Motorsport Games For Sale: What Does This Mean For Le Mans Ultimate?

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Motorsport Games For Sale What Does This Mean For Le Mans Ultimate.jpg
Images: Motorsport Games / Studio 397
With Motorsport Games looking for a new buyer, the future of Le Mans Ultimate looks uncertain.

It has been a tumultuous time in the sim racing space, with Motorsport Games announcing further redundancies to its workforce last week. This came after the company laid off 38 employees, which made up 40% of its workforce, last November.

In a statement, Motorsport Games confirmed that “approximately 24 employees and contractors,” primarily in the US and UK, have been laid off. These latest redundancies will impact “approximately 39%” of the workforce, reducing the remaining team to a “skeleton crew,” a source told Overtake.

Motorsport Games For Sale Following Layoffs​

In an unprecedented revelation, Motorsport Games has announced it is potentially looking for a sale or merger as it considers “strategic alternatives.”

“The Board of Directors has authorised management to consider strategic alternatives to maximise shareholder value, including a potential sale or merger of the Company,” the statement reads.

Le Mans Ultimate screenshot.jpg


Following the redundancies, Motorsport Games seeks additional funding to port Le Mans Ultimate to PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Considering that the official WEC game is Motorsport Games’ only new title in the pipeline and that it can no longer sell NASCAR games after 2024 following the sale of the license to iRacing, there is suddenly a lot riding on Le Mans Ultimate’s success.

The sale of the NASCAR license provided a cash injection, but NASCAR Heat 4, Heat 5 and 21: Ignition will be removed from sale after 2024 as a result – these titles made up 55% of Motorsport Games’ revenue stream.

“We have implemented a strategic restructuring to further streamline operations, reduce costs, and strengthen our financial foundations. These changes position us to become a more agile, focused, and efficient company – one that is conscious of our forthcoming operating requirements as well as within-reach growth opportunities”, Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood commented.

“With our core talent and cutting-edge technology intact, we are excited about the future. The successful launch of Le Mans Ultimate, our pivotal role in F1 Arcade, and our plans for an innovative new title are clear signals of our commitment to driving the company forward.”

What Does The Future Hold For Le Mans Ultimate?​

These Motorsport Games layoffs raise big questions about Le Mans Ultimate’s future.

Launched in February this year, Le Mans Ultimate has proven popular in the sim racing community.
During a recent earnings call, Hood confirmed that the early access release sold more in 36 hours than Motorsport Games projected in ten days.

Since the initial early access release, the official WEC game continues to evolve, with recent updates and DLC adding new 2024 Hypercars, new circuits, and asynchronous co-op multiplayer.


Looking ahead, Hood recently confirmed to OverTake that Le Mans Virtual is set to return in late 2024 or early 2025 with driver swaps after a hiatus this year. Whether this is still the case remains to be seen as the future of Le Mans Ultimate, which remains in early access with no final confirmed release date, looks uncertain.

Are you worried about Le Mans Ultimate following the Motorsport Games layoffs? Let us know in the comments below, or join the discussion in the forum.
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About author
Martin Bigg
Martin Bigg
Arcade racing addict. Can usually be found causing carnage in Wreckfest and still craving a new Driver and Burnout game. Car movie nerd.

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thebaz
Premium
It’s always sad when someone loses his position. If I counted right, 35 people are still at work to develop the game. I don’t know if it’s a skeleton or not but Kunos said they had no more than 40 people working on their products…

I wish all the best to these guys
 
DC WOLF
i don't see this as a problem
RF2 has survived when they were down to 3 employees.
Somebody will save the source and if not immediately, but sure there will be a successor who will save LMU.
Maybe slow progress and maybe not with this daily races. But then there will be custom servers and LFM can do the job.
The 30€ was totally worth it, and i'm sure the game won't die with the fall of MSG
there are many sim racers who buy a wheel addon for 300+ € and then never use it because it does not fit their needs and buy the next.
How many of them complaint about this 30€ game? Ridiculous :roflmao:
 
T
Deicide The Light Bearer said:
Had*
Click to expand...
What makes you so sure that it will disappear? Do you remember that the developers of Raceroom were once called Simbin? Or that iRacing rose from the ashes of Papyrus? Fact is I have seen alot more substance from the people developing LMU than some other people who had an agenda against it even before it released and I certainly got my enjoyment and moneys worth of it. Can't say the same thing about certain other sim racing games in my Steam library. There is nothing in this article btw that indicates anything of what will happen over the next couple of months, so maybe hold your horses before there is an official statement.
 
BorisK
I wonder what Ian Bell thinks about it, is he rubbing his hands in anticipation of successful hiring of specialists from s397? And the Competition Company (Rennsport) will not refuse such an acquisition. Both games are based on ISI's engine.
 
mantasisg
All I care about is what is going to happen with rF2, S397, the forum, the website and whatever else is there to support.

There is still time to blow some oxygen, so the spark would still remain. Unfortunately, it is more likely that it is only going to delay LMU development, and rF2 is going to remain in coma for a while.

If nothing happens before ACE, and if ACE happens to be better as a simulator than it seems like it will be, then rF2 might not survive. Even though there probably aren't going to be any simulation this detailed that supports modding ever again. If in case rF2 development ends, I hope that coding savy modders could check whats possible to make with gJed, or whatever there could be to make modding easier using stuff like Blender.... Probably naive though as apparently anyone after ISI team had next to zero clue about these things, as well as further developments of physics related stuff.
 
Trebor901
BorisK said:
I wonder what Ian Bell thinks about it, is he rubbing his hands in anticipation of successful hiring of specialists from s397? And the Competition Company (Rennsport) will not refuse such an acquisition. Both games are based on ISI's engine.
Click to expand...
So you're saying Bells new far....racing sim is based on the rf2 physics? Where have you seen this?
 
Y
Very tough environment this market, there is a thick wall between the creatives who make what we love and the funding / business side which has little interest or understanding of anything beyond how much money it will make.

I feel the criticism on here of one side is sometimes taken as a criticism of the artists and designers who we all support. This is why it is painful when a series you love is in the sole hands of a company with a business model which does not provide the patience required to make a solid foundation of a game before money grabbing for survival. I wish the best to the artists, I have been in a similar position in January and it is no fun.
 
I
It just occurred to me how bad are sim racing CEOs at business! Astonishingly bad, we got MSG, Fanatec, Kunos bought by some not much related company, iRacing taking giant fees to deliver 20 yr old gfx and somehow making little profits...
The whole scene has giant potential, the only part of the whole gaming industry that brings physical sensations, it's amazing in VR... but so little done.
F1 at the end of the Bernie era was badly mismanaged, but sim racing has never been managed professionally.

Sim racing needs a Chase Carey to shake it up! I know Ari Emanuel still fishes around F1 and racing, hopefully he takes a bite in sim racing.
 
BorisK
Trebor901 said:
So you're saying Bells new far....racing sim is based on the rf2 physics? Where have you seen this?
Click to expand...
Madness Engine based on ISI's gMotor. Sure, the engines haven't become quite the same in so many years, but I think Ian Bell won't give up new tire knowledge, for example.
 
T
mantasisg said:
All I care about is what is going to happen with rF2, S397, the forum, the website and whatever else is there to support.

There is still time to blow some oxygen, so the spark would still remain. Unfortunately, it is more likely that it is only going to delay LMU development, and rF2 is going to remain in coma for a while.

If nothing happens before ACE, and if ACE happens to be better as a simulator than it seems like it will be, then rF2 might not survive. Even though there probably aren't going to be any simulation this detailed that supports modding ever again. If in case rF2 development ends, I hope that coding savy modders could check whats possible to make with gJed, or whatever there could be to make modding easier using stuff like Blender.... Probably naive though as apparently anyone after ISI team had next to zero clue about these things, as well as further developments of physics related stuff.
Click to expand...
I think people are a bit overdramatizing things, aren't they? We had support for rF2 for over a decade, longer than I ever would have imagined given the flop that it was. And given those circumstances I see zero chance that we will ever see such a product again that tries something revolutionary. It doesn't have to be a bad thing as you don't have to reinvent the wheel everytime, but there just was something different when I went out with the Eve at historic Spa that I haven't experienced with any of the new titles yet. I will give ACE a fair chance, but I am not seeing Kunos taking any risks. If we haven't got the enjoyment out of rF2, that we seek I don't see much chance anyway. Only thing I know is that I have clocked allmost 1000 hours, it's still in my library, playable in offline mode, that the mods still work and that the tools and documentation is there. What would be stopping people to have fun with it? Maybe it's time to move on ... happens in live all the time. :)
 
Richard Wilks
BorisK said:
Madness Engine based on ISI's gMotor. Sure, the engines haven't become quite the same in so many years, but I think Ian Bell won't give up new tire knowledge, for example.
Click to expand...
Ian Bell's new game has zero ISI code in it, he said that himself.
 
A
Never say a carsim is dead till there are no modders working with it. There are with Grand Prix Legends, released in 1998, and there would be with NR2003 if iRacing wouldn´t have forbidden to patch the exe. There are also amazing new versions of some of the old StarWars games for the PC (i.e. Tie Fighter Total Convertion).
 
Trebor901
BorisK said:
Madness Engine based on ISI's gMotor. Sure, the engines haven't become quite the same in so many years, but I think Ian Bell won't give up new tire knowledge, for example.
Click to expand...
Ian Bell hasn't got any rights to the madness engine anymore that's why his new sim is running on the same engine as farming simulator. Codemasters/EA now own the rights to any of that so he's having to start from scratch.
 
Harmoniser78
WEC should buy the team making the game. It’s not like FIA don’t have money. Might be good way of getting the experience of making games in-house with one that’s advanced in it’s development, rather than giving them to EA.

A YouTuber was saying Iracing should buy it. I don’t think that would work, they just want the license the game engine and its assets are not that useful to them.

Only way the games lives, is somebody buys it to keep the current game developing. Could EA throw their hat in to ring, WEC, F1 and WRC. I see very lucrative cross series Ultimate Team on the horizon. I probably shouldn’t give the ideas.

Other option here is finish the base game then open it modders. But that would just be RF2.
 
D
First: good luck to all the workers that were laid off. And thanks.
Second: I don't how to read the "plans for an innovative new title".
The market of simracing seems already overcrowded: rFactor 2, iRacing, R3E, AC, ACC, ACE, AMS AMS2, LMU, Rennsport, Project Motorsport, The Last Garage...
 
N
So.....is this site payed by "Le Mans Ultima"?
I mean; a day can't go by and whoop: there is at least one topic of this (sub)game.
A week ago, when you opened the news page: 4 topics of this on the frontpage.

One would say it is the ONLY game......or........
 
Alexandre
Sad situation. I don't celebrate anything that impacts sim racing to bad outcomes.
I hope they manage to overcome this.
 

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