The BTCC game is no more. For now, at least. We spoke to Motorsport Games recently to break down what happened.
In 2020, embryonic video game developers and sim racing competition organisers Motorsport Games announced that it had signed a deal to create a video game for the British Touring Car Championship.
Since 2011 in some capacity, the series has run the ‘NGTC’ formula, with packed grids all running similar (but not identical) machinery. The front-wheel or rear-wheel drive cars are mixed with Britain’s best circuits and a short, sprint racing, format.
It should be the ideal template to base a driving game on, especially if you factor in the support series and potential for legacy content – arguably the competition’s zenith was in the 1990s.
However, the promised game never saw the light of day and due to the recent cancellation of the agreement between BARC (TOCA) and Motorsport Games, is unlikely ever to.
There was an Andy Priaulx Crowne Plaza DLC pack for Race 07 that included a BTCC Vauxhall Vectra. rFactor 2 has an available 2013-season Honda Civic.
BTCC Subaru Levorg in the current Forza Motorsport as part of the Race Day Car Pack DLC. Image taken by RaceDepartment
While 2002’s TOCA Race Driver included the 2001 BTCC grid, you must go back to 1998’s TOCA 2 Touring Cars by Codemasters on PC and the original PlayStation for the most recent dedicated game.
“I negotiated the deal with the British Touring Car Championship very early on, because growing up playing racing video games I still had the rose-tinted view on what touring cars could be and I wanted to bring that licence in-house,” relays current Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood to RaceDepartment during our interview.
“Alan Gow, who is behind the BTCC and the organising company, and I connected very early on in the lifecycle of Motorsport Games.
“He did not want to be a piece of somebody else’s game like a DLC pack, and I can understand that.
“[At the same time] I was interested in showcasing to people that touring cars could be an amazing franchise. It just needed to be done correctly and there was a lot of positive community sentiment around that.”
That now-26-year wait is set to continue interminably for BTCC fans, with zero guarantees that another publisher or developer will swoop in following the cessation of the rights agreement.
However, the beleaguered Miami-headquartered and Nasdaq-listed company was never able to complete the project, thanks in part to the disastrous NASCAR 21: Ignition project.
“I think if we would have landed NASCAR 21: Ignition in a more appropriate fashion, and it would have cooked for longer, we would not have been in this position,” Hood tells us.
“At the time, I recall saying, if we don’t get this one right, it’s going to be very tricky for us to continue in future.”
NASCAR 21: Ignition did not go to plan. Image: Motorsport Games
It didn’t get it right. Ignition was a mess, and even if you leave a confused launch and bugs out of the equation, it just didn’t drive that well.
Eventually, a decision to ditch the Ignition platform, which merged elements of the original rFactor physics engine with Unreal Engine graphics, was made.
The trouble was, that basis was meant to underpin all future releases, such as the next NASCAR game, BTCC and IndyCar.
“The 2023 NASCAR game will not inherit the tech debt of NASCAR 21: Ignition as its base, but instead will be capitalising on the phenomenal work done by the teams that brought you KartKraft and rFactor 2 while still utilising the Unreal Engine,” confirmed Motorsport Games in April 2022.
“This will unify the development of the NASCAR 23 product with our current and future product portfolio to create the best opportunity for success.”
KartKraft, was the proposed basis for future projects until it wasn’t. Image: Motorsport Games
The Australian team behind KartKraft‘s first task was to create a new IndyCar game. With that expected within 2023, a BTCC game delay until 2024 was announced, in theory providing enough room to get the new projects and technology up and running.
“While we understand that our fans are eager to get their hands on the BTCC game, I can assure them that the expanded development efforts that Motorsport Games is pursuing through the game’s 2024 launch will make it well worth the wait,” said the BTCC’s Alan Gow at the time.
As early as March 2023, it was announced that the project had been pushed into a 2024 release window. In October 2023, the future of the project was placed under review, and by November 2023 the team was seemingly dismissed.
All the while, little to no progress was being made on the BTCC title.
“There was always a plan, originally it was going to be [released] ahead of Le Mans Ultimate,” recounts Hood.
“The intent was to build a game and in actual fact, at one point in time, it was up and running and playable. I remember driving around Brands Hatch in touring cars.”
One of the few official IndyCar game images published by Motorsport Games
I too remember driving around Brands Hatch in what was presumably a prototype for the BTCC game, but not in a touring car.
Instead, I was driving a kart, as accidentally the circuit was very briefly included within media review codes for the version 1.0 release of KartKraft in January 2022. It was hastily removed before the public version was launched.
“And then I was on enforced leave for a while and things changed,” explains Hood, whose position of President was ‘eliminated’ (the wording used in the SEC filing) in early 2022, before returning as CEO in April 2023 to replace Dmitry Kozko.
The first of these arrived in April 2022 in the form of Brands Hatch, Donington Park, the Laser Tools Infiniti Q50 and Toyota Corolla from the 2021 season.
BTCC cars and Thruxton within rFactor 2. Image taken by RaceDepartment
It was followed bit-by-bit by the rest of the grid, ‘22 and ‘23 season livery updates and laser-scanned Thruxton and Croft Circuits. The final element of BTCC was the Team HARD Cupra León in May 2023.
By then, the development team had implemented the championship’s hybrid system too – a first for the platform. It had internal combustion-only cars, obviously, and pure-EV vehicles, but the BTCC project forced the creation of hybrid functionality, something it turns out would be useful with Le Mans Ultimate further down the road.
Yet, while the BTCC rFactor 2 content was satisfying a PC userbase and the BTCC used it for real-world events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it was not the dedicated game that was required.
Four-time BTCC champion Ash Sutton plays rFactor 2 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, 2023. Image by RaceDepartment
“When I came back to Motorsport Games last year, [the BTCC game] was not as advanced as one would hope,” Hood regretfully explains.
“I had to make the painful decision to close these things down and focus elsewhere.”
The news of the project’s end arrived in November last year via the BTCC:
“TOCA is aware that this news will come as a huge disappointment to our hundreds of thousands of fans, many of whom were eagerly anticipating the release of a new BTCC game… and we very much share that frustration, due to Motorsport Games being unable to fulfil its contractual commitments.”
“Nothing has been a surprise to me or the team at Motorsport Games”
“Like when the stories were breaking around, ‘NASCAR wanting to terminate their deal with motorsport games’. Actually, it was us who approached iRacing and said ‘Would you be interested in the NASCAR licence?’
“My view, when I returned to the company, was that we can’t keep repeating the same mistake, which was trying to compete and develop on several different fronts simultaneously. We just didn’t have the capacity for it.
Le Mans Ultimate released in early access earlier this month, will now be the company’s sole focus
“We thought we were doing the right thing. One can argue now, in hindsight, that we got ahead of ourselves, and we paid the price.
“One of the things I proposed doing was to scale down the focus. It doesn’t matter if we’re not making seven games anymore, we just need to produce one good title to get the wheels spinning.
“That has been the focus and ultimately, is why we’ve reduced our projects down to, today, just Le Mans Ultimate.”
Would a BTCC game based on NASCAR 21: Ignition have met expectations? That is highly doubtful. The project then seemingly got lost in the maelstrom of delayed projects, financial missteps and calamitous decisions.
While it was not a stand-alone game, at least the rFactor 2 BTCC DLC showcased what could have been.
Were you looking forward to a BTCC game? Are you enjoying Le Mans Ultimate? Let us know in the comments below.
In 2020, embryonic video game developers and sim racing competition organisers Motorsport Games announced that it had signed a deal to create a video game for the British Touring Car Championship.
Since 2011 in some capacity, the series has run the ‘NGTC’ formula, with packed grids all running similar (but not identical) machinery. The front-wheel or rear-wheel drive cars are mixed with Britain’s best circuits and a short, sprint racing, format.
It should be the ideal template to base a driving game on, especially if you factor in the support series and potential for legacy content – arguably the competition’s zenith was in the 1990s.
However, the promised game never saw the light of day and due to the recent cancellation of the agreement between BARC (TOCA) and Motorsport Games, is unlikely ever to.
The 26-Year Hope
Over the years, several BTCC cars have appeared in different titles. The recent Forza Motorsport releases, even the contemporary platform, include a handful from recent seasons (although not titled ‘BTCC’).There was an Andy Priaulx Crowne Plaza DLC pack for Race 07 that included a BTCC Vauxhall Vectra. rFactor 2 has an available 2013-season Honda Civic.
BTCC Subaru Levorg in the current Forza Motorsport as part of the Race Day Car Pack DLC. Image taken by RaceDepartment
While 2002’s TOCA Race Driver included the 2001 BTCC grid, you must go back to 1998’s TOCA 2 Touring Cars by Codemasters on PC and the original PlayStation for the most recent dedicated game.
“I negotiated the deal with the British Touring Car Championship very early on, because growing up playing racing video games I still had the rose-tinted view on what touring cars could be and I wanted to bring that licence in-house,” relays current Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood to RaceDepartment during our interview.
“Alan Gow, who is behind the BTCC and the organising company, and I connected very early on in the lifecycle of Motorsport Games.
“He did not want to be a piece of somebody else’s game like a DLC pack, and I can understand that.
“[At the same time] I was interested in showcasing to people that touring cars could be an amazing franchise. It just needed to be done correctly and there was a lot of positive community sentiment around that.”
That now-26-year wait is set to continue interminably for BTCC fans, with zero guarantees that another publisher or developer will swoop in following the cessation of the rights agreement.
NASCAR 21: Ignition’s Failure Impacted The BTCC Project
“The BTCC has a rich history in video games and its renaissance in the virtual world will begin with the development of a new dedicated game, scheduled for 2022,” reads the initial announcement about the project, which was to hit console, PC and mobile devices.However, the beleaguered Miami-headquartered and Nasdaq-listed company was never able to complete the project, thanks in part to the disastrous NASCAR 21: Ignition project.
“I think if we would have landed NASCAR 21: Ignition in a more appropriate fashion, and it would have cooked for longer, we would not have been in this position,” Hood tells us.
“At the time, I recall saying, if we don’t get this one right, it’s going to be very tricky for us to continue in future.”
NASCAR 21: Ignition did not go to plan. Image: Motorsport Games
It didn’t get it right. Ignition was a mess, and even if you leave a confused launch and bugs out of the equation, it just didn’t drive that well.
Eventually, a decision to ditch the Ignition platform, which merged elements of the original rFactor physics engine with Unreal Engine graphics, was made.
The trouble was, that basis was meant to underpin all future releases, such as the next NASCAR game, BTCC and IndyCar.
“The 2023 NASCAR game will not inherit the tech debt of NASCAR 21: Ignition as its base, but instead will be capitalising on the phenomenal work done by the teams that brought you KartKraft and rFactor 2 while still utilising the Unreal Engine,” confirmed Motorsport Games in April 2022.
“This will unify the development of the NASCAR 23 product with our current and future product portfolio to create the best opportunity for success.”
KartKraft, was the proposed basis for future projects until it wasn’t. Image: Motorsport Games
The Australian team behind KartKraft‘s first task was to create a new IndyCar game. With that expected within 2023, a BTCC game delay until 2024 was announced, in theory providing enough room to get the new projects and technology up and running.
“While we understand that our fans are eager to get their hands on the BTCC game, I can assure them that the expanded development efforts that Motorsport Games is pursuing through the game’s 2024 launch will make it well worth the wait,” said the BTCC’s Alan Gow at the time.
Then, the IndyCar Game’s Failure Impacted The BTCC Project
However, the IndyCar project, having been announced in 2021, did not get completed.As early as March 2023, it was announced that the project had been pushed into a 2024 release window. In October 2023, the future of the project was placed under review, and by November 2023 the team was seemingly dismissed.
All the while, little to no progress was being made on the BTCC title.
“There was always a plan, originally it was going to be [released] ahead of Le Mans Ultimate,” recounts Hood.
“The intent was to build a game and in actual fact, at one point in time, it was up and running and playable. I remember driving around Brands Hatch in touring cars.”
One of the few official IndyCar game images published by Motorsport Games
I too remember driving around Brands Hatch in what was presumably a prototype for the BTCC game, but not in a touring car.
Instead, I was driving a kart, as accidentally the circuit was very briefly included within media review codes for the version 1.0 release of KartKraft in January 2022. It was hastily removed before the public version was launched.
“And then I was on enforced leave for a while and things changed,” explains Hood, whose position of President was ‘eliminated’ (the wording used in the SEC filing) in early 2022, before returning as CEO in April 2023 to replace Dmitry Kozko.
rFactor 2 substitute
When the IndyCar game was believed to be motoring along and Hood was working in-between Motorsport Games stints with David Perel at The SimGrid, Studio 397 was tasked with creating official BTCC content for its lionised simulator.The first of these arrived in April 2022 in the form of Brands Hatch, Donington Park, the Laser Tools Infiniti Q50 and Toyota Corolla from the 2021 season.
BTCC cars and Thruxton within rFactor 2. Image taken by RaceDepartment
It was followed bit-by-bit by the rest of the grid, ‘22 and ‘23 season livery updates and laser-scanned Thruxton and Croft Circuits. The final element of BTCC was the Team HARD Cupra León in May 2023.
By then, the development team had implemented the championship’s hybrid system too – a first for the platform. It had internal combustion-only cars, obviously, and pure-EV vehicles, but the BTCC project forced the creation of hybrid functionality, something it turns out would be useful with Le Mans Ultimate further down the road.
Yet, while the BTCC rFactor 2 content was satisfying a PC userbase and the BTCC used it for real-world events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it was not the dedicated game that was required.
“When I came back to Motorsport Games last year, [the BTCC game] was not as advanced as one would hope,” Hood regretfully explains.
“I had to make the painful decision to close these things down and focus elsewhere.”
The news of the project’s end arrived in November last year via the BTCC:
“TOCA is aware that this news will come as a huge disappointment to our hundreds of thousands of fans, many of whom were eagerly anticipating the release of a new BTCC game… and we very much share that frustration, due to Motorsport Games being unable to fulfil its contractual commitments.”
The Focus Is Now On Le Mans Ultimate
Hood remains pragmatic about the recent upheavals, and now without having to spin several plates – including the BTCC – has all its attention on the early access Le Mans Ultimate project:“Nothing has been a surprise to me or the team at Motorsport Games”
“Like when the stories were breaking around, ‘NASCAR wanting to terminate their deal with motorsport games’. Actually, it was us who approached iRacing and said ‘Would you be interested in the NASCAR licence?’
“My view, when I returned to the company, was that we can’t keep repeating the same mistake, which was trying to compete and develop on several different fronts simultaneously. We just didn’t have the capacity for it.
Le Mans Ultimate released in early access earlier this month, will now be the company’s sole focus
“We thought we were doing the right thing. One can argue now, in hindsight, that we got ahead of ourselves, and we paid the price.
“One of the things I proposed doing was to scale down the focus. It doesn’t matter if we’re not making seven games anymore, we just need to produce one good title to get the wheels spinning.
“That has been the focus and ultimately, is why we’ve reduced our projects down to, today, just Le Mans Ultimate.”
Would a BTCC game based on NASCAR 21: Ignition have met expectations? That is highly doubtful. The project then seemingly got lost in the maelstrom of delayed projects, financial missteps and calamitous decisions.
While it was not a stand-alone game, at least the rFactor 2 BTCC DLC showcased what could have been.
Were you looking forward to a BTCC game? Are you enjoying Le Mans Ultimate? Let us know in the comments below.
