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

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
most online servers are run by leagues or private individuals. So those should still be active. The Competition System would probably cease to operate. Steam most likely would continue to host rF2 without any Store Content. The real problem would be if some competitor like Kunos, or Reiza or iRacing purchased rF2 and completely shut it down to remove any competition.
 
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
I am pretty sure some other company will be tempted to buy it if i hears that MSG is going out of business. Maybe at a bargain price too.
 
IndyCar are probably just waiting out the license period to end. The already have their money in the bank, so don't care if the game ever happens. In fact, with Motorsports games reputation, it's probably better it doesn't.
 
I am pretty sure some other company will be tempted to buy it if i hears that MSG is going out of business. Maybe at a bargain price too.
Yeah I hope it doesnt lead to further "consolidation" as they say if e.g. codemasters or iracing buys rf2. I hope the next idiot comes along and pumps a lot of money in to buy licenses for what will end up as rf2 track DLC :). Long love rf2 I hope
 
Premium
Personally I think it's greed that's gonna shoot it all in the foot, the licenses are extortionate and business feels it's the way to go, I can't see that the BTCC/NASCAR/INDY etc needs to charge these hefty license fees to survive, if they do then the racing model they have need looking at, you can't build a race series on the hope that someone will pay a license to make it into a game/sim
 
Go and have a good cry. Doom and gloom yes that is all you bring to the table ever.
Is your life that devoid ?
I could run rF2 for another decade, no updates, no worries.
If it disappeared from Steam tomorrow and was unplayable I not going to blubber about it.
Actually it would be a relief , no whiners anymore.
Probably cost me $50 a year all up for the best "driving" sim ever created in my humble opinion.

Got onto AMS2 yesterday to see what's changed, woeful, still feels like a turd wrapped in Christmas paper, terrible physics. Rain, water drops and look hideous, I thought rF2 was pretty ordinary but this looks like 4 gens back ie: pCars1 weather.
 
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Premium
Go and have a good cry. Doom and gloom yes that is all you bring to the table ever.
Is your life that devoid ?
I could run rF2 for another decade, no updates, no worries.

Cool, you can run rF2.

But A) not everyone can, not everyone has PCs, and the idea of these series games is mainly for console players.

B) rF2 is lacking content needed to run whole seasons of most of the things MSG hold the licence for

  • Missing St. Petersburg, Texas, Barber, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Toronto, Iowa, Nashville and that's just for Indycar. The most you can run is a 7 race schedule for IndyCar
  • Licensed Nascar doesn't exist in rF2.
  • WEC is missing cars, and Portimão and Fuji
  • Snetterton, Oulton Park, Knockhill, Silverstone (now retired), meaning a whole season of BTCC is off the cards too.

Also, a reminder that rF2 is hardly an MSG product.
 
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I honestly don't care if this ever comes out. The modern indycar in rF2, and the new mod for AMS2, plus the Formula Americas car from RSS for Assetto Corsa, are all plenty good for me. I wish someone would make 70's and 80's indycars.
 
Cool, you can run rF2.

But A) not everyone can, not everyone has PCs, and the idea of these series games is mainly for console players.

B) rF2 is lacking content needed to run whole seasons of most of the things MSG hold the licence for

  • Missing St. Petersburg, Texas, Barber, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Toronto, Iowa, Nashville and that's just for Indycar. The most you can run is a 7 race schedule for IndyCar
  • Licensed Nascar doesn't exist in rF2.
  • WEC is missing cars, and Portimão and Fuji
  • Snetterton, Oulton Park, Knockhill, Silverstone (now retired), meaning a whole season of BTCC is off the cards too.

Also, a reminder that rF2 is hardly an MSG product.

At least 5 of those Indy tracks are currently available in 3rd party form.
Same for Porti & Fuji
Knockhill, Snett, Oulton, & yes even Silverstone are still available even to new users. (fun fact, Silverstone was NEVER laserscanned content, neither is Portland.)
Stock car ovals are even being tested on LFM now,
so....you might not be able to PAY a company to run those circuits & cars. But all or almost all of them already exist in 3rd party form. (Download Knockhill & tell me that isn't a quality track)
That is part of what being a moddable platform is all about.
 
"Hope that doesn't mean no more Indycar tracks for rF2".

I hope that means more IndyCAR tracks releases or rF2.

That's what I mean, be positive no matter what. :coffee:

Yes, I understand negative thinking and it's benefits but you don't go on about it for 10 years.
 
Doesn't matter
If you want to race you have iRacing.com, if you want to just drive the cars you have (VRC and RSS) mods for AC and even AMS 2 now has IR18 mod
 
I must admit I'm surprised MSG managed to make a $10M income without any new game. Rfactor2 must have a huge player base buying DLCs. Or there are still people believing there's hope with Nascar Ignition. :D

Anyway, there's nothing positive in these figures (including the $9.6M of goodwill impairment, that just show how incompetent all of the actors around the acquisitions were) and I don't see shareholders or potential investors wanting to be involved.

MSG tried to be a major player, spending money in communication, it just forgot its main purpose, developping racing sims. Well done. Just between 3 and 5 guys who managed to have fun with the money of shareholders, killing jobs.

At the end it looks like a call, not for investors, but to potential buyers in order to sale them all of the remaining valuable assets.
 
Shocked... Absolutely shocked...

Well not that shocked... Expected this...

I also expect that the best anyone could ever hope for when this deal was announced was track DLC for rF2...

But given the recent news on MSGS that's too optimistic... If we are lucky they'll be a tax write off for someone for a while and S397 will be allowed to continue on a shoe string budget...
 

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