Thrustmaster to Host Direct Drive Reveal on Twitch

Looking forward to Barry's review... especially the "inside look" section.

Sorry for the spam @Bram Hengeveld, this needs it's own forum post.

dwightyone said:

Once this and when then the Thrustmaster hits the shops I expect a couple hundred £££ in sales/promo will come tumbling off the Logitech at mainstream retailers.

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Maybe not as according to Boosted Media, for now, it'll be only their own specific logitech online portal. So no competition for their lower end offerings in the normal brick & mortar / online retail world.

to 'keep the price low'... lol

Slapped said:

This means that you can buy a TM or Logi product from pretty much anywhere, whereas the current crop of DD wheels need to be purchased direct, or through a “boutique” reseller.

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Seems logitech chose that same route for now. Maybe as not to compete with their own product line, maybe to test the waters with the price?

THK84 said:

Maybe not as according to Boosted Media, for now, it'll be only their own specific logitech online portal. So no competition for their lower end offerings in the normal brick & mortar / online retail world.

to 'keep the price low'... lol



Seems logitech chose that same route for now. Maybe as not to compete with their own product line, maybe to test the waters with the price?

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OK yeah, so at the moment Logi has decided to sell only from their webshop, but as all of the the supply channels to the end reseller (B&M, general online retail) are already in existence this could be changed overnight, unlike those manufacturers that haven’t built these channels.

Anyway I suspect this is less to do with keeping the price low and more to do with managing the initial inventory of the Pro series.

I’m pretty sure we’ll see the Logi DD being sold from their usual resellers in a few months when production ramps up,

Slapped said:

Anyway I suspect this is less to do with keeping the price low and more to do with managing the initial inventory of the Pro series.

I’m pretty sure we’ll see the Logi DD being sold from their usual resellers in a few months when production ramps up,

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Good point

Lol that’s so very very funny, TM carries on with the tease train of total toss… and their biggest competitors just releases it very own DD kit while TM is revealing that they might show us another small corner of the wheel set slightly lit in the dark shadows possibly… who cares now…

Whoever came up with this drawn out dirge of a product launch has really dropped the ball!

I like Logitech's QR - looks well-designed with no apparent flex. They obviously have real, certified engineers working for them.

MarkModdy said:

Lol that’s so very very funny, TM carries on with the tease train of total toss… and their biggest competitors just releases it very own DD kit while TM is revealing that they might show us another small corner of the wheel set slightly lit in the dark shadows possibly… who cares now…

Whoever came up with this drawn out dirge of a product launch has really dropped the ball!

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TM is a joke! And the funniest part? They don't even have a sony deal locked down yet, they would be marketing the hell out of it if they did. Meanwhile their main competitor being Logitech has confirmed PS compatibility and already has a product that is ready for the market.

TM sitting there like the stupidest kid in class thinking he's smart with this teasing nonsense.

andrewaugust93 said:

TM is a joke! And the funniest part? They don't even have a sony deal locked down yet

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I guess with being half French, TM is pulling an Alpine xD

pai said:

Logitech has caught Thrustmaster with their pants down. Just like Fanatec did with their CSL DD, but this is much bigger.

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I always liked TM more than Logitech, but they definitely surprised me. Some pros, some cons, but I didn't expect them to show off TM this way

Mm.... I wonder if Logitech are going to surprise us even further and soon after (or maybe a little later on) announce another less powerful DD wheel aimed at the masses which leaves this one aimed at the hardcore. Saying that, maybe Thrustmaster have the same plan. Also a bit coincidental that Thrustmaster only announced some new news about their product a day or so ago - I reckon they knew about the Logitech launch beforehand and is an attempt to make potential Logitech customers wait and see before buying.

First, I was very surprised to see this kept secret DD wheel by Logitech.
They've been working on it since many months without making any
public announcement about it, which is very odd. But now I'm more
surprised about the pricing... 1.100 Eur for the base plus wheel, and
400 Eur for the Load Cell pedals... This is very expensive indeed and
if compared to Fanatec's offer and some others like the chinese
products from Moza and some others...

I'm sure the price will be a bit lower when sold from independent
stores like Amazon, etc., but still not cheap enough to be
competitive. Big deception here.

passenger said:

Big deception here.

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How so? Did Logitech ever make a promise they'd make a direct drive base we'd all be able to afford?

No interest in TM. They need to fire whoever thought this drip drip drip was a great idea. Look at Logitech today. That is how you do it. No one saw that coming. Reviews online I've watched today inc Boosted Media say the DD is giving them feedback they haven't found elsewhere. When a new product drops just like that, it makes you want to check it out. I'm ready for my first DD wheelbase. I wouldn't get the Logi, but I'm impressed with how they bought that out today

This comment section is proof that Logitech has earned legendary troll status.

[edit]: Not only are we talking about Logitech's DD wheel in a Thrustmaster article, but I want to provide an example of how Logitech went above and beyond to troll TM.

Look at this picture of their new wheelbase. It has the cool hexagon shape that TM has been teasing us about.


Everything about this situation is unbelievably hilarious.

Scanned a few YouTube reviews on the Logitech wheel and they only seem to be comparing against the recent "budget" DD wheels. I get that the power maxes out at 11nm but most people are running the 15+nm DD bases lower than the max so why not compare to them. They seem to think the Force Feedback is very good so why not also compare it to Simucube's, DD1, DD2 etc. Be interested to see a comparison to those unless I've missed something

This whole synchronized release of reviews of the G PRO tells me that on one hand, you cannot understimate the reach of Logitech and its reputation as a brand (spoiler: it's better than what some of you will admit), this was a well orchestrated move, and no matter what others will say, impulse buying IS a thing, even at these price points. This will get them many sales and steal a march from Thrustmaster.

OTOH, I'm skeptical on all reviews calling this the best thing since sliced bread, it seems like it's part of the orchestration. I will wait for Barry from SRG to tear it open to emit further thoughts.

pai said:

This whole synchronized release of reviews of the G PRO tells me that on one hand, you cannot understimate the reach of Logitech and its reputation as a brand (spoiler: it's better than what some of you will admit), this was a well orchestrated move, and no matter what others will say, impulse buying IS a thing, even at these price points. This will get them many sales and steal a march from Thrustmaster.

OTOH, I'm skeptical on all reviews calling this the best thing since sliced bread, it seems like it's part of the orchestration. I will wait for Barry from SRG to tear it open to emit further thoughts.

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Yes. One review was even praising the "refined" plastic.

What I find surprising at the time of this writing is that the Logitech DD release is all over reddit, twitter, facebook,and youtube with reviews from all the ususal simfluenecers

Yet if you rely on Racedepartment‘s front page for your sim racing news you wouldn’t even know about it. Kind of funny for the what I always considered to be the prominent sim racing site/forum.

Slapped said:

What I find surprising at the time of this writing is that the Logitech DD release is all over reddit, twitter, facebook,and youtube with reviews from all the ususal simfluenecers

Yet if you rely on Racedepartment‘s front page for your sim racing news you wouldn’t even know about it. Kind of funny for the what I always considered to be the prominent sim racing site/forum.

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RaceDepartment is a very good website for many things. But breaking out news first has never been their strength.

Random Callsign really likes the Logitech pro (wheel not the pedals), seems like a very good product even if pricey.

UnixRoot said:

Maybe 3017

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I that case we'll all be driving the Bandit Hovertank!

Let's crack some Kurita Heads!

No guts, no Galaxy!

On a more serious note, the question of peak strength is not the biggest one, as a lot of our favourite youtubers, Mike included have reminded us a few times that the main advantage of a DD wheel is Clarity. In fact they said it makes a bigger difference at low levels than at higher ones.

Also something that is substially more powerful than a T500/TS-PC or TS-XW (remember the TS-PC was also PC exclusive before), doesn't really make sense unless you have a rig to mount it on.
So something in the 5-6 NM range would make a lot of sense from an economic standpoint.

And pricepoint makes a lot of difference, I have a TM Warthog, have had it for 5 years, and safe for a bit of play in the right throttle it has held up well. I got it for around 320 Euros back then.
And then paired it with the TFRP Pedals, yeah the nasty cheap ones, because at the time I couldn't afford the Warthog and the MFG Crosswinds at the same time. That was before the TPR Pedular rudders came out, which I would love to have, but until very recently they never budged from their 500 Euro Pricepoint (440-ish at the moment), which made even the MFG Crosswinds with their (then) 350 Euro pricepoint the "Vernunftsoption/sane option". The main advantage the TPR have over the Crosswinds is being able to combine them with the Stick and throttle into one device, nice if you play old Games like X-Wing alliance with them.
(Yes I have done that with my Warthog, same as using it as a handbrake in Dirt Rally. I know, I know, heresy! The throttle also makes an excellent button box for racing sims. )
And while the Virpils are better, they do cost twice to trice price of admission.

Like some I have a TM Wheel (T500 used) and two wheels (599XX and F150 F1 Wheel), the T3PA/T500 Pedals and an SHH Shifter. So I'm not as deeply invested into the Ecosystem, but just having to replace the wheelbase itself is nice. Frankly the Moza stuff looks really nice, but that's a lot of investment after having that T500 for just a year and that alone was a great improvement over my modded (used) G27.

However, the problem with TM currently is both pricing and quality, you look at the 2011 stuff like the Warthog or the T500 and they are solid, as well as the T300 and T3PA (with the 3drap mod)....but some of the newer stuff like the T.16000m is of questionable quality. (There's a design fault that makes the twist axis break after about 3/4 of a year of usage.)
Also the Warthog is great, bar some things on the throttle, like the fact that the Thortle Arms are made from Plastic and the Sensor control stick is a wee bit ****! It's a bit like the mouse sticks on Labtops, which makes sensor Control not as smooth as it should be.
I can't hardmount either due to space constraints.

And I've think we've all seen the TS-PC or TS-XW with the 488 Challenge wheel going for 600-800 Euros during the last two years, despite several DD wheel sets going for marginally more, as in less than 100 Euros more.
Even now most new ones are still around 500 Euros, which is way overpriced for what they deliver. And let's not talk about the delusional people wanting 660 or 700 or 760 Euros+Postage for it on Ebay.

As for fixing the "Quick release" could be easily done if they offer conversion kits for current wheel owners, either free of charge on a warranty basis or as a replacement part for those out of warranty.
The connector in the center is a simple PS/2 by the looks of it.

Edit: @pai Well, depends, I still have an age old Logitech Office Keyboard to use, simply because it works (yep it is PS/2), and an MX-518, again because it works. Overall it was seen as an improvement when they took over Saitek from Madcatz, mainly because Madcatz was utterly bad at making drivers (to the degree that you couldn't use their drivers on a system with Intel USB 3.0 drivers, which in 2017 was a big issue!). And their production quality was subterran, I had a 2006 Saitek X52 and it was better quality than my friend's 2012 Saitek X52 Pro. I had that stick for 9 years before it broke.
Now the problem is that Logitech, safe for the DD has only released refreshes, especially in the flight sim peripherals sector or their mainline wheels. Their only own stick is the Logitech extreme from...2003 IIRC and everything else is a Saitek rebadged, nothing new.
G27-G29/G920not that much difference. The G923 had Trueforce (V1?), although opinion on that is split.