination, the matching content within the PC title’s ranked multiplayer mode was simply renamed ‘touring cars’.
The new deal sees Motorsport Games pay the company behind the BTCC (BARC – TOCA LIMITED) $225,000, significantly less than the “approximately $0.8 million” claimed in last year’s licencing cessation.
Half of the gross annual sales from BTCC content will be paid to TOCA every year henceforth, too.
“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), resolving our dispute while simultaneously establishing a new licensing agreement,” said Motorsport Games CEO, Stephen Hood.
There are many elements to the new agreement, the first being that existing BTCC content available as DLC for rFactor 2 can continue to be called, well, BTCC content.
Interestingly, this opens the doors to fresh content for the platform. Since Le Mans Ultimate was greenlit – also created by the Studio 397 development team under the stewardship of Motorsport Games – it has not received additional cars or tracks.
The final new car added to date was, as it happens, the Team HARD Cupra León in May 2023. Porsche Carrera Cup GB liveries followed in August.
“The BTCC content within rFactor 2 was incredibly well received by our fans and the sim racing fraternity - so this new agreement provides for our BTCC content to continue to be updated and rolled out through to the end of 2026,” said Alan Gow, the BTCC’s Chief Executive.
The Cupra Leon is the most recent new car to be released for rFactor 2
Looking at the real-world BTCC grid for 2024, there are no all-new car models to recreate.
But the BMW 330e has received a notable facelift, there is a slew of fresh liveries and the hybrid boost system now also integrates an increase in turbo performance. Official laser-scanned versions of Snetterton, Knockhill, Silverstone National and Oulton Park are also absent from rFactor 2’s roster.
“Licensor [BTCC] shall provide livery updates and minor model corrections to portray each Championship season appearance no later than 1 July of the applicable calendar year,” reads the contract.
“New cars and major model revisions will be provided during the calendar year and Licensee will use its best efforts to incorporate such new cars and models during the applicable Championship season.”
The second main strand of the new contract pertains to a dedicated game. While it is not confirmed that one is in active development, with Studio 397 thought to be flat-out with Le Mans Ultimate’s early access rollout, neither is it ruled out.
“The New BTCC License Agreement further provides that, during the term of New BTCC License Agreement, the Company and TOCA agree to negotiate in good faith the options for the Company to develop an official British Touring Car Championship video game and one or more esports competitions based upon the British Touring Car Championship,” reads the related Form 8-K document.
As the agreement ends 31st December 2026, Motorsport Games has until then to work out a way forward for a potential BTCC game project, and by the sounds of things, the championship is at least open to hearing proposals.
“This collaboration not only enables us to enhance our current offerings with BTCC content in rFactor 2 but also lays the foundations for an exciting future collaboration,” said Hood.
This is far from confirmation, but Motorsport Games is now in the box seat to revive its game plans, should the right methodology be agreed upon.
"We thought we were doing the right thing. One can argue now, in hindsight, that we got ahead of ourselves, and we paid the price," said Hood to Overtake earlier this year of the company's original BTCC plans.
Tom Ingram and Dexter Patterson race rFactor 2 at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The third thread that this fresh agreement opens the door to is for Motorsport Games to run a formal BTCC sim racing competition of some kind.
In the company's 2023 financial year documentation, the following statement stood out:
“We also intend to continue exploring opportunities to expand the recurring portion of our esports segment outside of Le Mans.”
Now the new agreement, to repeat what is quoted above, allows for " one or more esports competitions” to be negotiated.
Last year, Motorsport Games ran sim racing contests on the BTCC’s Goodwood Festival of Speed display. It is expected to announce a new-look Le Mans Virtual Series in June of this year and has previously run sim racing competitions using rFactor 2, NASCAR Heat 5, Forza Motorsport 7 and Dirt Rally 2.0.
Images: Taken by OverTake
It was presumed that the partnership between the besieged Motorsport Games and the British Touring Car Championship was dead and buried. But a new, non-exclusive, agreement between the two parties has been agreed.
The touring car series published, seemingly without warning, a termination of its gaming contract in November 2023.
"It is with regret that TOCA now advise that it has been forced to terminate that agreement forthwith, due to ongoing fundamental breaches of the agreement by Motorsport Games,” it read.
A BTCC game was expected initially in 2022 before being delayed to 2024 and then purportedly scrapped following the licencing fall-out.
While the game had not surfaced, official BTCC cars, liveries and tracks were created for the venerable simulation rFactor 2. Following the termination, the matching content within the PC title’s ranked multiplayer mode was simply renamed ‘touring cars’.
The new deal sees Motorsport Games pay the company behind the BTCC (BARC – TOCA LIMITED) $225,000, significantly less than the “approximately $0.8 million” claimed in last year’s licencing cessation.
Half of the gross annual sales from BTCC content will be paid to TOCA every year henceforth, too.
“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), resolving our dispute while simultaneously establishing a new licensing agreement,” said Motorsport Games CEO, Stephen Hood.
rFactor 2 Content Regains BTCC Branding, Potential Fresh Content
There are many elements to the new agreement, the first being that existing BTCC content available as DLC for rFactor 2 can continue to be called, well, BTCC content.
Interestingly, this opens the doors to fresh content for the platform. Since Le Mans Ultimate was greenlit – also created by the Studio 397 development team under the stewardship of Motorsport Games – it has not received additional cars or tracks.
The final new car added to date was, as it happens, the Team HARD Cupra León in May 2023. Porsche Carrera Cup GB liveries followed in August.
“The BTCC content within rFactor 2 was incredibly well received by our fans and the sim racing fraternity - so this new agreement provides for our BTCC content to continue to be updated and rolled out through to the end of 2026,” said Alan Gow, the BTCC’s Chief Executive.
Looking at the real-world BTCC grid for 2024, there are no all-new car models to recreate.
But the BMW 330e has received a notable facelift, there is a slew of fresh liveries and the hybrid boost system now also integrates an increase in turbo performance. Official laser-scanned versions of Snetterton, Knockhill, Silverstone National and Oulton Park are also absent from rFactor 2’s roster.
“Licensor [BTCC] shall provide livery updates and minor model corrections to portray each Championship season appearance no later than 1 July of the applicable calendar year,” reads the contract.
“New cars and major model revisions will be provided during the calendar year and Licensee will use its best efforts to incorporate such new cars and models during the applicable Championship season.”
“Good Faith” BTCC Game Options
The second main strand of the new contract pertains to a dedicated game. While it is not confirmed that one is in active development, with Studio 397 thought to be flat-out with Le Mans Ultimate’s early access rollout, neither is it ruled out.
“The New BTCC License Agreement further provides that, during the term of New BTCC License Agreement, the Company and TOCA agree to negotiate in good faith the options for the Company to develop an official British Touring Car Championship video game and one or more esports competitions based upon the British Touring Car Championship,” reads the related Form 8-K document.
As the agreement ends 31st December 2026, Motorsport Games has until then to work out a way forward for a potential BTCC game project, and by the sounds of things, the championship is at least open to hearing proposals.
“This collaboration not only enables us to enhance our current offerings with BTCC content in rFactor 2 but also lays the foundations for an exciting future collaboration,” said Hood.
This is far from confirmation, but Motorsport Games is now in the box seat to revive its game plans, should the right methodology be agreed upon.
"We thought we were doing the right thing. One can argue now, in hindsight, that we got ahead of ourselves, and we paid the price," said Hood to Overtake earlier this year of the company's original BTCC plans.
Tom Ingram and Dexter Patterson race rFactor 2 at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
BTCC Esports
The third thread that this fresh agreement opens the door to is for Motorsport Games to run a formal BTCC sim racing competition of some kind.
In the company's 2023 financial year documentation, the following statement stood out:
“We also intend to continue exploring opportunities to expand the recurring portion of our esports segment outside of Le Mans.”
Now the new agreement, to repeat what is quoted above, allows for " one or more esports competitions” to be negotiated.
Last year, Motorsport Games ran sim racing contests on the BTCC’s Goodwood Festival of Speed display. It is expected to announce a new-look Le Mans Virtual Series in June of this year and has previously run sim racing competitions using rFactor 2, NASCAR Heat 5, Forza Motorsport 7 and Dirt Rally 2.0.
