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?
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About author
Angus Martin
Angus Martin
Motorsport gets my blood pumping more than anything else. Be it physical or virtual, I'm down to bang doors.

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MarcG
MSG jumped aboard the Covid Gold Rush Bandwagon when Sim Racing was thrust into the limelight, they bought up companies, dived into ideas & dreams and purchased the horrific "exclusive" license for this IndyCar <vapour>game. They bought S397, which has since seen 4 high profile members of staff quit in the last year including Marcel himself and here we are with a delay....it smacks of unprofessionalism and a lack of understanding exactly what it is they have gotten themselves in to.

When news first broke that they bought S397 I was prepared to give them the time of day, but not any more, I fear for RF2 (and S397). Whilst the DLC and recent changes & fixes has been most welcomed, it'll end somewhere and at this rate it's gonna end when MSG fold in upon themselves like a Star breathing it's last atom. They've brought no good to the table up to this point, only continuous losses year on year, people quitting left right & centre, an exclusive license stopping other trusted devs from doing what they cannot - Greed is what this is, greed without purpose.

MSG are blissfully unaware of the actual damage they are causing to the Sim Racing scene - The sooner they disappear the better, I just hope they don't take S397 with them.
 
Rot Teufel
Austin Ogonoski said:
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.
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Buying an exclusive license that denies to all other platform to use indycar branded content ain't cheap. Expecially if this ban is excluding not only games (mainly iRacing and Automobilista 2), but even racing league online streams and other broadcasting media.
Even if the original deal was signed, if i remember well, in june 2021, i guess the game and broadcasting ban was a late deal sing imho, since the ban announce was made at the end of december with immediate effect since jan 2023.

We must remember that after Virtual LeMans event, some employees has threatened MG (they don't pay them since october) to release the source code of Nascar Games, KartKraft and the upcoming Indy 2023.

The only good thing they're good at is throwing money over license, get paid for their esport events and who cares if they suck. They got the monopoly and average joe will forget what happened in the next month, meanwhile they're ready for next esport event.

Second that, one of the head of MG dimsissed board was Peter Moore, ex EA Sport head from 2007 to 2011, then COO in EA from 2012 to 2017. And he was one of the many that pushes a lot the idea to shift on FTP games with a lot microtransaction. And we all know how it's still going. No FTP, but even better: you have to pay a game and it's filled with tons of microtransaction.

What could possibly go wrong?
 
Shannon Flynn
I'm not one to trust anything that comes out of that Dmitri CEO dude's mouth.
But if he's actually SINCERE about delaying in order to improve the product and avoid another NASCAR 21 shitshow, it'd be quite a welcome move.

Another thing I found interesting is that he said that they're working with the Kartkraft devs. Didn't they pretty much nail being able to tweak the rF2 engine? If MSG's future titles can keep the ISI physics engine running the physics/ffb side of thing I'll be seriously psyched.
 
Eckhart von Glan
for iRacing players one of the sad bits about all of this is, that a full and established Indycar universe in the game, with literally hundreds or thousands of players each year recreating the Indy 500 in the current car on a laser scanned track, with the full tier of feeder series, with a big fan base already using a viable platform, may not be called "Indy..." anymore. It's beyond ridiculous after having worked so well for over a decade.
Players set up this event as substitute, using the iR01, a fantasy open wheel car developed in association with Dallara during Covid lockdown:
indy4a.png
 
John B. Ellis
Premium
IndyCar is rightly to blame for accepting the binding terms of an exclusive partnership with MSG--a blunder that may be the virtual equivalent of The Great Schism of 1996. When it comes to IndyCar simracing content, KAOS Modding & Co. have already shown that passion trumps profits. As $MSGM share prices plummet, it's IndyCar that's left holding the bag....
 
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C
The reason I want a new game is for an updated graphics engine and hopefully physics that are designed for only the indycar from real data. I like Rf2 for the driving, but it is still a mess for load times. The menu has come a long way, but is still not great. I would like to be able to see what is actual content I have bought and content that are mods. Sometimes the mods are a mess. The menu lets you see what you have but not delete or add based on the type of content. Lastly the graphics look like an old xbox game.
 
Ole Marius Myrvold
Staff
Premium
Scaff said:
MSG remains an utter joke I see, just a shame so many good licenses are in vapourware limbo as a result.
Click to expand...

At the same time, the exclusivity is for the branded games. And the branded events. Not the cars and/or tracks combinations.
 
I
Austin Ogonoski said:
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.
Click to expand...
They basically run a profitable company with cash in the bank dry. Executive pay, lavish lifestyle expenditure, contracts with outside vendors that are owned through 3rd parties by the owners, etc. All the cash & cashflows are redirected into their own pockets.
This practice is very common in Eastern EU & Russia in particular, most oligarchs have used it to get rich easily. You need to be bonkers mad to deal with such people.
IndyCar & BTCC just didn't do enough due diligence!

The company will fold, all the IP assets will be sold & that's it :) I guess some fan will buy RF2 at a bargain & just rehire the core devs OR employees/management will buy the RF2 IP to run a new company themselves.
 
L
Surely this must be the end of MSG? Rfactor 2 DLC is not going to keep them afloat for what would need to be almost 2 more full years without releasing a major title.
No intelligent investor would invest at this point. Even if one were to like the pipleline of expected titles the gap between now and profitability is certainly impossible. There is no path to success here unfortunately. They damaged their reputation by under delivering massively on the most lucrative potential license they held. With the hole they are in, Indycar and BTCC, even if they miraculously do get released, won't be successful enough to dig them out. They are too niche.
 
Ryan Soucy
BillyBobSenna said:
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.
Click to expand...
I don't even think they have to TRY to get out of it!!

MSG has already said they do not have the cash to keep operations going through 2023 without an additional cash infusion. 1) Do they really have the money to chase Reiza, iRacing or Indycar if they (IC) choose to have multiple licensed products? 2) Do the people injecting capital really want that money going straight to lawyers for a product that is not close to generating revenue? Or do they just divert all funds to DLC for Nascar Re-Ignition?

I think Indycar should just tell Reiza to throw together a career mode and bundle what it's got right now, with a release of the rest of the tracks later.
 
Ryan Soucy
ivanalesi said:
They basically run a profitable company with cash in the bank dry. Executive pay, lavish lifestyle expenditure, contracts with outside vendors that are owned through 3rd parties by the owners, etc. All the cash & cashflows are redirected into their own pockets.
This practice is very common in Eastern EU & Russia in particular, most oligarchs have used it to get rich easily. You need to be bonkers mad to deal with such people.
IndyCar & BTCC just didn't do enough due diligence!

The company will fold, all the IP assets will be sold & that's it :) I guess some fan will buy RF2 at a bargain & just rehire the core devs OR employees/management will buy the RF2 IP to run a new company themselves.
Click to expand...
And somehow, still, Ian Bell is the bad guy in sim racing... :laugh::laugh: Ironic since if you want Indycars in a career mode you have to go to Project Cars 2!!!
 
Ryan Soucy
Ole Marius Myrvold said:
At the same time, the exclusivity is for the branded games. And the branded events. Not the cars and/or tracks combinations.
Click to expand...
Right? Could Reiza do something like what Sensible Soccer did and instead of Roberto Baggio, it was Ruberto Beggio?

Driving for Team Chet Gaspari would be Allen Polo and Shawn Dickskin. Driving for Arroz-McPherson are Patrick Award, Fred Rosenbaum, and Andrew Russo.

Let the modders do the rest with names, skins, ad hoardings and AI files.
 

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