Motorsport Games Announces INDYCAR Partnership

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IndyCar Game Motorsport Games.jpg
Motorsport Games have announced a partnership with INDYCAR and are aiming to release a new title based on the race series in 2023.

It has been a big year for game developer and publisher Motorsport Games. They made waves in the sim racing world in the spring with their acquisition of rFactor 2 developer Studio 397, and earlier this week they announced that the next NASCAR title will utilize rFactor 2’s physics engine to complement Unreal Engine based graphics.

The latest from the ambitious Motorsport Games studio was a press release confirming they had partnered with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to bring a much-deserved racing title to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Although few details are known at this time, the team is targeting a 2023 release date.

INDYCAR has been conspicuously absent from the gaming and sim racing market in recent years. Titles such as iRacing and the Project CARS series have featured the cars, and mods for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 have been released by Race Sim Studio and Virtual Racing Cars to help fill the void. What INDYCARs fans have been missing is a complete title with the drivers, teams, and tracks.

Dmitry Kozko of Motorsport Games says, “Motorsport Games and INDYCAR are thrilled to provide fans with a long overdue dedicated gaming experience.” So, it seems like this will be the complete title fans have been looking forward to, and akin to the Codemasters’ F1 series or the NASCAR titles Motorsport Games is now overseeing.

Sim racing’s ties to INDYCAR go way back. Older games and sim racers may remember playing Papyrus’ IndyCar Racing in 1993. IndyCar Racing was a well-loved simulator in its time, and designed and programmed by Dave Kaemmer, now best known as the founder of iRacing.

The current generation of INDYCAR is a fiercely competitive spec series. Through the first 10 races this season, eight different drivers have claimed victory.

The current cars are powered by a twin-turbocharged V6 engine, which is mated to a 6-speed paddle shift transmission. Dallara provides the carbon fiber monocoque to the 16 active full and part time teams, with engines provided by either Honda or Chevrolet. There are changes expected to be implemented for the 2023 season in INDYCAR, including the move to a hybrid 2.4l engine.

Would you play an INDYCAR title? What features do you hope Motorsport Games includes? Let us know in the comments.
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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

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Comments

D
Spin off titles based on the RF2 engine is the best damn idea. MS games have the ingredients to make the greatest racing games ever made.
 
Austin Ogonoski
doddynco said:
Spin off titles based on the RF2 engine is the best damn idea. MS games have the ingredients to make the greatest racing games ever made.
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It's not a new idea. Almost every PC racing sim of the early 2000's was just an ISI base with the dev's own tracks and car models.

- F1 Challenge 99-02
- NASCAR Thunder 2004
- GT Legends
- GTR 2
- Race: The WTCC Game

All the same engine.

I'm not sure what fueled the smorgasboard sim approach but I'm glad that era is officially over.

I have a feeling that GT4 and Forza Motorsport 2 sold so astronomically well that sim devs attempted to capture that same vibe, but failed to flesh their games out with a compelling singleplayer campaign.
 
Ruy Horta
doddynco said:
Spin off titles based on the RF2 engine is the best damn idea. MS games have the ingredients to make the greatest racing games ever made.
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I’d keep that expectation tempered, because just like F1 the target audience and platforms will determine the level of simulation that‘s going to be offered. If casual players with controllers on consoles are the main market, don’t expect RF2 level simulation, certainly not with a yearly sports franchise. RF2 isn’t exactly using a new engine, nor is it known to be very flexible, as such is it really an effective platform for two new sport franchises like NASCAR and Indycar?

Sure fans of Rf2 will jump for joy if it were true, but if you take a step back does it still hold true for a mainstream target audience and future development potential?

IMO there is a lot of opportunity here to fail on many counts. If the target audience is similar to that of F1, do not expect these games to surpass that level as sims. If RF2 is the base engine it will have the same limitations as RF2. The result may fail to please both casual and sim oriented players in terms gameplay, physics or performance etc. Finally it is very likely that any first season release will be rough around the edges (which will greatly influence reception and subsequent development), being a seasonal franchise that probably means that we’ll have to endure a couple of seasons before the game state is solid.

Many ifs on that road.

I welcome both NASCAR and Indycar titles, but not holding my breath nor setting expectations even with s397 involvement.
Let’s see what the gameplay looks like, what the first tests and previews will have to say.
 
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wolftree
I will believe the era of anything is over when MSG releases their first UE+rF2 -engine game and it's actually good, not before.

The last few years have seen an actual good studio with a pedigree take a year after release to iron out the major problems with UE4 and still acknowledge using it was a partial mistake. Not to mention that their in-house physics engine was much easier to work with than rF2, or that they didn't struggle for the last five years to produce an unusable UI in the end.

I hope I'm wrong, the world certainly deserves a good IndyCar sim and a good BTCC sim, but all the warning signs are there for this to be GTR3 x4.
 
T
Ruy Horta said:
... RF2 isn’t exactly using a new engine, nor is it known to be very flexible, as such is it really an effective platform for two new sport franchises like NASCAR and Indycar? ...
Click to expand...
Wut? May I remind you that they developed the Grand tour game using the rF2 physics engine? Wich is on the complete opposite spectrum of rF2. They can do anything with it, it's just a matter of where they want to go with the product. My interpretation is that they will create games similar to Dirt Rallye. They can also just use the rF1 tire model, wich is still used within rF2 for the AI cars. So in theory they could run AI and player on the same physics model. I also don't know where people get the idea from that AI in rF2 isn't suitable for it. It's certainly not worse than in AMS 1+2, ACC; AC or RR. In fact rF2 is one of the very few games that offers the AI logic for a multitude of different disciplines including multiclass, oval and roadracing. It's just that they need to refine it for the different titles. Might be alot easier than developing good AI from scratch.
 
Ruy Horta
tr1v1um said:
Wut? May I remind you that they developed the Grand tour game using the rF2 physics engine? Wich is on the complete opposite spectrum of rF2. They can do anything with it, it's just a matter of where they want to go with the product. My interpretation is that they will create games similar to Dirt Rallye. They can also just use the rF1 tire model, wich is still used within rF2 for the AI cars. So in theory they could run AI and player on the same physics model. I also don't know where people get the idea from that AI in rF2 isn't suitable for it. It's certainly not worse than in AMS 1+2, ACC; AC or RR. In fact rF2 is one of the very few games that offers the AI logic for a multitude of different disciplines including multiclass, oval and roadracing. It's just that they need to refine it for the different titles. Might be alot easier than developing good AI from scratch.
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Yes, you have to remind me of the Grand Tour game as it wasn’t exactly a huge success in any way or form.

We can interpret until we see blue in the face, but we are not in the know and have no influence.

Back to what I said, I am welcoming the titles, but I will reserve my hype until we get a lot more solid information.
 
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D
"INDYCAR has been conspicuously absent from the gaming and sim racing market in recent years. Titles such as iRacing and the Project CARS series have featured the cars, and mods for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 have been released by Race Sim Studio and Virtual Racing Cars to help fill the void. What INDYCARs fans have been missing is a complete title with the drivers, teams, and tracks."

?

steamcommunity.com

Steam Workshop::The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series presented by the Remy group and Apex Modding

steamcommunity.com steamcommunity.com
 
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K
-Apex- said:
"INDYCAR has been conspicuously absent from the gaming and sim racing market in recent years. Titles such as iRacing and the Project CARS series have featured the cars, and mods for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 have been released by Race Sim Studio and Virtual Racing Cars to help fill the void. What INDYCARs fans have been missing is a complete title with the drivers, teams, and tracks."

?

forum.studio-397.com

[REL] - 2019 NTT Indycar Series

We are excited to present you with the 2019 NTT Indycar Series! This labor of love is brought to you by the partnership between Apex Modding and the...
forum.studio-397.com forum.studio-397.com
forum.studio-397.com

[REL] - 2020 NTT Indycar Series

We are excited to present you with the 2020 Indycar Series! Building the 2020 mod on top of the incredible 2019 base developed in partnership between...
forum.studio-397.com forum.studio-397.com
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What has been conspicuously absent is a sim that features the rules of Indycar, especially oval racing. There are mods for other titles, but there isn't a game truly dedicated to the Indycar series like there is one for F1, for example.
 
RedBull48
I would be very surprised if the game is a full fleshed sim as I believe they would likely target a wider player base. Would I enjoy a pure sim? Of course but I don't know that that's realistic. I believe if they can even produce something similar to the F1 codies games it will be well received. I love the single player experience with the full season calendar and all that is involved, unfortunately there are no mods that handle this in great detail currently.
 
K
RedBull48 said:
I would be very surprised if the game is a full fleshed sim as I believe they would likely target a wider player base. Would I enjoy a pure sim? Of course but I don't know that that's realistic. I believe if they can even produce something similar to the F1 codies games it will be well received. I love the single player experience with the full season calendar and all that is involved, unfortunately there are no mods that handle this in great detail currently.
Click to expand...
That's also what I'm expecting from this game. I doubt it will be a full sim. I can live with a simcade like F1 2020. My only fear, considering that it is made mainly for the North American market, is that it will be developped for consoles and the PC version will be a port.
 
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Ruy Horta
RedBull48 said:
I would be very surprised if the game is a full fleshed sim as I believe they would likely target a wider player base. Would I enjoy a pure sim? Of course but I don't know that that's realistic. I believe if they can even produce something similar to the F1 codies games it will be well received.
Click to expand...

Kingkoenig said:
That's also what I'm expecting from this game. I doubt it will be a full sim. I can live with a simcade like F1 2020. My only fear, considering that it is made mainly for the North American market, is that it will be developped for consoles and the PC version will be a port.
Click to expand...

Exactly, if they manage to create two simcades on the level of the current F1 series this has enough potential to bring fun to all but the most die hard sim racers. It has the heritage of two great racing franchises, now they have to deliver a solid game that deserves the name.

Consoles have gone a long way and parallel development / porting is less work than it used to be.
It is more about options / settings / support for peripherals.

Both Eutechnyx and Monster failed to create a complete PC worthy package, let’s hope this time it is going to be better.
I want to believe, clearly being in the market for both.
 

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