Le Mans Ultimate Launches First Community Survey

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Le Mans Ultimate community survey. Images: Motorsport Games
Studio 397 has launched Le Mans Ultimate's first-ever community-based development survey. But there is more in it for players than they might think.

On the 20th of August, Le Mans Ultimate will have been publically released for six months. Whilst it feels like a lifetime ago that we here at OverTake were publishing track guides and reviews, six months is not a long period for development.

Despite the lack of development time, Le Mans Ultimate has managed to create a comprehensive backing of fans as well as quality DLC releases. However, it is not without problems. Stability and DLC pricing, considering the game is still in early access, are two of the main criticisms often thrown at Le Mans Ultimate.

You can fill out the survey here. it should only take around ten minutes and it is a vital feedback tool for the developers.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1824068681397104789

What is a community survey?​

In short, this community survey offers Studio 397 and Motorsport Games an inside look into each individual who plays and enjoys their game. A very select few will rant and rave on X or Reddit about the issues in the game, but a survey such as this one, in the words of poet Ella Wheller Wilcox, gives a voice to the voiceless to some effect.

It may seem like you are just shouting from the crowd demanding change, but the beauty of a survey such as this one is that the developers can read every comment, good and bad. Motorsport Games CEO, Stephen Hood makes it clear in his statement that they want all the feedback they can get.

“The development team are keen to further understand the current playing trends, the focus list for remaining issues, as well as what people would like to see in the longer-term future. We have come a long way in six months, and we have more to achieve, but by launching this survey, we want to allow people to be heard further, and collect as much feedback as possible from our player base, those who are on the fence and those who we want to try bring into the title. Every response is important with the team fully appreciative of all views and feedback. The good, bad and ugly!” Stephen Hood, Motorsport Games CEO

What is in it for you?​

Amongst many things, the obvious answer is directed game development. With such personalised feedback on offer, the team at Studio 397 and Motorsport Games can direct content on the overall opinion of their fanbase. This may impact features and gameplay mechanics implementation order or DLC releases.

LMU 1.jpeg

Le Mans Ultimate stickered Thrustmaster Open-wheel wheel rim.

There is a lot more on offer outside of helping with the development direction. If you fill out the survey, you will be included in the game credits, and you will be automatically entered into a prize draw to win one of six 2024 DLC Season Passes worth €36.

The survey opens today (August 15, 2024) and will remain open for two weeks. The opinion caster will be closing at 15:00 UTC on Thursday 29 August.

What feedback are you planning to leave for the development team behind Le Mans Ultimate? Let us on X @OverTake_gg or down in the comments below!
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Connor Minniss
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

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W
I don't use it, but surely it's a given, and always has been a given, that VR will be included. They can't possibly be considering 'not to bother with it because more people ticked radar'.

It is pretty hard to believe that they haven't got it working by this point, considering it's lack has got to be one of the strongest or at least most heard criticisms of the game.

The survey definitely gave the air of re-thinking the game's scope post early-access release, which if true is severely off putting.
 
T
Mitja Bonca said:
I don't care about LeMans (experience). I want the game to be complete, any game.
Click to expand...
Why on earth would you buy a product with the name Le Mans ultimate in Early Access if you don't care about the Le Mans experience and want a complete game to begin with? Makes zero sense ... :rolleyes:
 
Antonio Castagna
I am more than sure that if people like Geoff Crammond had been doing LMU he would have done a much better job even with fewer people... In those days they didn't do surveys or anything like that, and yet they never let a single product down, ever, even with much less means at their disposal than they do now, and that's because they put quality first (and many features that even in the current sims they insist on not putting in), not ****ing dlc's just to make money when it would be enough to put quality before quantity, something that s397 never understood, in fact rF2 has been a continuous decline and LMU will be too, it's mathematical.
 
P
Social Media/Discord/Website postings can be a bit noisy/muddy. It may let you gather lots of ideas, but when you are cutting it too fine with financials you need to separate the rumblings, and understand if they come from people who have the game or not have it, because every penny counts.

More precise information is never a bad thing. Yes, it's MSG's fault that they burned through a large budget and got themselves in this situation, and I have no sympathy for them. But, what are they going to do? Past cannot be changed and now need to get themselves out of this situation trying to salvage what they can.

Unless a prospective buyer comes (it doesn't seem to be one in the horizon atm), it's up to themselves to keep the ship afloat and make it reach destination. This survey is just one part of it.
 
T
Antonio Castagna said:
I am more than sure that if people like Geoff Crammond had been doing LMU he would have done a much better job even with fewer people... In those days they didn't do surveys or anything like that, and yet they never let a single product down, ever, even with much less means at their disposal than they do now, and that's because they put quality first (and many features that even in the current sims they insist on not putting in), not ****ing dlc's just to make money when it would be enough to put quality before quantity, something that s397 never understood, in fact rF2 has been a continuous decline and LMU will be too, it's mathematical.
Click to expand...
If Jeff Cramond was such a genius then how do you explain that his last game flopped and led to the shutdown of his game studio?
 
Richard Wilks
tr1v1um said:
If Jeff Cramond was such a genius then how do you explain that his last game flopped and led to the shutdown of his game studio?
Click to expand...
Easy his game didnt flop. Go check your sales numbers.

Or did EA also flopped when they lost the F1 license?
 
T
Richard Wilks said:
Easy his game didnt flop. Go check your sales numbers.

Or did EA also flopped when they lost the F1 license?
Click to expand...
Well, I know that we should take Wiki articles with a grain of salt, but according to the german article about Geoff Crammond and the english article about GP4 itself, the game was a "modest commercial success". I don't know what numbers you have but the studio folding afterwards isn't a sign of success, or is it?
 
Richard Wilks
tr1v1um said:
Well, I know that we should take Wiki articles with a grain of salt, but according to the german article about Geoff Crammond and the english article about GP4 itself, the game was a "modest commercial success". I don't know what numbers you have but the studio folding afterwards isn't a sign of success, or is it?
Click to expand...
Does Fanatec woes have anyting to do with the success of their products? Companies close for a lot of reasons. The Grand Prix series was a sales success,
 
pz666
I think the fact this survey exists shows how much the days have moved from developer hosted forums and discord channels being the easiest way to get information from a broad section of the community...

It's a good way to have popcorn to eat with constant drama if that's what you're into... No matter what the developer... But there's a lot of people who aren't into that and want to avoid the rabid fanboy of any title...
 
W
pz666 said:
I think the fact this survey exists shows how much the days have moved from developer hosted forums and discord channels being the easiest way to get information from a broad section of the community...

It's a good way to have popcorn to eat with constant drama if that's what you're into... No matter what the developer... But there's a lot of people who aren't into that and want to avoid the rabid fanboy of any title...
Click to expand...

It's a good point.

Certainly the LMU forum and discord are dysfunctionally dominated by the rabid fanboys. I mentioned this in the survey.
 
R
Antonio Castagna said:
I am more than sure that if people like Geoff Crammond had been doing LMU he would have done a much better job even with fewer people..
Click to expand...
It is unfair to compare the GP games developments and LMU's one.
Not the same budgets to handle, not the same team size, not the same requirements in terms of realism (laser scanned tracks & cars...).
Even if there are advanced tools.nowadays to work with, the job is gigantic kn comparison.

What Grammond and S397 share are the bad studios, Microprose, the sim specialist, kater bought by Hasbro itself biught by Infogramezs, for GP4 and MSG, the racing sim specialist, for LMU. Both companies, Infogrames (now Atari) and MSG bought a bunch of studios and licenses and went through financial difficulties.

Microsoft has been closed, Sony bought the F1 licence, and, before that, obviously EA had won the match against Microprose with F1 Challenge. Not saying GP4 was bad, but F1C was the Assetto Corsa of its time (with more features). Grammond probably didn't have anything to do with all of this but, maybe with a survey before developping GP4, he could have understand how modding was crucial at that time and he would have shaped a different game approach.

By the way, modding isn't big for GP4 but there are still some insane works out there :
Yes, GP4's 9wn Le Mans mod! To wait for LMU's better state :D

pai said:
Unless a prospective buyer comes (it doesn't seem to be one in the horizon atm), it's up to themselves to keep the ship afloat and make it reach destination. This survey is just one part of it.
Click to expand...
Agree, although it doesn't chznge the fact that asking what people want after having chosen most of the structural design of the game (just by chosing rfactor's2 physics and graphics engine) is too late and potzntially means costs increase (so counterproductive). MSG has to do something indeed, having to take crucial decisions every month or even week, which makes any roadmap impossible, which makes its word unreliable, more unreliable than before when it was... unreliable. That's walking on a really rhin cord.

The only thing that gives me hipe is the official involvment of Le Mans ; it would be a disgrace to fail in such a great project around the race, when the interesr for the WEC series have been renewed with this new hypercars category. Everything is there to do the things right, the data, thz technology, the hype....
 
pz666
wowbagger said:
It's a good point.

Certainly the LMU forum and discord are dysfunctionally dominated by the rabid fanboys. I mentioned this in the survey.
Click to expand...

I think given they even had this survey, S397 is at least aware of the issues forums create these days...

If only more sim racing development companies were more aware of how toxic forums have become...
 
Last edited:
Richard Wilks
roadyroad said:
It is unfair to compare the GP games developments and LMU's one.
Not the same budgets to handle, not the same team size, not the same requirements in terms of realism (laser scanned tracks & cars...).
Even if there are advanced tools.nowadays to work with, the job is gigantic kn comparison.

What Grammond and S397 share are the bad studios, Microprose, the sim specialist, kater bought by Hasbro itself biught by Infogramezs, for GP4 and MSG, the racing sim specialist, for LMU. Both companies, Infogrames (now Atari) and MSG bought a bunch of studios and licenses and went through financial difficulties.

Microsoft has been closed, Sony bought the F1 licence, and, before that, obviously EA had won the match against Microprose with F1 Challenge. Not saying GP4 was bad, but F1C was the Assetto Corsa of its time (with more features). Grammond probably didn't have anything to do with all of this but, maybe with a survey before developping GP4, he could have understand how modding was crucial at that time and he would have shaped a different game approach.

By the way, modding isn't big for GP4 but there are still some insane works out there :
Yes, GP4's 9wn Le Mans mod! To wait for LMU's better state :D


Agree, although it doesn't chznge the fact that asking what people want after having chosen most of the structural design of the game (just by chosing rfactor's2 physics and graphics engine) is too late and potzntially means costs increase (so counterproductive). MSG has to do something indeed, having to take crucial decisions every month or even week, which makes any roadmap impossible, which makes its word unreliable, more unreliable than before when it was... unreliable. That's walking on a really rhin cord.

The only thing that gives me hipe is the official involvment of Le Mans ; it would be a disgrace to fail in such a great project around the race, when the interesr for the WEC series have been renewed with this new hypercars category. Everything is there to do the things right, the data, thz technology, the hype....
Click to expand...
F1 challenge was good for mods yes, but time proved which one was the better game.

GP4 is still played today, and still modded today, as for F1C, it was abandoned as soon as rf1 came out. Not a bad game per se, but if the point was to have a good single player experience, GP4 was the best.

Also, the biggest F1C mods all came from GP4 modelers, they were the best.
 
P
Richard Wilks said:
F1 challenge was good for mods yes, but time proved which one was the better game.

GP4 is still played today, and still modded today, as for F1C, it was abandoned as soon as rf1 came out. Not a bad game per se, but if the point was to have a good single player experience, GP4 was the best.

Also, the biggest F1C mods all came from GP4 modelers, they were the best.
Click to expand...
It's not like F1C does not have its community, as not long ago F1 VB was released, which is basically a game build comprising every single F1 season from 1950 to present day. I don't have any measuring stick to say which one has bigger activity, but I think it's fair to say that both are still played nowadays :)
 
SwannyUK
Club Staff
Premium
Still, not to have a basic way of racing with friends is a bit ridiculous at this point in time given we've already had DLC released.
 
Pepucho Pumuqui
7 months in early access and the game feels dead to me. Considering DayZ or 7 days to die were in EA for a decade maybe same strategy here:laugh:
 

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