iRacing acquires Monster Games.

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DaleTona

The Professor
Hot Pass Member
Aug 16, 2016
1,635
113

So this happened. iRacing acquiring companies, but why would they have anything to do with a console game dev, who only has one "major" liscence in SRX? I think I know why

They are scared.

Motorsports games has acquired the rights to Indycar, and anything ACO/LeMans related. Those were two fairly major deals iRacing had that were swept out from under them, with iRacing now required to name 2 of their big yearly esport events to something else. This means likely no future upcoming Indycar, or updated LMDH/LMH. And Motorsports Games shares the NASCAR liscence, one of the remaining MAJOR backbone series that IRacing has.

Now NASCAR leaving iRacing seems like a longshot considering the effort they are putting in to promote, but remember: Companies will follow whoever throws the most cash, loyalties be damned.

While we think of iRacing as a juggernaut it really is only the biggest fish in a small pond. A pond whose ecosystem is being upset buy a much larger invasive force, who wants to monopolize the industy not for the love of racing, but so they can lazily farm cash off desperate racers.

Acquiring Motorsports Games really only gives them the liscence to SRX and maybe a few short tracks they may not have. They won't use the viper engine, and have little interest in the content, so put in so much effort?

Because iRacing knows if they want to survive the new juggernaut, they have to adapt. If they want to guarantee an exclusive licensing agreement with NASCAR, they will likely have to do something they haven't done since the PS1.....

MAKE A CONSOLE GAME

Even without MG in the picture, NASCAR would probably not go full iRacing unless they have a console release, because NASCAR wants to get the younger generation hooked on the sport at an early age, unto which they can nurture loyalty and mold them as they grow. And accessible entry level titles are how they do this, and iRacing for all it is, is simply not.

Also MG has their own platform that they are pushing to develop into an iRacing rival in RF2, why do you think S397 have gone so ham on the competition system and online features? They see the current king, and are taking aim to wipe them off the face of the landscape. The MG Management has stated their desire to be a juggernaut in the esports scene, part of why they have gobbled up so many deals.

Dave Kraemer has been through this exact scenario back in 2003, and I'm certain they are doing everything they can to not have a repeat of the death of Papyrus.

I'm not a big iRacing supporter, but anyone who has been around the block/knows the history of the "dark age" of racing sims from 2003-2005/6 that was finally broken by rFactor, who took the risk to build a title in which they wouldn't need to license content, but instead leveraged the budding and talented modding community to bring the title to greatness, and has been the backbone of at least 80% of major simracing tiles since from Madness to R3E.

What do you think? To me this seems like a potential repeat of what happened back in the early-mid 2000's. Independent devs unable to secure liscencing because a big whale (Motorsports Games) is holding them hostage.

iRacing being as big as it is is probably in the best position of all independent devs to survive in all honesty. But what would this spell about Reiza, or Sector3? Kunos has already seen the need to diversify into the console realm, S397 is part of the MG empire, SMS got brought into Codies, who was then bought by the EA juggernaut.
 
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