iRacing Acquires Orontes Games

iRacing Acquires Orontes 01.jpg
iRacing has acquired racing game developer Orontes, creator of the DRAG Early Access title.

Steam Early Access title DRAG didn't break the internet when it was made available to the public last year, but the team behind it has done enough to gain the attention of the biggest name in online sim racing.

iRacing announced the acquisition of DRAG developer Orontes Games. Christian Folkers and Thorsten Folkers are the lead developers of the DRAG title, and iRacing saw "a team with tremendous potential to help."

For those who've yet to try DRAG, the name of the title is not a reference to racing opponents in a straight line. Rather, the title allows racers to charge a boost while in an opponent's slipstream, then surge ahead with extra power once the boost is ready.

DRAG is an off-road racing title featuring fictional cars on fictional tracks. Much of the focus of the Orontes team has been on the vehicle physics, which produce a complex suspension system and a soft body capable of taking realistic damage.

While iRacing and DRAG may seem an unlikely pairing on paper, no doubt the knowledge and application of physics in DRAG is what caught iRacing's attention, and could enhance car realism in iRacing in the future.

What are your thoughts on the acquisition? Have you tried DRAG or the free demo on Steam? Let us know in the comments below.
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: EAKMotorsports, Wolf_XII, Ote and 5 others
About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

More in iRacing

Comments

Kyuubeey
To be fair, the original patent for iRacing did have a mention of it being online IIRC.
 
Emerson Meyer
Badwheels said:
So.............what is this Iracing thing?
I have heard it's a game where you rent fake cars and tracks, then pay a month to have the right to be rated based on a fake ability to drive fake cars on fake tracks in order to drive against other people in fake cars on fake tracks so that you can curse them and their parents when you have fake crashes caused by that person.

Is that correct ?
Click to expand...
Based on a fake intellectual capacity, it´s correct
 
MADBULL417
I may not have a lot of spare cash for iracing but 10 bucks a month is childs play when you consider Xbox live costs 10 bucks a month.
 
M
Premium
Its still the same as it was last time.. Those that dont want to pay for iracing and those that do, who are glad the first lot have not joined iracing.

Thats a bit of sterotyping, of course there are not just two types.. theres also the ones that go ape when its suggested they can't afford it. Yep, I think thats it, three types.
 
Wayne Hutchison
Slapped said:
I don't need to go all in, but honestly I do not see the need to pay $10 a month when other sims are delivering incredible quality for a one off price. Last year I went all in with R3E content - it cost far less than a year of iRacing and it's mine - no further charge.
Click to expand...
What happens when RRE's authentication server goes down? No racing happens. They could close up shop tomorrow and you'd be stuck with a sim you can't use.
 
Wayne Hutchison
Slapped said:
Last time I checked it was around $1'500 to go all in with iRacing including a 2 year membership
Click to expand...
I've been a member for 8 years and own 100% of the content. Total spent $2139.49USD or $0.73 per day. And that includes money spent on hosting various league sessions over the years. I race 4 or 5 nights per week in official and league races and get a lot more enjoyment out of this than the similarly priced Netflix subscription :)

I look at it as a $/hour ratio - I spend a lot less per hour of use on iRacing than I do on rF2, RRE, ACC, etc. Sure those sims are much less expensive up front (especially when they go for 75% off due to lagging sales) but there is no way for someone in North America to get anywhere near the hours of online multiplayer enjoyment out of those sims that you can with iRacing. Maybe it's different in the Euro timezones as those sims do cater to Euros for sure...
 
Slapped
Wayne Hutchison said:
What happens when RRE's authentication server goes down? No racing happens. They could close up shop tomorrow and you'd be stuck with a sim you can't use.
Click to expand...
If R3E servers are shut off then I've lost around $100 - no big deal. If on the other hand iRacings servers are shut off then you're down over $2'000. That said I'd be down close to $700 if DCS disappeared.

Look I'm not saying you're wrong about iRacing, and if you feel that you're getting fair deal and feel that you're getting your money's worth in terms of enjoyment then that's fantastic.

It's simply that I disagree with iRacings pricing model, and as I'm already getting a hell of a lot of enjoyment out ACC, AC, R3E I see little need for me personally to invest into iRacing.

If iRacing was the only sim racing option (as DCS is really the only dedicated military flight sim) then I'd probably be in, but it isn't. Also iRacing's competition is strong enough to make somebody seriously consider whether iRacing's cost is worth it, which for me it isn't.
 
Kyuubeey
Slapped said:
If R3E servers are shut off then I've lost around $100 - no big deal. If on the other hand iRacings servers are shut off then you're down over $2'000. That said I'd be down close to $700 if DCS disappeared.

Look I'm not saying you're wrong about iRacing, and if you feel that you're getting fair deal and feel that you're getting your money's worth in terms of enjoyment then that's fantastic.

It's simply that I disagree with iRacings pricing model, and as I'm already getting a hell of a lot of enjoyment out ACC, AC, R3E I see little need for me personally to invest into iRacing.

If iRacing was the only sim racing option (as DCS is really the only dedicated military flight sim) then I'd probably be in, but it isn't. Also iRacing's competition is strong enough to make somebody seriously consider whether iRacing's cost is worth it, which for me it isn't.
Click to expand...
You do know that BMS Falcon is free and still being developed? It's not like DCS is 'the only' modern military flight sim. Some even argue BMS is arguably much better than DCS at the military and sim part.

On another note, why is Wayne so obsessed with getting people to pay for iRacing? He's even began using dishonest arguments like "If RRE goes down", implying that iR can't do the same.
 
M
Premium
Kyuubeey said:
You do know that BMS Falcon is free and still being developed? It's not like DCS is 'the only' modern military flight sim. Some even argue BMS is arguably much better than DCS at the military and sim part.

On another note, why is Wayne so obsessed with getting people to pay for iRacing? He's even began using dishonest arguments like "If RRE goes down", implying that iR can't do the same.
Click to expand...
Well, in the context of the conversation its similar. You dont own the RRE content either, if they shutdown you lose your content.

What I find crazy is the number of people that have to come in and say they dont want to pay. who cares? Dont pay, dont play that game... No one will care. It's the very opposite of what mostly happens when people try and justify their spending.

I also dont see this thing anywhere else trying to calculate what you would have lost? I dont calculate that I have lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars on games I no longer play. I never thought I lost $60 from gtr2, or $60 from rf1, or whatever from any number of games. If I move on from iracing why would I suggest I had lost $$, seems crazy to me, like other games I got a lot of value from it.

Dudes dont have to justify what they dont spend money on it, they just have to not say anything and no one is the wiser.
 
DRDNA333
metalnwood said:
What I find crazy is the number of people that have to come in and say they dont want to pay. who cares? Dont pay, dont play that game... No one will care. It's the very opposite of what mostly happens when people try and justify their spending.
Click to expand...
This is a forum and this forum is based on opinions or it will cease to exist... lol how about that?
 
Last edited:
Badwheels
BP said:
I understand everyone wanting to try out all cars in their sim of choice...but in other sims I found (key words) I'd generally gravitate towards cars that I like or curious about. To this day I haven't tried out every Kunos car in AC after 6 years. I personally (key words) find that practice pointless for two reasons:

  1. There's rarely a league where I can drive said car against others that aligns with my schedule, plus AI racing in nearly all sims always feel programmed to me (key words)...within a couple laps I know where they're weak, where you can always gain places so they're super-predictable...there's (to me...key words) little to no challenge (even on the highest AI level in some sims). I love that there's a human on the other end and you're not sure what they'll attempt, and there's always someone faster than you.
  2. I've found my driving technique improved much more when I stuck to one or two cars (of different classes) for a good while and really learned their intricacies.

So yea iRacing might cost that much to have everything...but I personally (key words) find no need or desire to own everything. There's only a handful of series there that have several cars in a class, but they're usually BOP'd so that any advantage is minor at best (or the advantage is on certain tracks only)...so best you pick whatever car fits your liking and work on extracting every millisecond out of it. I've tried jumping to a different GT3 car to see if that would help my results...of course it didn't; pretty much all of them are capable of a win, problem is between the wheel and the chair lol.

And again, the subscription is for using their servers for their online-focused title. IMO (key words) I think the vast majority of iRacing users aren't under any illusion; we know what the business model is. I like driving exclusively online now and as @Kurupt CDN said, it's convenient to not be limited to only Euro friendly race times when races run every hour every day. So I personally (key words) make sure to put a little aside each month so that, come every Black Friday, I can buy the discounted subscription to use their servers to race online...because that is what I like and this is my primary hobby. That might seem annoying and crazy to some, but it's practical and convenient to others. To each their own, do what makes you happy.

(I keep saying "key words", because people keep forgetting everything posted on a forum is "in my opinion")



It's all "fake" buddy, all sims...it's in the name: SIMULATION. What's the point of this post other than trying to provoke reactions?
Click to expand...
That is my point. People are already reacting to a business decision by company that is going to charge money for something that is free. This shouldn't have as many pages of postings as it does.

So reaction is the name of the game.
 
S
I pumped $400 or so into iRacing, plus the yearly fee. Finally abandoned it completely a year ago. I do miss it but just had to stop paying sadly.
 
M
Premium
DRDNA333 said:
This is a forum and this forum is based on opinions or it will cease to exist... lol how about that?
Click to expand...
Of course, I am not trying to limit what people are saying. I just find it strange how triggering iRacing can be to some people that they don't use it but have to justify their non spending on it.

I
 
I
I some how equate owning iRacing to the myth of Prometheus where my life force is consumed every day only to grow back.
 
Short_Circut
Crawdad97 said:
If you are a person who is interested in a simulation style racing, but don't live in your mothers basement this does not make any sense to do. The time it takes to login. Then get into a server for practice, register for a race, then do qualifying, AND finally a race isn't going to work for people that have children . Then you have the steep penalties to pay to just to do what you would like. All the tracks and cars to pay for plus the subscription. That model isn't worth it for someone like me. Time is rare to play. If the base game was free and you could pay for the content and use it ALL for AI racing I would love to have it, but as it stands it doesn't add up to throw money away. I love ACC, raceroom, and recently AMB2. Why? because I can play on my terms. Create what I can do in the time I have. I am a huge Indycar and Formula 1 fan. I would love to have a sim that did these well, but I can't afford the Iracing model to do it. It is more about MONEY/TIME ratio that is the issue. Not just the money.
Click to expand...
I feel like the time factor often gets overlooked with these kinds of discussions (well "discussions"). Thing is with subscription models is if you're not using it then that's just money going down the drain. Especially if you have burnouts along the way where you don't bother to sim race for some time then it's just redundant spending at that point. With one-time, once you buy it's yours for life (unless it has denuvo omegalul) or as you mentioned being able to play on your own terms

Plus the issue with having to on top of the subscription pay for individual cars is that you kinda have to know what you're getting into before choosing a car (idk if iRacing has a try before you buy model though), so you're kinda limited to only select few cars to avoid unnecessary spending. Like I enjoy driving mainly GT cars, but maybe from time to time, I want to race with classic muscle cars. At least with a one-time model I'd never need to worry about pointlessly spending to drive a car maybe once or twice

That being said though, it is also understandable that in order to maintain the high quality online experience it would require a more steady cash flow rather than one time payments

Me personally I'd never touch iRacing not even with a 7ft pole (Assetto Corsa's unbeatable graphics has already kinda trapped me anyways) but that's because I was never a fan of online racing to begin with. Yet I understand to some who are more committed why it might be a worthy investment regardless
 
O
Injafaz said:
I some how equate owning iRacing to the myth of Prometheus where my life force is consumed every day only to grow back.
Click to expand...
To me its more like Atlas having to hold up the Earth. The Earth being the car/track investment and the burden of holding it up eternally is the subscription fee. :laugh:
 
Norseman
Riky_Sim said:
I've played iracing, and honestly, the physics never liked me too much.
So that, I've quit because for this cost I would be expecting it to be the best in everthing.
I'm very interested in this topic and I hope iracing would have a top physics thanks to that deal.
Then could really woth it.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, and yet real race drivers swear by it and run it all the time. What does that tell you?
 
Kyuubeey
Norseman said:
Hmmm, and yet real race drivers swear by it and run it all the time. What does that tell you?
Click to expand...
It's the only sim where you can easily regularly race with other skilled people. It doesn't tell anything about the accuracy of physics, moreso about the service.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Mike Smith
Article read time
1 min read
Views
21,260
Comments
92
Last update

Share this article

How long have you been simracing

  • < 1 year

    Votes: 252 15.1%

  • < 2 years

    Votes: 168 10.1%

  • < 3 years

    Votes: 167 10.0%

  • < 4 years

    Votes: 125 7.5%

  • < 5 years

    Votes: 230 13.8%

  • < 10 years

    Votes: 198 11.9%

  • < 15 years

    Votes: 125 7.5%

  • < 20 years

    Votes: 96 5.8%

  • < 25 years

    Votes: 76 4.6%

  • Ok, I am a dinosaur

    Votes: 228 13.7%
See comments…
Back
Top