Will WEC Receive Their Promised Sim Racing Game?

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What's next for WEC?

  • A dedicated game

    Votes: 392 44.2%

  • rFactor 2

    Votes: 318 35.9%

  • Nothing

    Votes: 177 20.0%
  • Total voters
    887
With the 6h of Monza coming up this weekend and their classes LMH and LMDh shaping up nicely soon, one can't help but hope for some digital representation for this endurance racing series. However, with the way the WEC license holder, Motorsport Games, has been going lately, seeing the software come to fruition is uncertain.

The Motorsport Games Story so Far​

It all started with the acquisition spree of Motorsport Games in 2021. Acquiring licenses left and right and even right out buying Studio 397, the rFactor 2 developers, Motorsport Games seemed like an upcoming powerhouse in digital racing. One of the licenses involved was the right to give FIA's WEC or World Endurance Championship a digital representation.

However, things didn't work as planned. Their first big release, NASCAR 21: Ignition seemed to be not much more than a haphazardly rushed title. Reports from within the company later confirmed that. But everyone could see it. Game-breaking bugs were only the tip of the iceberg and the game became a critical failure.

This whole scenario sent Motorsport Games' stock tumbling down. Even worse so when they announced in March 2022 that their existing cash in hand couldn't even support them for “at least the next 12 months.” Further delays to the well-hoped for BTCC title and subsequent release of BTCC content via rFactor 2 left more questions than answers. All the while Motorsport Games stock dropped below 1$ per share meaning they could be kicked off the stock market if things don't improve until December.

And just for your knowledge, being delisted from the stock exchange could mean complete de-validation of the stocks meaning financial trouble.

What This Could Mean For All The Licenses​

The licenses held by motorsport games are some grand ones with many hopes of them coming to fruition. IndyCar, NASCAR, BTCC and WEC are the biggest ones. While Motorsport Games owns all of these licenses, they might not be able to create dedicated games for all of them.

As we have already seen with BTCC and IndyCar content, the existing rFactor 2 platform could become a host of some of these titles. This, however, is all subject to the terms and conditions of the licensing contracts. What we can expect is that several licenses might, for short-term financial gain, be published via rFactor 2. All of which boost the rF2 community and roster strength.

This however doesn't mean that dedicated titles are not on the horizon.

What Could Happen to WEC​

While everything is in a state of turmoil, the WEC license is the one we know the least about. IndyCar and BTCC have received their rFactor 2 content and you know NASCAR is going to continue one way or the other.

WEC so far has received little care. That could mean 1 of 2 things.
  1. A WEC game is deep in development and on the horizon.
  2. A WEC game is not at all in development and will be the odd one out of Motorsport Games roster.
Now as much as I personally hope for 1. to be true, I can't help but have that little devil on my shoulder telling me about 2. But I don't know what will happen.

What do you think lies in store for the WEC license? Are we going to see a WEC title? Or is rFactor 2 going to feature WEC? Or have they just completely forgotten about it? Let us know in the comments below!
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About author
Julian Strasser
Julian Strasser
Motorsports and Maker-stuff enthusiast. Part time jack-of-all-trades. Owner of tracc.eu, a sim racing-related service provider and its racing community.

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Comments

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MadDriver11 said:
Even considering this as the best RF2 can give is pretty poor graphics quality. The car is completely plasticky and missing any form of life and texture on surfaces.
The dashboard has no resemblance in the graphics to the real fonts either.
Nothing moves or vibrates in the car. Everything surrounding the track appears clearly 2D and lifeless.
And like I said that is before even discussing track evolution from dry to wet and back or anything that is not dry track on a shiny day in terms of graphics appearance like clouds and light through them or day/night transitions.
As far as the tracks being without textures in RF2 it is easy to take as example of decent content the latest 2-3 official tracks. But use any of the older ones like Silverstone and others and things are not quite as shiny and there is no real hope that in the short terms those tracks can be revamped.
Click to expand...
I'm not gonna try to convince you about anything because you clearly have a bias so there is no point but
1. the digital dashboards looks not good/pretty bad in rF2 and a lot of people criticized/complained about it already
2. the car vibration or whatever we can call it is a setting so you can make it however you like it
3. 2D and lifeless, what does that mean? I've only seen one racing game which doesn't look lifeless and that's the F1 series mainly because there I can see moving things and I can hear the crowd. Every sim looks lifeless
Here is a video where you can see night and rain stuff
 
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P
MadDriver11 said:
Wouldn't call this realistic graphics. Feels like a cartoon...

Even with that there is more to graphics than the visual quality of the track. Wet tracks in RF2 are nowhere close to the visual and even racing quality of ACC and AMS2 just to make a couple of examples.
The MP experience in terms of stability for RF2 is only better than AMS2 which is yet to have any attention from its developer: ACC (and likely AC2 when it comes) and iracing are far more stable. The virtual Le Mans 24 hours events on RF2 were plagued by so many server restarts. Some events in the last Virtual WEC season were canceled as they couldn't even connect all the players to the server.
MSG and S397 are trying to revive RF2 from deads on the basis of the assumed best physics but other sims similarly wide content are catching up if not overtaking (AMS2) and other more focused sims like ACC have found far more popularity. I don't think RF2 can be revived: they would have to build RF3 from ground zero up, but they have no money so they keep doing CPR to something that is now too old to get any traction with users.
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Well… COTA… is that an official Studio 397 track? And, how do mod tracks look like in ACC or AMS2? Oh wait…;) Please compare with official Studio 397 tracks (and that does not include old ISI tracks that were not updated). The latest updates to wet weather and tracks and their reflection are quite good… have you checked those already?

And on physics… I play AMS2 and ACC as well… since a few months also on a Fanatec DD wheel, and rFactor 2 is still the one I prefer, but AMS2 is getting close. ACC though… they only have to get it right for a limited number of car classes, so they should be much better than rF2 and AMS2… but… not for me.
 
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vitorhs
aderpontes said:
The RF2 community and its arrogance...
Click to expand...
normal... they live in a big lie where the game is a gigantic success, pure perfection without any problem and everything behind the scenes at 397 and MSGM is running COMPLETELY right...


About the WEC game... I bet a ban from here that this shi* company will not even be around in mid-2023... ;);)
 
B
vitorhs said:
normal... they live in a big lie where the game is a gigantic success, pure perfection without any problem and everything behind the scenes at 397 and MSGM is running COMPLETELY right...


About the WEC game... I bet a ban from here that this shi* company will not even be around in mid-2023... ;);)
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If you think that rF2 players think that way then you are the one who lives in a big lie.

I think you think exactly the opposite of what you said rF2 players think: the game is a gigantic failure, pure imperfection only with problems and everything behind the scenes at 397 and MSGM is running are FAILING.. Am I right? So then what's the point in beating the dead horse here?

Anyway based on what you said and your emotes you basically want this shi* company to fail so the question is why would be that good for anyone? I mean fired programmers, no new game, now new updates for rF2.
 
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M
In my opinion, there will be a separate game under the license of the FIA WEC. Gerard Neveu himself said that for the 100th anniversary of Le Mans there will be a dedicated game about this race, so why would he tell the truth?
Until the game's release, ACO's virtual racing will use rFactor 2.
 
D
kart1 said:
ACC/AMS2 and their bashing on every rF2 topic...:poop:
Click to expand...
st.jpg

Wrong, I've always admired RF2 a lot, but it seems they lost their will for a while...

Much of the community doesn't accept that RF2 has many problems.
 
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vitorhs
Bela Valko said:
If you think that rF2 players think that way then you are the one who lives in a big lie.

I think you think exactly the opposite of what you said rF2 players think: the game is a gigantic failure, pure imperfection only with problems and everything behind the scenes at 397 and MSGM is running are FAILING.. Am I right? So then what's the point in beating the dead horse here?

Anyway based on what you said and your emotes you basically want this shi* company to fail so the question is why would be that good for anyone? I mean fired programmers, no new game, now new updates for rF2.
Click to expand...

owww slowdown.. I don't want no one to be fired, in my perfect world this fake company will have their studios buy by legit people and everyone will maintain their jobs, even because we desperately need competition in the market..

But this company clearly is not legit and is run by a strange guy who looks more as a conn artist than a video-game CEO (but he cracks jokes, so is everything right).

And Rf2 is nothing more than a big mess, look like a Frankenstein and everyone knows this.. is a old software with a lot of band-aids mantaing everything in place.. one wrong code and everything fails spectacularly.

And yes, if you want to know, I don't like MSG, I will never buy nothing with their label on it even being a diehard IndyCar fan, (I bought my RF2 when was under Luminous banner btw and uninstalled after running in so many bugs) I don't belive in they be a legit company and yes, would be happy when all those licenses be open to be take for legit companies..


BTW.. my bet is still on. NO WEC GAME WILL COME FROM THIS and I will laugh from every blind fanboy who believe everything is fine.
 
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K
I seriously doubt any of these games will be made. Considering how unbelievably bad their latest NASCAR game was, maybe that’s a good thing. When they announced all of these games at once (WEC, Indy, BTCC), our collective bullsh*t radar should have gone « bip bip bip ».

I just hope that the sanctioning bodies get back their licenses and sign agreements with other studios. Like Simbin UK. Errr… wait… :D
 
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T
BrettSinclair1 said:
Hopefully AC2 will turn out to be more than a driving sim, and combine the best of AC and ACC.
Click to expand...
Exactly what i also hope for with AC2.
And given Kunos experience with both types of games, there is just no reason not to combine this knowledge in AC2.
 
A
Premium
WEC game? Neither of the sims I play (old PC: rF2, R3E, AMS1) has LMP cars which can properly drive around GTE traffic. Which means that either S397 is not capable of developing a competent AI or has not placed any focus on that (less likely given the number of prototypes released).

Try to fix that first then we can talk about WEC game
 
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B
adamb said:
WEC game? Neither of the sims I play (old PC: rF2, R3E, AMS1) has LMP cars which can properly drive around GTE traffic. Which means that either S397 is not capable of developing a competent AI or has not placed any focus on that (less likely given the number of prototypes released).

Try to fix that first then we can talk about WEC game
Click to expand...
When I last tried faster class cars were able to overtake slower class cars usually pretty quickly, it depends on the track.
What they don't do is using the slipstream to overtake other cars which is a big immersion killer.
 
M
pcraenme said:
Well… COTA… is that an official Studio 397 track? And, how do mod tracks look like in ACC or AMS2? Oh wait…;) Please compare with official Studio 397 tracks (and that does not include old ISI tracks that were not updated). The latest updates to wet weather and tracks and their reflection are quite good… have you checked those already?

And on physics… I play AMS2 and ACC as well… since a few months also on a Fanatec DD wheel, and rFactor 2 is still the one I prefer, but AMS2 is getting close. ACC though… they only have to get it right for a limited number of car classes, so they should be much better than rF2 and AMS2… but… not for me.
Click to expand...
My point isn't trying to measure d..ks with one sim or another. It is more of a market analysis standpoint.
MSG bought those licenses for millions of dollars with a business plan to sell them in numbers comparable to F1 20xx which is in the millions of copies at $70-100, often sell them on a yearly basis (Nascar and Indy for sure).
That market wants probably less hardcore physics and much more quality of life, smoothness and reliability of playing experience, great VR, graphics in general.
Now you fail in delivering and instead you try and make money by selling those license in DLC packs on a sim (which is an entirely different and smaller market) and on a sim that is on the back foot as it is not on the front edge of physics as others have caught up or even done better in certain aspects and with quality of life and physics that are those of the backmarkers in class.
Now, you or me can have different takes on how important is graphics or nice looks RF2 vs ACC or anything else but the general market analysis is still the same: it's going to be a very hard sell, trying to place 3 BTCC DLCs for $36 instead of the original dedicated game under RF2 and sell it in the millions. BTCC or Indy won't revive RF2 because it's too long past its prime and competitors are running faster and new ones are coming, so no way to monetize there.
Therefore the question is: how long can a company keep going failing its financial objectives?
 
MJQT
adamb said:
WEC game? Neither of the sims I play (old PC: rF2, R3E, AMS1) has LMP cars which can properly drive around GTE traffic. Which means that either S397 is not capable of developing a competent AI or has not placed any focus on that (less likely given the number of prototypes released).

Try to fix that first then we can talk about WEC game
Click to expand...
I agree. WEC game will require multi-class capable AI that doesn't exist yet.

Strangely, when I tried LMP/GT races in all my sims a while ago, I was most impressed with RaceRoom (with rF2 as a close second). The only real issue in RaceRoom was that the LMPs gave no extra room to cars they were lapping, and would sometimes drive the GT out almost into the grass on corner exit – like they were two touring cars racing each other, or something :roflmao:.

Bela Valko said:
When I last tried faster class cars were able to overtake slower class cars usually pretty quickly, it depends on the track.
What they don't do is using the slipstream to overtake other cars which is a big immersion killer.
Click to expand...
The AI in any isiMotor game (even back to F1C, GTR2, or rF1) cannot slipstream. And usually struggle to drive past slower class cars in a straight line (although rF2 is noticeably better, albeit imperfect, on this front). Definitely big issues that need to be solved. Unsure if RaceRoom added slipstreaming in their AI or not.
 
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S
Premium
A few things I see in the usual arguments!

1, Just because the people who play multiplayer are the most vocal does not mean everyone plays multiplayer.

2, Many people still play rFactor1 online and in single-player, as well as GTR2, AMS, and AC.

3, Most sim racing enthusiasts don't care if the game looks "Real." Many other factors are much more important.

4, rFactor2 is slowly failing. Yes, it's a great game with great potential, but it has some significant failings. Licensed content at extra cost will not save it.

5, AC is still the most popular game. Get over it.

6, Game developers don't care if a game is good enough for you. They are in it to make money.
 

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