SimBin: 'Don't worry about bankruptcy rumours'

[Howard]

Various websites have posted news regarding potential bankruptcy of SimBin Studios AB, here's a little substantiated clarification.

RaceDepartment understands that the current SimBin Studios AB company is undergoing a large restructuring. Current projects, such as R3E, are expected to be continued under the new banner of the new studio.

It is understood that there have been a handful of job losses at SimBin, however the majority of the development team is expected to remain at the 'new' studio. We'd like to wish those who have lost their jobs all the best in finding a new position.

We're confident that the information we're providing to you is up-to-date and correct, and is not based on speculation from social media.

SimBin's own @Jay Ekkel said, on RaceDepartment's forums:

Ill keep it short and sweet for now.

New Studio, new (tbd) name, new location, (almost) the same team. And most importantly we will continue the development of the project(s).

More (good) news will follow soon (tm)

Don't worry about it, services and development will continue as planned.

There's nothing to worry about in regards to support of current games, or the release of future games. Content that has already been purchased will still function as normal.

Image: SimBin Studios AB​

 

[Brandon Wright]

I really don't get why people complain about having to pay for a game. Though, I complain about iRacing because they're content is far too expensive for the limited use you get out of it, but R3E is quite reasonable. I've spent around $60USD on R3E and have all but one track, two Experiences, and about a dozen other cars, so I haven't paid any more than I would have for a Playstation/XBone game. In 6 weeks I've been playing it I've easily got $60 worth of enjoyment out of it, with much more to come.

And about the F2P model, honestly I probably wouldn't have even sampled this game if it weren't for that model. I got my PC early November, saw that this game called RaceRoom was free but with a limited amount of cars/tracks. Being eager to test out my new PC I thought "it's free, might as well give it a shot and see what this PC racing business is all about!" I was instantly addicted to the sounds and visuals but not in love with the FFB, did some searching on here to find good FFB settings and it quickly became my favorite of the sims I own. If I'd had to cough up $30-40+ for R3E I doubt I would have sampled it and would have missed out on this wonderful title. Yeah, it still needs more development (hence the Beta status) but I play it way more than AC or iRacing. So, at least in my case, the F2P model worked really well for them and they managed to tease real money out of my wallet as a result.

 

[Sean Kenney]

Its modular, not really f2p in my opinion. At first I hated it but I realized it has a lot of positives. Buy what you want, cheaper.

 

[Emilio]

Its modular... Buy what you want, cheaper.

Perfectly sum up.

 

[kidx]

Not only about buying cheaper, Its about quality so yea also if its so good why did they go bankrupt?? Even the sound quality is better so yeah. Also the F2P model is not the issue its the fact they start you off with 2 tracks and 2 cars. like they wanna milk you at least with Iracing you know your being milked from the start. I tried it 100 a year lol to be wrecked by kids, Some people like this some don't like I say as long as they keep there older titles they will still be alive as a company. The minute they shut them down they will die out hence the reason they went bankrupt prolly in the first place. I know 2 people giving away Race Injections cause its that damn good.

 

[Andi Goodwin]

IMHO .................. going bankrupt is a very loose term; remember businessmen play with business laws to get what they want generally , the cake , the business and whatever else they can get ..;
only person who could answer this is KW

Andi

 

[kidx]

So this is a question to the Simbin team are you droping support for any of the Race07 stuff if so that will be a sad sad day and if so can i have the master server please to keep it going??

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

R3E beats any of the old SimBin titles imo, not because the old ones where bad but because R3E is that much better, in most areas, not all ofc, but I time I'm sure it will.

 

[Brandon Wright]

Not only about buying cheaper, Its about quality so yea also if its so good why did they go bankrupt?? Even the sound quality is better so yeah. Also the F2P model is not the issue its the fact they start you off with 2 tracks and 2 cars. like they wanna milk you at least with Iracing you know your being milked from the start. I tried it 100 a year lol to be wrecked by kids, Some people like this some don't like I say as long as they keep there older titles they will still be alive as a company. The minute they shut them down they will die out hence the reason they went bankrupt prolly in the first place. I know 2 people giving away Race Injections cause its that damn good.

You get 3 tracks and 5 cars for free, similar to what iRacing offers if you remove the oval tracks, and it's pretty easy to tell you're getting milked from the start. And the quality of R3E is far beyond iRacing (IMO), I can't get enough of R3E but I despise every lap in iRacing. And the sound quality in R3E is second to none of the current gen sims.

Nothing wrong with enjoying 8 year old games, but if you're going to trash the modern games you might need some more substantial complaints. Also, R3E is still in Beta, so comparing it to a game that had over a half decade of life/support is like comparing apples to walnuts.

 

[James Cook]

'Free-to-play' is, in most cases, a complete misnomer and Sector3 would do well to distance themselves from it. F2P may work for browser or phone games but for serious, higher budget titles (like R3E) you can't expect access to more than the bare minimum of quality content for free. It's simply not sustainable, particularly in the niche sim-racing market R3E exists in.

As others have mentioned, R3E is a modular game and, in my opinion, it should be promoted as such to quell false (and all too common) expectations of what F2P can reasonably offer for free in a niche market.

Also I find it surprising that some take such umbrage with the pricing. A content pack may equal the cost of a couple of beers in the pub and for that I can get countless hours of entertainment over many years.There's very little about R3E that 'milks' the player. You either buy content or you don't.

 

[Brandon Wright]

I did mean "milking" sarcastically. It's more piecemeal, or cafeteria style. But I find it very affordable, and it adds a bit of a car collecting feel to the game which makes it a bit addictive.

 

[Andy_J]

Also I find it surprising that some take such umbrage with the pricing. A content pack may equal the cost of a couple of beers in the pub and for that I can get countless hours of entertainment over many years.There's very little about R3E that 'milks' the player. You either buy content or you don't.

Trouble is, you didn't buy it and you don't own it. You paid for a temporary licence to play the game until the internet is down or the server is gone because the company went bust. No offline mode you see.

 

[James Cook]

Trouble is, you didn't buy it and you don't own it. You paid for a temporary licence to play the game until the internet is down or the server is gone because the company went bust. No offline mode you see.

This is nothing new. Steam works on exactly the same principle - you don't own the game, it's just a licence to play it. That's how it is with all digitally distributed content, whether it be music, movies or eBooks. It's how things are going and there's no point fighting against it. But you know all that anyway.

Plenty of hard-copy versions of games can be rendered useless when the plug is pulled on online modes.

What if Sector3 go bust? I'm sure the game could be put into an offline state. It wouldn't necessarily mean all is lost and even if the worst did happen, I'm not going to lose sleep over something that cost about the same as a console game (or two) and gave me a few years entertainment. More important things to worry about in life.

Always online isn't ideal by any means but how often have I not been able to play R3E because of it? Very rarely. I understand S3's reasons for going this route and I think it will become the norm before too long.

 

[Andy_J]

This is nothing new. Steam works on exactly the same principle - you don't own the game, it's just a licence to play it. That's how it is with all digitally distributed content, whether it be music, movies or eBooks. It's how things are going and there's no point fighting against it.

You are missing the point. You are not understanding the point at all. Nobody is fighting it so I don't know what you mean by that. And Steam does not work on exactly the same principle. The point is, all of the Steam games that I have (and it's a lot) can be played in offline mode (that's when no connection to the internet is needed or available in case you don't understand), except RRE which requires another always on connection to their servers. Get it?

That 's what I and many others do not like or want.

Oh and by the way, I feel sorry for you if you cannot read your Ebooks and listen to your downloaded music if you need a constant always on connection to do so. Ah but you know already that what you said has nothing to do with always on requirement for RRE. and that your ebooks and music are available offline.

And your comment about hard copy games being rendered useless in online mode if the server is pulled is like saying your TV is useless if you pull all connections to it. Of course online modes would be rendered useless, but what about offline modes? Many of us like to play offline against AI. Many of us would still watch a DVD if the signal to the TV was lost.

I don't think I own one single Hard copy game (and trust me I have many having been a gamer since the acorn and c64 days) that cannot be played if no connection to the internet is available.

You say you understand S3's reasons for doing this. Do you?

What do you understand about it? You say you understand their reasons, so tell me/us what their reasons are for making online only for all modes?

So finally, why would you be so against the principle of playing an offline championship or race in RRE without a connection to the server? Is it so hard to see that many of us would just like that capabilty? I have invested about £70 in RRE and to be honest, I don't think it's much to expect to be able to play the game if my connection is down or the server is down.

I don't understand wy some people take umbridge against normal expectations after having paid to play a game.

 

[James Cook]

I'm not against an offline mode in R3E, in fact if you check my post history you will see I've called for it on a number of occasions.

R3E has been 'always online' from the beginning and Simbin/Sector3 have never definitively stated (to my knowledge) that this will change. Perhaps it will, as R3E doesn't kick the player out mid-race if an internet connection is lost. The point is, why invest so much money in a product that clearly doesn't offer what you need with no promise of ever doing so?

Always-online DRM is not popular - I get it - I'm not a massive fan either but developers use it to attempt to have full control over their product i.e. anti-hacking/piracy/modding. Whether it prevents this is questionable. As we head towards cloud gaming and streaming services, in future I think it's pretty likely that playing games without an always-on connection will become a thing of the past.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

I'm sounding like a broken record, but if you don't like it don't buy it. I have no issues what so ever with the always online part and I don't care if I or anyone else are able to race it offline, I know what I'm buying and if I didn't like it I just wouldn't buy it.

 

[Andy_J]

We will see if you change your tune one day when their servers are down.

Thank god for AC, Race 07, GTR2, , Game Stock Car, Formula Trucks, Grand Prix 4, RBR. Hopefully one day RRE will allow an offline mode.

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

We will see if you change your tune one day when their servers are down.

Thank god for AC, Race 07, GTR2, , Game Stock Car, Formula Trucks, Grand Prix 4, RBR. Hopefully one day RRE will allow an offline mode.

It won't, because if it goes offline I will loose interest in it, I don't play offline games.

 

[Andy_J]

It won't, because if it goes offline I will loose interest in it, I don't play offline games.

Your loss, that's sad. You obviously weren't around when PC gaming started. Just don't think everyone is like you. The AI is quite good and the DTM championship is really good. See you on the track on some of the RD race servers eh?

 

[Brandon Wright]

It's all cool, we're all allowed our own opinions. I came from Gran Turismo where online racing was really the only option. Part of why I bought a PC was for the better offline modes and I love racing the AI in R3E, but I may tire of it eventually.

 

[Sean Kenney]

Many different means to an end. Some games are online, some are not.