Thrustmaster Direct Drive confirmed for 2022

Thrustmaster Direst Drive.jpg
Thrustmaster has confirmed that their direct drive wheel base will be revealed and launched in 2022.

Back in December 2021, Thrustmaster started to tease their followers on social with #STARTINGLIGHTS

The first image they shared claimed that all their add-ons will be compatible with the new direct drive wheel base for PC.

Then in January Thrustmaster gave no further information other than - "Next gen quick release with lock"

In the image you can clearly see a hexagon shaped wheel base and what appears to be some RGB lights.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1484164039009873927

Finally yesterday, Thrustmaster stated the following “ The #STARTINGLIGHTS are still firing up. Our teams are working hard to bring you some amazing, industry-leading innovations - just like we’ve been doing for more than 25 years now. We hear you loud and clear: the next Starting Light you see will reveal everything. Stay tuned!”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1499399214719139852

What do you think of the latest news from Thrustmaster and what innovations do you think they’ll bring to the market? Are you excited to know more about their direct drive wheelbase?

It will be interesting to know how much this wheelbase will cost and who in the sim racing market this will for. Do you think it will be a competitor to the CSL DD?
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Damian Reed
Damian Reed
PC geek, gamer, content creator, and passionate sim racer.
I live life a 1/4 mile at a time, it takes me ages to get anywhere!

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Badwheels
I look at this 2 ways
  1. Real innovation
  2. Forced Hand
If a company is "late:" to the party, sometimes it gives them the opportunity to observe the state of the industry and avoid pratfalls that other companies endure. If the company is able to maintain decent income until they can get the pulse of the the environment, this works

If a company is "late" to the party, sometimes it is because they are clueless. They are imitators not innovators. This will result in a rushed to market product that reveals not only the companies lack of direction, but how that company probably has no real future. Their hand was forced by competitors.

Tune in next week folks.
 
wombat999
Thrustmaster are an 'odd' company: while (IMHO) they produce some solid kit that is quite good they seem to fall down in the detail. I gave up trying to get hold of Fanatec and ended up with Thrustmaster, a case of necessity over choice. Hopefully this will see TM catching up to the Industry Gold Standard, but the clock is ticking.
 
S
Difficult for me to come with a qualified input without a physical device out for the thorough reviewers.
I just hope there's something serious behind those marketing stunts, i.e. the result is a serious engineered quality hardware output.
 
Peppelino
stenovitz said:
Difficult for me to come with a qualified input without a physical device out for the thorough reviewers.
I just hope there's something serious behind those marketing stunts, i.e. the result is a serious engineered quality hardware output.
Click to expand...
Yes. We will have a long wait ahead of us. Within nine months, we will see this new baby in daylight. :)
 
Tr0nic
I wish Thrustmaster would give us more infos... my T300 needs a replacement and i can see me already driving with the CSL DD, because of lack of information by TM... i know, they will release more when it's time, but all this teasering... it's killing me. :D

So, i bought a new Fanatec Wheel some days ago out of a CSL DD Bundle from somebody, now waiting for the CSL DD... sry TM! :rolleyes:
 
ApexVGear
After too many problems with Fanatec products, only ONE didn't fail or need repairs, I switched to Thrustmaster about five years ago. I bought a used TX, then a TS300RS, which both still work great. Then I bought a new TS-PC Racer in January 2021, and I'm very impressed with its performance. I plan to use it for the next year or two, then upgrade to Thrustmaster's direct drive. By then, it will be released, it will be available, and any post-release issues should be corrected.

I see a lot of complaints, speculation, and misunderstandings about Thrustmaster's PR/advertising and their "teaser" posts. I would like to know everything right now, but at least we know something is in the works. Fanatec has used some of the same campaigns in the past which were also surrounded by speculation... however, what many do know for a fact, though something was "released," you couldn't actually get it for several months.

Just wait. I expect Thrustmaster's direct drive to be really good. There will likely be availability issues at first, and maybe even some initial problems, but these will be resolved within a few months. At that time, my multiple steering wheels will be ready for it.

Sim-Rig_22-0222.jpg
 
budlix
I hope in the final release they will change wheel shape from that glowy hexagon to something more… roundy?
 
Peppelino
budlix said:
I hope in the final release they will change wheel shape from that glowy hexagon to something more… roundy?
Click to expand...
@ SpexVGear, Thank you, for straighten out this things for us.
Nice little Museum you have. :D
 
Last edited:
testdriver77
ApexVGear said:
Then I bought a new TS-PC Racer in January 2021, and I'm very impressed with its performance.
Click to expand...
^^
Bought my TS-PC meanwhile 4 years ago and drove many hours with it.
Its still in use.
This is a very solid base!
Ive bought also a Ferrari GTE addon wheel and the TH8A Shifter.
Togehter with the Fanatec Clubsport V3 pedals its a awesome and solid combo.
Zero problems, really good ffb and its quite.
I do not plan to change this so i can wait what TM wil show us.
Then i can decide if the new wheel would be a good successor to the TS-PC.
At the moment i dont see any reason to change to a dd-wheel.
 
M
Premium
Already jumped ship (VRS DD and GSI wheel)… you can only string people along for so long…
 

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