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​

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

@Jay Ekkel Please tell me that @Mark Reynolds and Marco are still on the team!?!?
Best of luck to your "reorganization", I hope that it means more features faster for us customers and more success for you guys in the long run.
Also, mind sharing where you guys are moving?

 

[Robert vd Heide]

@Jay Ekkel

please elaborate about the future of the paytoplay model

will it be send off together with the unlucky few ?

 

[Craig Stevenson]

There is no game ? Then please tell me what have i played 425 hours.

Hot Lapping, YAWN!, but if that is what floats your boat.

It's the cost that concerns me more than anything, £50 and I have 5 Purchased Tracks and 7 Cars, that would have got me a Full copy of Race 07 and a couple of Expansion packs, a wealth of content to go at.

 

[Christian Casey]

Sorry Jay but the fact that you are persisting with Pay2Play shows that "we are all ears about what is you would like to hear from us" is just hot air, it's quite clear from this thread and others what people really want from you guys and Pay2Play isn't it!.

The SimBin\R3E\RaceRoom\What-ever-you're-going-to-be-called Pay2Play model remains complete lunacy, Christian says he has spent $140, I've spent over £50, on what, there is NO GAME there and people are still being encouraged to throw stupid amounts of money at it.

Actually funny story, I was looking to get away from a popular online sim with an icy driving feel, I realised I was hot lapping/testing for a week/s just for 40mins of fun.
Imagine my surprise spending $140 on RRE......for more hot lapping!..lol

There's so much on the store I figured the development was further along than it was.
Hey I should have done my research of course.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

I also own DTM:E but I bought that in the recent sale for 75% off or whatever it was, no way would I pay £34 for a Single Series game with No MP, No Pit Stops, No Tyre Temps and even after getting the game we can't use any of the tracks or cars outside of DTM:E so MORE money needs to be spent to get the same content

Something has gone seriously wrong at the top of SimBin

 

[Remik]

It's the cost that concerns me more than anything, £50 and I have 5 Purchased Tracks and 7 Cars, that would have got me a Full copy of Race 07 and a couple of Expansion packs, a wealth of content to go at.

agree and I said that before... - http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/would-you-recommend-r3e.85424/page-2

 

[Emerson Meyer]

There is no game ? Then please tell me what have i played 425 hours.

Hotlaping.

Let me put this way: I am a developer...would you spend, right now, your money ($150,00) with my product, a SIM, with plenty of nice cars and tracks, but the ONLY working feature being TIMETRIALS??

 

[Boby Kim]

R3E is at year halfway the 2nd year (1,5 year) of development.

I have bought R3E in February 2013 with the status: "open beta". But if this game is in development for one and a half year now, when I bought the game it should have been a early access or pre alpha? And now, what is the current status. I truly do not mind to wait for a game. I have other early access games (Elite Dangerous / Star Citizen) and I do not mind waiting, I know development can take up years. I do have a problem with Simbin's lack of communication. I would appreciate it if Simbin would answer some questions I have about the status of the game.

- When does Simbin expect R3E's SP module to be released?
- How will Simbin handle double tracks in the different DLC's?
- Will there be an AI percentage slider or are we stuck with the new AI model
- Will Simbin release templates so people can make old fashioned skins instead paying for skins.
- What is the status of the new physics model and in what way will it change the behaviour of the cars?
- What is Simbin working on at the moment: which tracks and or which cars?
- Will Simbin include the V8 supercars series?
- Will there be an open server system for MP?
- What happened to GTR3?

Looking forward to the answers.

Kind regards, Boby

 

[Jay Ekkel]

This might be a slightly longer post trying to cover some of the question above. Lets see where we end when I am done.

Costs
If you look to keep costs low wait for the sales, we have content for a good deal almost every month. And if you want even lower prices wait for the sales that we have once or twice a year that give 50-75% discount on nearly everything...

IMO its not an argument saying that something is expensive and therefor it is bad, try that
a car dealer and see how it goes . Joking aside, if we are talking value for money, you may have a point, R3E is not finished yet.

So lets say standard prices now should be 25% lower, since you can only hot lap. SP feature is done, would you or everyone else be ok with us then bumping the price 25% up? Then MP comes in and we bump it another 25%, since well you get more value for money now.

I have been in this community long enough to know the sh*t storm that would cause! So yeah, value for money you may have a point, but once SP and MP are ready its so worth the money..

I always go for the movie or coffee analogy, going to the movie is gonna cost you 15 bucks? 1,5 hour later you are done. For 2 buck you can get a coffee that will serve you well for 15 minutes. For 2,5 bucks you can have a virtual car that will last you almost forever.

F2P
We will stick to the current business model as it is at heart of the concept. We see R3E as a launch platform to many DLC, like DTM, ADAC or any other series we get, or you can get single content, or never buy anything and go for the competitions to get some good game time in. With some skill and luck you might win some good prices or free content..

We try to give the player the option to invest in what he or she enjoys, and leave what they don't care out of the picture. You are of course allowed to agree or not agree with this concept, all i can say until now it seems to be going very well.

Currently we are looking at improving the flexibility of the user getting content, package deals for cars/tracks, user created bundles with appropriate discount etc etc.
In my opinion the prices are right, especially considering that once SP and MP are out the "money vs fun" factor totally tilts to the gamers favour.

investment
A lot of people here tell me that they are still enjoying Race07 today, some dirty maths then tells me that that investment 6-7 years is stall lasting you today (0,01 cents a day) vs all the fun you had with that game, all i see is a cheap and great investment in fun!

Listening ears
I or anyone else i know from the team have never said that we would just do what ever you guys or anyone else elsewhere say, that would turn out to be the most complicated, diverse all over the place game ever..... We are keen listeners, and I take all positive or negative feedback with us to whatever we decide to do.

DTM-Experience
You have a point that its a bit stupid that the tracks from DTM-E can't be used in R3E, not our choice, its a contractual obligation. Blasting a DTM car over Bathurst, believe its great fun! But sadly atm not possible, we will have to live with that limitation.

Yup, turned out to be a long post...

Something I did learn over the past 11 years doing games, no matter if you go left, right or straight ahead, there will always be someone telling you are going the direction. There is no things as a perfect game.

 

[Craig Stevenson]

Good luck with that Boby, most of those question were probably asked in the much vaunted Q&A, remember that fiasco?

 

[Craig Stevenson]

BTW are you guys still working on the Q&A Jay?, We better get the Popcorn out if you are cos it's taken some editing, must put Lord of the Rings to shame

 

[Jay Ekkel]

Actually we stopped doing the Q&A videos after a few parts, they didn't look great, the reception wasn't great on those, and besides that there were a lot of questions we couldn't or didn't answer (can't answer them all of course) so it died a silent death after a few parts... so maybe it is worth another shot.

My end goal would be that a Q&A is not required since we are that good at sharing info there are not a lot of questions to be asked!

 

[Robert vd Heide]

Actually we stopped doing the Q&A videos after a few parts, they didn't look great, the reception wasn't great on those, and besides that there were a lot of questions we couldn't or didn't answer (can't answer them all of course) so it died a silent death after a few parts... so maybe it is worth another shot.

My end goal would be that a Q&A is not required since we are that good at sharing info there are not a lot of questions to be asked!

Thanks Jay for your honest and clear answers in the above responses.

seems that not only employees will say goodbye
but also plenty of simracers will move on

i liked you guys much better when you worried about physicsmodels instead of earning models.
so for me its GOODBYE ,
wish you guys the best,,and will find mine elsewhere.

 

[Edgar Herrero]

Jay, I just would like you to answer me a couple of questions.

What led you guys to abandon GTR3? What happened to Real-Time Racing?

 

[Peter Johnson]

Lol, you guys realise what GTR stands for yeah?

No, what does it stand for? Grand Tourismo Racing?

 

[Jay Ekkel]

Thanks Jay for your honest and clear answers in the above responses.

seems that not only employees will say goodbye
but also plenty of simracers will move on

i liked you guys much better when you worried about physicsmodels instead of earning models.
so for me its GOODBYE ,
wish you guys the best,,and will find mine elsewhere.

Absolutely your choice, each their own game and preferences! One can only hope you will find your way back to us one day!

I can promise you back then and right now there were two goals, I can tell I was there . One being delivering the experience, the other one was making money. Nothing has changed, biggest different now, we are starting from nearly scratch, back then we used an already ready developed engine.

Jay, I just would like you to answer me a couple of questions.

What led you guys to abandon GTR3? What happened to Real-Time Racing?

We can't comment on GTR3 at this moment of time so can't help you there. RTR was a work for hire deal for the iOpener technology, we created the prototype and that was it.

 

[Fabio Rodrigues]

- Will there be an AI percentage slider or are we stuck with the new AI model

Hey Jay,

This is the main point for me. I bought DTM-E, tried a race at Hockenheim... and was very disappointed when I found out I couldn't choose assists and AI strength as I liked. The result? On amateur I was lapping 3s ahead of everyone, on "Get Real" I was lapping 3s behind everyone. So I quit the game, and I have been waiting for updates ever since.

I understand there's technically a feature named "ARI", but if I can be blunt, it sounds a little silly. It means that I have to pretty much waste a few hours "calibrating" the AI, when instead I could have an option to simply use a slider and choose my assists to get exactly the experience I want in much less time.

Is there anything you can share with us about this issue? Thank you.

 

[Jay Ekkel]

We have and are looking into the AI slider request. And i think there is a big chance it will find its way into the game at one point.

Reason for A.R.I. being a good alternative is that you can't outpace the AI ever. I remember back in the days we had a slider, going up to 100%-120%, but once you were fast enough to beat the 120% AI, it got boring. AI would never go faster, thats where adaptive AI wins it, it adapts to your speed so you won't be able to get rid of them that easily

 

[Blkout]

Thanks Jay for your honest and clear answers in the above responses.

seems that not only employees will say goodbye
but also plenty of simracers will move on

i liked you guys much better when you worried about physicsmodels instead of earning models.
so for me its GOODBYE ,
wish you guys the best,,and will find mine elsewhere.

And for the few of you that leave, you will be replaced with new faces. No game sustains every customer forever and if you feel your time has come to leave, then move on and play something else until you have no reason to play it anymore either. I enjoy R3E and DTME very much. I own all of the content and still enjoy it as do many others.

 

[Fabio Rodrigues]

Reason for A.R.I. being a good alternative is that you can't outpace the AI ever. I remember back in the days we had a slider, going up to 100%-120%, but once you were fast enough to beat the 120% AI, it got boring. AI would never go faster, thats where adaptive AI wins it, it adapts to your speed so you won't be able to get rid of them that easily

That's a good point, but if I may offer a couple of counter-arguments: first, there are people who *like* to be able to consistently beat any AI - that "god-mode" feeling that some people enjoy. And it's fine if they do, isn't it? I'm no game designer, but one philosophy that I like is "give the advanced customer more options, not less". It's the same issue I see with most Codemasters games as well. For instance, there's a lot of talk about AI catch-up there, people who hate it, people who like it. This would be easily solved by simply adding an "AI Catch-up on/off" toggle. And yet they never do it.

And that's what I didn't like about DTM-E - it gave me less choices (not only about AI, but also about assists), and it felt that I wasn't having *my* experience, that I was being forced to have *yours*.

The second counter-argument is that ARI, even if the end result is desirable, still requires calibrating, and that means that my very *first impressions* of the game will be of poor (because uncalibrated) AI, unfortunately. This, I'd wager, would scare customers off. So why not have an AI slider to start with, and *then* let ARI work from this initial setting? Not sure how difficult that would be to implement, but it sounds like a better solution to me.