Simbin Studios is now Sector 3 Studios

[Ryan Ogurek]

As you may know, Simbin Studios announced this year that they are facing bankruptcy and will be restructured under a new studio to continue their efforts. The time has now come and Sector 3 Studios has been founded to take the reigns.

Sector 3 Studios will consist of most of the former Simbin staff and will continue to develop the RaceRoom Racing Experience title, with a major update coming soon to get them started.

Get involved in our RaceRoom community by checking out our dedicated R3E forum, or by posting awesome videos and photos in our R3E gallery!

 

[Bryan O'Connor]

It's not all bad. We could all own consoles and be paying £20 for a car pack that's already on the disc.

 

[GTAce]

It's not all bad. We could all own consoles and be paying £20 for a car pack that's already on the disc.

Not really exclusive to consoles.

 

[Bryan O'Connor]

Not really exclusive to consoles.

You have an Assetto Corsa/iRacing/GSCE/RRRE discs?

Hang on to them. Could be worth a mint one day.

 

[Robert vd Heide]

I guess you know what's right

EDIT - I still do not really understand what you are saying. Are you saying there should be no licensing involvement in race games/sim? So that any dev can put any product/car/track in a game that they want?

YES ,,its none of THEIR buisness whatsoever ,what people do on their homecomeputers

let them worry about their real merchandice,

normally its commercial interrest to have a brand popularised
they pay millions for adverts

yet when youngsters and race fans ,want to fantasise about driving their dreamcar
suddenly they are no longer happy with attentiom and popularity
and want to manipulate copyright laws to steal extra money
and even monopolise freedom of creativity

whats next ,,suing a 4 year old for a drawing of a red f1 Ferrari ?
or us claiming copyright after beeing flashed for speeding by police
or are these copyright priviliges only for an elite group that stand above the law ?

its a principal matter ,,that boundries have stretched too far ,and fairness is lost

 

[GTAce]

You have an Assetto Corsa/iRacing/GSCE/RRRE discs?

Hang on to them. Could be worth a mint one day.

Don't quite get what you mean, there are several games on PC sold on discs, including racing games and there are also many with locked DLC pressed on them. Just because the games you listed are different, it doesn't mean that there aren't others. pCARS will actually be the next one coming out on disc with locked DLC.

 

[Bryan O'Connor]

Don't quite get what you mean, there are several games on PC sold on discs, including racing games and there are also many with locked DLC pressed on them. Just because the games you listed are different, it doesn't mean that there aren't others. pCARS will actually be the next one coming out on disc with locked DLC.

OK. Draw me a list of current racing games, sold on discs. CARS will be on Steam too, so yeahhhhh... carry on.

 

[Robert vd Heide]

OK. Draw me a list of current racing games, sold on discs. CARS will be on Steam too, so yeahhhhh... carry on.

you sound like you dont care ,or havent spent your own earned money on sims yet
why defend the pocketpicking the devs do for a few years now ?
also mobile Phone providers where whistled back from stealing credits
but devs keep doing this semi stealing untill WE no longer accept.

 

[GTAce]

OK. Draw me a list of current racing games, sold on discs. CARS will be on Steam too, so yeahhhhh... carry on.

pCARS will be sold on disc.
All the Codemasters games (GRID, DiRT, F1 franchises) can be bought on disc.
The Need for Speed games could all be bought on disc too as far as I know.
Also, I think I saw a DVD version of GSC, unfortunately the website doesn't want to load for me right now to verify. I'm still not understanding your argument to be honest.

 

[museumsteve]

YES ,,its none of THEIR buisness whatsoever ,what people do on their homecomeputers

let them worry about their real merchandice,

normally its commercial interrest to have a brand popularised
they pay millions for adverts

yet when youngsters and race fans ,want to fantasise about driving their dreamcar
suddenly they are no longer happy with attentiom and popularity
and want to manipulate copyright laws to steal extra money
and even monopolise freedom of creativity

whats next ,,suing a 4 year old for a drawing of a red f1 Ferrari ?
or us claiming copyright after beeing flashed for speeding by police
or are these copyright priviliges only for an elite group that stand above the law ?

its a principal matter ,,that boundries have stretched too far ,and fairness is lost

Sooooo..I'm not sure why you are directing your anger towards the developers then, they don't make the rules. If you don't pay, you don't get the rights to put certain content in your game..simple. If you do put the content in your game with the rights, you will get sued.

 

[Robert vd Heide]

Sooooo..I'm not sure why you are directing your anger towards the developers then, they don't make the rules. If you don't pay, you don't get the rights to put certain content in your game..simple. If you do put the content in your game with the rights, you will get sued.

abiding the rules vs treading to the edges of the law and over it
DLC wise that is
the whole copyright isue i agree is not only devs ,companies,but a total corrupted western system ,that ignores a crisis they created ,,and keep agressively predating on humanity

last 5 years it became normal to target kids under 16 on consoles with DLC
while they are not the ones having an income

its almost like we are the mice ,beeing fed to the snakes by our legal systems and authoroties

when we do the same ,that companies get away with,,we end up in jail

if we try selling stuff to people under age ,,we get arrested
if we steal phonecredits ,we are thiefs
not companies,,they are allowed to stretch the limits of decency
because the whole corrupt pyramid profits

after DTM i expected ADAC to be a complete series too

in dtm i didnt need to buy dtm cars
but we went down the spiral further and in ADAC not all cars are included
add ons within an add on facepalm

maybe im getting too old,,and liked the game industry better when they just sold products and gave service
todays companies act more as the mob

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

A lot of kids sitting in the sandbox crying cos the toys cost money...
Simbin/Sector3 Studios is a company, the main goal for a company will ALWAYS be making money, they MADE this product and are free to charge whatever the heck they feel like, they could charge $12 per car if they wanted (hey, that price sounds familiar, anyone know of a sim that DOES? ), and if you are unhappy with that the solution is quite simple, DONT BUY IT!
S3E owes you nothing, they have no obligation to deliver a game at a pricepoint that suits you.

 

[Bryan O'Connor]

you sound like you dont care ,or havent spent your own earned money on sims yet
why defend the pocketpicking the devs do for a few years now ?
also mobile Phone providers where whistled back from stealing credits
but devs keep doing this semi stealing untill WE no longer accept.

I have spent hundreds of pounds on sims. In fact if you factor in the hardware and equipment required to get the most out of them then i have spent thousands.
Don't talk of what you don't know. Because i am not as butthurt as you doesn't mean i don't care.
I have always said iRacing and RRRE could be cheaper.
Where is the pickpocketing? Where is the 'stealing'? They have told you, up front what X, Y & Z will cost, it's your decision to buy into it.
Nowhere are they stealing anything or billing you $15 for something you use once that your child didn't realised costed money (i'm looking at you Candy Crush!).

You can make your choice. Pay for what you want to. Or keep raging until you get everything, in the world handed to you for free. It will be a long ****ing wait.
You sound like a child. Want want want.

Do you actually want this game or not? Or are you just here to piss around, moaning about what it costs because you won't pay it?
Go somewhere you can find value or what you are willing to pay for - be that AC, CARS, Grid or whatever.
Leave us who have bought the stuff to discuss amongst ourselves, like adults where we can improve and what's great/not-so-great about the content.

 

[Robert vd Heide]

A lot of kids sitting in the sandbox crying cos the toys cost money...
Simbin/Sector3 Studios is a company, the main goal for a company will ALWAYS be making money, they MADE this product and are free to charge whatever the heck they feel like, they could charge $12 per car if they wanted (hey, that price sounds familiar, anyone know of a sim that DOES? ), and if you are unhappy with that the solution is quite simple, DONT BUY IT!
S3E owes you nothing, they have no obligation to deliver a game at a pricepoint that suits you.

werent you sitting in the sandbox crying when Fanatec customerservice was slow
while everyone knew they where slow

double measures dude

 

[Kjell Eilertsen]

werent you sitting in the sandbox crying when Fanatec customerservice was slow
while everyone knew they where slow

double measures dude

I can't recall having done that, feel free to prove me wrong though by linking to my post if so.
Actually, I went ahead and bought myself a new wheel because Fanatec was slow.
Though, I don't consider a paying customer who has an opinion on the customer service he is getting (or not) to be directly comparable with someone complaining that a product they have not bought is too expensive so they don't want to buy it...

 

[James Cook]

I think we're just going to have to get used to our racing simulations costing us more now than before. It's obvious that the resources required to produce high quality content (in a reasonable timeframe) will have to increase considerably if the genre is to move forward. At the end of the day people have to get paid so the industry can remain viable.

On the face of it something like rF2 looks like great value. A great core to the game for a small one-off fee. Yet, pace of development is glacial due to the small team, official content is "eclectic" (polite way of saying not to my taste!) and high quality mod content is thin on the ground.

To bring it back to R3E, look at the ADAC GT pack and how much quality content it offers (7 cars and 6 tracks with more to come) then compare to the well-known WIP GT3 mod for rF2. The latter has been in development for years and is still a long way from completion (which highlights the time and resources required to mod for current sims). If, like me, you're a fan of GT3 racing then you can wait years for a 'free' GT3 mod (of questionable quality) or pay an insubstantial amount of money to enjoy the ADAC GT Masters in R3E - and play it now!

More to the point, sim-racing is a pretty damn cheap hobby, even when the more expensive titles are taken into account. R3E may seem like poor value but I'm sure I will get hundreds of hours of entertainment out of this game.

 

[Chronus]

It's obvious that the resources required to produce high quality content (in a reasonable timeframe) will have to increase considerably if the genre is to move forward.

No it's not obvious. There are a number of technologies available which can be used and are being used to produce games/content that do not require the investment of millions of euros/dollars. The genre can move forward just by the smart, appropriate application of technologies and people into projects that give users (casuals or the more dedicated ones) what they've been waiting for (and not what companies believe will yield higher financial returns).

If, like me, you're a fan of GT3 racing then you can wait years for a 'free' GT3 mod (of questionable quality) or pay an insubstantial amount of money to enjoy the ADAC GT Masters in R3E - and play it now!

First off, one can be fan of GT3 racing and enjoy the content on several sims we already have. Physics wise, we have people from motorsports (former pilots, race car engineers, data analysts), and people from many different areas (engineers/physicists/programmers/artists) producing high quality work on tracks, cars, shaders, tools and even sounds.

Secondly, you are literally stating modding-based content is not up to whatever standards you believe paid content has. It's obvious you believe "premium content/paid content" to be the be-all end-all of the today's simracing - curiously something so frantically voiced by the most vocal investors of pCARS when the ability to mod was being discussed in 2012 (which they viewed as a potential loss of revenue) both here and at NoGrip.

Finally, the simracing community was built upon content of your so-called "questionable quality". For years, the vast majority of simracers were quite appreciative of the modding effort (be it for rF, GTR2, Race07 or even Shift 1&2), all of a sudden investors on one hand and those who don't quite appreciate mods try to change that. Curiously, it's thanks to that "questionable quality" content that a not-insignificant number of modders/artists are working now or have been working for several development studios (Codies, Eutechnyx, SRW and SIMBIN are just some examples).

Very much to the point: not everyone can spend the amount of money required to buy all the tracks and cars offered by some sims/services (iRacing and SRW are examples) or the never ending stream of DLC's coming out of assembly lines of some powerful studios (PD and T10 come to mind).

The premise I'm-willing-to-pay-more-for-high-quality-content is not for everyone. The genre surely can survive with good, solid and honest content that is accessible to fans without the need to spend a lot of hard earned cash.

My 2 cents.

 

[James Cook]

Oh dear, I appear to have touched a nerve. I'll leave it there as I don't wish to derail the thread much further but I believe you have thrown a lot of incorrect assumptions back at me. I'm not anti-modding (I've donated to many rF2 modders) nor do I believe 'official' content is superior by default. Just saying things as I see it.

My main point was simply R3E is delivering fantastic content that appeals to me more than any other sim and I'm happy to pay a fair price for it, even if that price is expensive and/or unacceptable to others.

 

[Terry Rock]

Jesus guys!
If DLC content offends you, simply 'walk away' and do not buy it.
It's that simple.
I personally don't drive RRE much at this point in time, but (that's subject to change later).
I only have a few inexpensive cars which I purchased to compare handling, along with the default track.
While the FFB noticeably changed for the better with the latest update, the steering feels out of phase on my T500. I don't have the patience to sit there trying to dial out what should be good out of the box, so I've moved on.
I know I won't buy anymore content until I have a better feel for what the car is doing at default setup, but I won't get mad at DLC either.
You have options in the form of other simulations.

 

[Travis]

Licencing issues are alive and well; just ask the fellows making high quality F1 & F3 mods for Assetto Corsa. Reiza were smart to make silhouette F1 cars. As for the DTM, unless one works for Sector3 and has insider knowledge, we'll never know how restrictive a series licence is.

I remember reading a quote that was a series licence was just that - licence to use the name of a series. The developer still needed to get licences for the cars, tracks and teams.

In his video interview with The SimPit, Jay mentions that many car companies now pay to be in the big console games - do you think these companies care about a PC-only sim that sells units counted in the thousands (if it's a big hit) versus a GT or Forza that sells millions of copies.

Assetto Corsa is the exception that validates the rule with Ferrari. FVA was a special sim and clearly cemented a close bond between Kunos and Ferrari.

Sadly the days of getting another GTR 2 with Porsche, Lamborghini and Ferrari is a pipe dream for the most part unless the developer has very deep pockets. Manufacturers now understand their cars are valuable commodities in the virtual world as much as they are in the real world and will happily take money from the highest bidder.

 

[James Cook]

I remember reading a quote that was a series licence was just that - licence to use the name of a series. The developer still needed to get licences for the cars, tracks and teams.

That's true. A good example of this is the Champions League licence in Pro Evolution Soccer. It only entitles the game to use the name, format, theme music, ball, adboards and other branded stuff. It doesn't permit the developers to included all the participating teams and stadia (apart from the final host) so many teams are missing. This was also the case with FIFA when it used to have the Champions League licence.

That's the way it is now. Licences aren't seen as potential free/cheap advertising and brand exposure, just a way to make money from the highest bidder.