I watched the Traxxion's interview Morris Hebecker, CEO of Rennsport, to gauge what the game's focus actually is. Here are some excerpts.
"It is definitely a new racing game, new racing simulation, especially made for esport, but also for broader audience. What makes it new is that it's developed from scratch. We had a lot of ideas when we started, (...) we thought what does it really need to create a new game which is really open for all the esport things and all the broadcast and modding things, and that's what Rennsport is at the heart."
"I really liked all the other games which you could have in the racing area, but I also realized they are not giving us the opportunities we would like to have to create summit, or create a great tournament experience, or having esport or broadcasters involved. So we missed (...) a lot of things we would like to have deeply involved or implemented into a game."
"Having e-sports in mind was so important for us, because (...) I jumped into simracing and really followed it and saw all these great teams, great drivers and there was really nice broadcasting also, and I always asked myself why are there only 200-250 viewers on all these channels, and I was really confused because I loved the teams, the drivers, the product, and there was no viewership. And I really started thinking about what could be done to bring it to a broader audience. And one thing was to have esports professionals involved from the beginning and maybe give some imput how it could work better. And that was the reason we got in contact with ESL very early, and they helped a lot with (...) what it really needs to create a new game which is esports ready."
"Bringing the game to the market, esports and sporting is our main pillar."
"We also see [VR] as a possibility for viewership, so jumping into the game and using VR in the pitlane or whatever."
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So my take is pretty clear - they don't care about making the best simulation out there. They're just making a sim as a mean to an end that is a successful simracing esports events platform. Which probably means they won't hesitate to subject anything - realism, physics, gameplay features, monetization - to providing such a succesful platform.
Another telling sign is that they've invited a few dozen of esports professionals to test the sim. As a striking contrast, there was a whole one (as far as I can tell) professional racing driver there (aside from converted esports pros). Which says a lot about how much they care about appeasing to enthusiasts of real motorsport - they don't.
This isn't a product for racing fans looking for a good sim, this is a product for simracing fans per se. Seems weird to make such a distinction, but it definitely became real. Some people aren't into simracing to get closer to the real thing, get to know it better, understand the skills and approach needed for real racing, but to make their way through it as its own thing. That's what esports pros are - they don't try to understand how the real setups work, for example, they just try to exploit the setup system in front of them.
It's a game, it's a competition, it's an esports platform. A business endeavour.
This isn't a racing sim made by racing enthusiasts. Racing is just a flavour here. A flavour for an online video game, which they want to make into a successful, popular, profitable esport.
"It is definitely a new racing game, new racing simulation, especially made for esport, but also for broader audience. What makes it new is that it's developed from scratch. We had a lot of ideas when we started, (...) we thought what does it really need to create a new game which is really open for all the esport things and all the broadcast and modding things, and that's what Rennsport is at the heart."
"I really liked all the other games which you could have in the racing area, but I also realized they are not giving us the opportunities we would like to have to create summit, or create a great tournament experience, or having esport or broadcasters involved. So we missed (...) a lot of things we would like to have deeply involved or implemented into a game."
"Having e-sports in mind was so important for us, because (...) I jumped into simracing and really followed it and saw all these great teams, great drivers and there was really nice broadcasting also, and I always asked myself why are there only 200-250 viewers on all these channels, and I was really confused because I loved the teams, the drivers, the product, and there was no viewership. And I really started thinking about what could be done to bring it to a broader audience. And one thing was to have esports professionals involved from the beginning and maybe give some imput how it could work better. And that was the reason we got in contact with ESL very early, and they helped a lot with (...) what it really needs to create a new game which is esports ready."
"Bringing the game to the market, esports and sporting is our main pillar."
"We also see [VR] as a possibility for viewership, so jumping into the game and using VR in the pitlane or whatever."
---
So my take is pretty clear - they don't care about making the best simulation out there. They're just making a sim as a mean to an end that is a successful simracing esports events platform. Which probably means they won't hesitate to subject anything - realism, physics, gameplay features, monetization - to providing such a succesful platform.
Another telling sign is that they've invited a few dozen of esports professionals to test the sim. As a striking contrast, there was a whole one (as far as I can tell) professional racing driver there (aside from converted esports pros). Which says a lot about how much they care about appeasing to enthusiasts of real motorsport - they don't.
This isn't a product for racing fans looking for a good sim, this is a product for simracing fans per se. Seems weird to make such a distinction, but it definitely became real. Some people aren't into simracing to get closer to the real thing, get to know it better, understand the skills and approach needed for real racing, but to make their way through it as its own thing. That's what esports pros are - they don't try to understand how the real setups work, for example, they just try to exploit the setup system in front of them.
It's a game, it's a competition, it's an esports platform. A business endeavour.
This isn't a racing sim made by racing enthusiasts. Racing is just a flavour here. A flavour for an online video game, which they want to make into a successful, popular, profitable esport.
