Motorsport Games Delays Indycar Title Past 2023

Indycar on rF2.jpg
Over the weekend, we learnt that Motorsport Games is delaying its much-anticipated Indycar game further. No longer releasing in 2023, those looking forward to the title are not happy.

Image Credit: Studio 397

It has become a running gag that Motorsport Games is yet to release a game fully developed under its own control. And it is even further from creating a successful simracing title.

Well over the weekend, we found out that the studio is not going to release a good simracing title for at least another year. During an investor call on Friday focusing on earning in Q4 of 2022, the management team announced that the much-anticipated Indycar game won't be releasing in 2023.

A snippet of the call posted to Twitter sees Dmitry Kozko, Chief Executive Officer of Motorsport Games, about the current state of the game. Despite "making strides" in the game's development efforts, the team believes it "will not be in a satisfactory position to release to the community this year."

INDYCAR game cover.jpg


Following the news, Indycar iteself responded to Racer Magazine stating: “We are evaluating this information and remain thoroughly committed to bringing the best quality video game products to the INDYCAR community.”

Will the Indycar game ever release?​

Whilst Motorsport Games said the Indycar game is well along in its development and will be ready for 2024, can we really be sure?

This particular title, along with the previously delayed BTCC game, was set for a 2022 release and has been delayed several times since its announcement. From financial struggles to the invasion of Ukraine, countless setbacks have befallen the Motorsport Games development team.

However, the main blockade on this game's path to release is the health of its studio. At the same time as setting up a call with investors detailing the good, the bad and the ugly, Motorsport Games released their Full Year 2022 Financial Results. Going over the company's fourth quarter and full year accounts, there is one glaring issue that could spell disaster for not just the Indycar racing game.


Scroll down past the good news of DLC packs released for rFactor 2 and improvements to NASCAR 21: Ignition. Skip over the bad news of a more-than-four-million-dollar net loss in Q4 of 2022 alone. And you'll arrive at the announcement that a total 2022 revenue of $10.3 million led to net losses in excess of $36 million.

Given the studio doesn't have a successful and current title to rely on, Motorsport Games is in a difficult situation. Negative cash-flow means they are spending more money than they can make. To top off the bad news for Indycar, BTCC, Le Mans Virtual and NASCAR fans, the financial document states the company currently holds around $6 million in cash. The company goes on to mention that "we do not believe we have sufficient cash on hand to fund our operations for the remainder of 2023" and that further investment is needed.

Last year, we reported on the news that MSG lost its entire board of directors. Around the same time, employees of the company were threatening to leak source code for unreleased games due to unpaid salaries. Based on this latest development, will we be seeing more stories along these lines in 2023?

Do you think we will ever see a Motorsport Games Indycar title release?
About author
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

Comments

There's a channel on YouTube that very convincingly explains that MSG is just a scam. The sooner that "company" goes belly up, the better, as it will free all these licenses that are in limbo.

And "congratulations" to Indycar for choosing MSG as the designers of their new game. All it had to do was to check out MSG's NASCAR games to know what to expect. Indycar is very talented at shooting itself in the foot. Maybe that's what happens when the owner of the series is 87. I doubt Roger Penske cares one bit about sim racing.

Thankfully, there' an excellent mod for AMS2 to give us our Indycar fix.
 
Premium
Why develop things that are not needed? Both BTCC and Indycar are already well established as quality content in rF2. I can understand if the goal is to focus on one class and make it ultra realistic (like ACC) but given the info above and Nascar Ignition, I seriously doubt that, unfortunately.
 
There's a channel on YouTube that very convincingly explains that MSG is just a scam. The sooner that "company" goes belly up, the better, as it will free all these licenses that are in limbo.

And "congratulations" to Indycar for choosing MSG as the designers of their new game. All it had to do was to check out MSG's NASCAR games to know what to expect. Indycar is very talented at shooting itself in the foot. Maybe that's what happens when the owner of the series is 87. I doubt Roger Penske cares one bit about sim racing.

Thankfully, there' an excellent mod for AMS2 to give us our Indycar fix.
Yeah, the guy warned us all but the addicted sim racing fan base refused to hear him because "oh no, he criticizes our favorite broken games".

After 2 years I wonder who was right at all... :roflmao::roflmao:
 
Why develop things that are not needed? Both BTCC and Indycar are already well established as quality content in rF2. I can understand if the goal is to focus on one class and make it ultra realistic (like ACC) but given the info above and Nascar Ignition, I seriously doubt that, unfortunately.
Those type of games are to earn fanbase, as a publicity tool, to sell not only the game but the series for much people as possible with a cohesive, imersive (career mode) and complete package.

Independent of the developer, those games are not for the 10 people who buys rFactor2 DLC's and pretend to know more about how the car behave than Josef Newgarden (based in true facts).

Ain't saying nothing extraordinary, but here is RD right? :D
 
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Premium
Given the size of that loss I’m guessing they are in real trouble unless they can find some big investor who loves sim racing and doesn’t care about the money. You’re not going to bridge that gap selling DLC and even if they produced the greatest Indycar title of all time it’s a niche within a niche so how much money do you make on that.

I love RF2, so scary times, I wouldn’t want to see it die and it’s even worse news if you work there.
 
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The number I can't comprehend, is the $36 million loss in one year.

I maintain a custom, period specific rF1 install that includes mods from the years the game was active. GP79, SCC, EnduRacers ES, IndyCar by Michael Peters, that sort of thing. They all include full fields, 3D models, and menu re-designs.

And they were released for free. Because at the end of the day you're just putting 3D models into a finished game engine, then tweaking physics parameters in a notepad doc so the car drives as intended. There is not actually any overhead in doing this. It's stuff you can do as a hobby, for free.

Motorsport Games effectively does the same thing. They take completed game engines built by other people, and put in 3D models, adjust physics parameters, and change the menus a bit. This is what they did for NASCAR 21, and what they did for the three games they've released on the Heat engine built by Monster Games (Rivals, Heat 4, and Heat 5).

How did these people lose $36 mil doing this? For reference, this is the entire salary cap of the Eastern Division of the Canadian Football League (5 teams), to pay the salaries of a handful of UI people, build a couple 3D models and edit a notepad document or two.
 
Given the size of that loss I’m guessing they are in real trouble unless they can find some big investor who loves sim racing and is doesn’t care about the money.
Even if they find an investor dumb enough to give them money, they will simply take the cash and spend it without releasing anything of value. That's what they did with Nascar Ignition, a barely developped bug fest.
 
Premium
It would be interesting to know how IndyCar can get out of the contract with Motorsport Games. IndyCar is in dire need for an influx of young fans and a multi-platform game would help significantly. A very sad situation indeed. Motorsport Games appears to be in full dumpster fire mode, and I have very low confidence that we will ever see a quality IndyCar game from them. I would not be surprised to see a lawsuit from IndyCar against Motorsport Games in the future.
 
How much are you asking for the bridge? Is it in a good school district? What are the property taxes? PM me with an asking price.
It's in New York. That means about half the schools are worthless. I, however, have a nice slightly used bridge near Tacoma Washington (home of untold paper mills...if you get my sniff) and that bridge is very popular, many ships a day pass over it. Look up Tacoma Narrows.
 
Premium
The real shame in all of this is what will happen to rFactor 2

It seems the only outcome is for MSG to go bankrupt and somebody comes along to buy the IP

Will rFactor 2 be operational throughout? Servers and all?

And then the uncertainty of who gets the IP and if they revive rFactor 2 or just fold its tech into a new game.

This could be the way rFactor 2 ends

/doomandgloom
 
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