Straight4 Studios Announces Publishing Deal With PLAION

PLAION X Straight4 Studios.jpg
In a recent press release, Straight4 Studios, the team behind the in-development GTR Revival has announced it is joining forces with video game publishing company, PLAION.

Image Credit: PLAION Press page

Led by Ian Bell of Project Cars fame, Straight4 Studios is in the middle of developing its first simracing title as a games studio. GTR Revival is set to be the game every simracer is looking for and, in a recent press release, we have learnt that major game's company PLAION will be responsible for its publishing.

Set to become in the words of Ian Bell himself "a hardcore racing sim," GTR Revival is no doubt a niche title in the gaming market. But it seems the major outfit understands and supports the path. In fact, Klemens Kundratitz the PLAION CEO said, "Straight4 Studios has a fantastic vision."

Hopefully then, the title will remain true to its original goals as the Straight4 team should be given free reign over the project.

Who is PLAION?​

PLAION, previously known as Koch Media is the parent company of many game and film publishing firms. Gaming fans may recognise one of its larger labels, Deep Silver. This is the team behind popular series like Saints Row and Dead Island. Whilst these games franchises hide in the shadows of larger AAA alternatives, one can't knock their creativity and uniqueness.

Saints Row published by PLAION.jpg


When it comes to the simracing and racing game scene, PLAION also acts as the parent company for Milestone. Fans especially of racing on two wheels will be familiar with this publishing brand as it is behind recent MotoGP games, and is currently promoting the next iteration, MotoGP 23. In fact, it is a bike-centric company, also publishing the yearly releases of the World Superbike, Supercross, MotoCross games as well as the Ride franchise.

Finally, Vertigo Games within the PLAION group has deep experience with Virtual Reality. Publishing so-called 'experiences' such as the National Geographic, Anne Frank and Meeting Rembrandt VR titles. It is also behind Space Flight Orbital Emergency and Coaster Combat, two more entertaining VR games.

All in all, it seems the PLAION group of publishing companies has many skills that could prove beneficial to Straight4 Studios. Now, it's up to the two organisations to work together and create the best product they can.

The good news emerging from this announcement is that we can finally be sure that GTR Revival is a serious project. Now that a major company and games giant is onboard, the odds are further in the favour of Straight4.

What do you make of Straight4 teaming up with PLAION?
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

A big publisher is a requisite these days, if you want to have a chance of releasing your game on consoles, so this is not surprising, and in fact welcomed, because people were doubting this already. Maybe when MSG goes under, they can scoope some of the licenses/market share using a more modern game engine with (hopefully) not so many issues.
 
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"Hopefully then, the title will remain true to its original goals as the Straight4 team should be given free reign over the project."

LOL--name one instance in the entire history of video games where this has happened. The only way to retain meaningful control is to self-publish, with all the problems and disadvantages that entails.
 
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"Finally, Vertigo Games within the PLAION group has deep experience with Virtual Reality. Publishing so-called 'experiences' such as the National Geographic, Anne Frank and Meeting Rembrandt VR titles. It is also behind Space Flight Orbital Emergency and Coaster Combat, two more entertaining VR games"

This gives good hope that the focus of this title will also be to offer good VR support. Without it; it's an instant skip.
 
I hope it works. Looking forward to see what they can do. PCars was at his time a nice project that for some reason don't fulfill my expectation. The promises are good, but that isn't enough though.
 
Nowadays almost all programs can give you the essence of simulators, but they don't give you the extra experience!
For me, the biggest shortcoming is the interaction outside the car! Of course it's a simulator, but the game could be more alive, less static. More interactions in the car, in the pit
(possibility to get out of the car, track walk, pit walk and performance data on the monitors, outside the car, and an option to have the setup not in a menu, but outside the car....where I have to go to the engineer where I can set it up and still see it, but of course I could ask him for help, 100% real car start procedure in box.....I want everything in front of me in 3D, not in a menu) simulation of vision loss in case of collision, crash simulations and animations of the rescue, G forces acting on the driver in the car, not just a pre-animated sequence of movements (bouncing, hand movement, body movement, driver voice). And of course I would also like to have a modern ai to race in COOP mod, this is a big shortcoming of all simulators, a lot of people are interested in COOP, you can race against many cars in a championship without having to deal with strangers! And of Course, a fully customisable set of rules! +1 It's a wild idea, but how about including a bit of RPG in addition? Customizable cars, which could be varied from given parts to make several options suitable for a race! Aero packs, custom interior, exterior, custom car parts...
 
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A big publisher is a requisite these days, if you want to have a chance of releasing your game on consoles, so this is not surprising, and in fact welcomed, because people were doubting this already. Maybe when MSG goes under, they can scoope some of the licenses/market share using a more modern game engine with (hopefully) not so many issues.
"If" they go under.
 
if nothing else, the new collaborator at least seems to be good at playing with colors and presentations., too....
 
The proof will be in the pudding, with the game designer telling us exactly what's been wrong with every racing Sim for the past 15+ years then he has the chance to show is how it's supposed to be done, be interesting to see when it arrives
You're soo right!
Looking forward to the finished product just for this really :)
 
The proof will be in the pudding, with the game designer telling us exactly what's been wrong with every racing Sim for the past 15+ years then he has the chance to show is how it's supposed to be done, be interesting to see when it arrives
considering he authored at aleast of few of those things that went wrong including the utter garbage pcars3... im thinking he may not be best suited to that task.
 
Premium
Think of the good things the he's been involved with and hope it's what you want, though in reality it's unlikely to please everyone, but if it doesn't appeal to you simply don't buy it and continue with what makes you happy.
 

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What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

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  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea


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