Marco Massarutto Statement on Digital Bros Buyout

[Paul Jeffrey]

Marco Massarutto, Licencing Project Manager for Kunos Simulazioni and Assetto Corsa, has today released a brief statement regarding the recently announced Digital Bros takeover news that broke yesterday.

Speaking via his personal Facebook page, Massarutto have been quick to dispel concerns by fans wishing to know what the future of Assetto Corsa holds in light of the new financial investment by the Digital Bros Group. Massarutto has gone on record to confirm that both he and fellow co founder Stefano Casillo remain at the helm of Assetto Corsa, retaining their original roles and responsibilities with the development studio.

Furthermore Massarutto has assured fans that the move to take over Kunos by Digital Bros will not effect either the simulation or the playing experience in any disenable way, it will simply act as an opportunity to bring more funding and resources to the development of Assetto Corsa going forward.

For those of you interested in reading what Massarutto has to say about the move, you can read the full Facebook statement below:

"Ok, let's clarify this before it becomes the bigger flame of the year.

By today, Kunos Simulazioni is part of Digital Bros Family, and me and Stefano by today are shareholders of Digital Bros. That's it. We are still the founders of Kunos, we are still IN, also keeping our respective positions and responsabilities, with just few exceptions: the budget we'll manage by now doesn't come anymore from our personal profits, but from Digital Bros, our bigger AC fan. Keeping the same... policy, strategies, DNA, development team, goals. So, if this news would not been made public, you couldn't realize that something is changed, because - by a gamer/simracer point of view - nothing is going to change.

The reason why this news comes like a bombshell is because Digital Bros is a listed company, therefore this kind of operation must a) kept confidential until the negotiation is over, b) go public when is done. That's it.

For whom are afraid that today a piece of their simracing world has gone, let me remind them that Digital Bros has published - under its label 505Games - the console version of Assetto Corsa, and it doesn't seem to me that AC on PS4/XB1 is an arcade game: definetely it isn't. Therefore, before to scream in any direction that "Kunos has been bought, The World is Over", please sit down, breath and think. Because the only news you should be interested is that by today, we have more resources, time and power to do our job, even better than before.

So: think easier, live better, stay strong. The Future is Bright.

Have a nice weekend"
​

So following on from the initial mixed reaction from fans of Kunos and Assetto, it looks like the move to align with Digital Bros isn't necessarily a case of the core team "jumping ship" but rather an astute deal to ensure a stronger more financially secure partner is on board to support further development of the game. Of course at this early stage of the deal one would expect a period of quiet as all parties gather perspective and settle into the new arrangement, so I wouldn't expect a vast amount to change in the immediate future. Just how much weight Digital Bros will have with regards to the development direction of the game, or how much of a say in the future of Assetto Corsa will be shared amongst the new structure remains to be seen. At this stage the announcement looks to be only positive news for Kunos and AC, as more money and more support whilst maintaining the core team behind the title can only be a good thing for the future of this sim.

Time will tell if this is the case.

Do you think this is a good more from Kunos? Will Digital Bros bring beneficial resource to the table, or cause more harm than good? Let us know your opinions in the comments section below!

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

most of what could be added to that can still be added to this.

And what can be added to this can still be added to that. In other words, don't stop AC1 but start AC2 with add'l captital and in a way that can maximally leverage the assets of AC1. And the greater extent that you can do this quickly in order to minimize add'l scrap spaghetti code the better.

Now is the time. I can tell you that as a programmer there comes a time when you know you have to start some pieces from scratch but there is never money or resources to do it and no one wants to choose. So add'l funding can alleviate that or you can squander it to maximize today at expense of tomorrow.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

A visual history of "big company purchases small developer."

 

[flavio_joshua]

hi i'm italian , for my point of view is normal is happened , thougth to Ferrari story for example, Ferrari is FCA from several years , 30, but normally people don't know it , Enzo Ferrari, the founder told several time that factory was too small for competitive with other great competitors ... the line of Ferrari has been only improve by it ( for most of things.. not all) , whether Enzo Ferrari didn't sell it, now probably remembered ferrari has a brand of the past like other ..

 

[Metla]

Aside from the fact I think what they do with their company is no business of mine, This statement they have released is meaningless. They themselves don’t know where their new bosses are going to steer the product, and once the shareholders get it on their agenda then anything can happen.

Shareholders demand profit, that is the only reason the companies exist, and why investments are made. It’s not about providing extra resources to make a better game, Its about a spread sheet, and that spreadsheet needs to show a profit relative to the money spent, and it has to align with the communicated forecast,Otherwise heads will roll (and brand spanking new project managers get put in place)

That doesn’t mean future releases will be bastardised, they may get to make the greatest game the world has ever seen and bring in huge riches for the shareholders.

Its an interesting turn of events either way.

 

[JayJayRaceinho]

Aside from the fact I think what they do with their company is no business of mine, This statement they have released is meaningless. They themselves don’t know where their new bosses are going to steer the product, and once the shareholders get it on their agenda then anything can happen.

for people who are allready done with AC (like me), it only can get better . People who still hope for improvements on AC may get disappointed. But yeah, the big news was just the 'Kunos was sold' not, 'AC2 is in developoment with Digital Bros as new Investor'. So, indeed, everything can happen. Whatever happens, it needs to have more than what AC currently offers in terms of graphics, sounds, immersion, AI to be successfull.

 

[Keith Joyce]

show a profit relative to the money spent,

Actually, show the maximum possible profit relative to the money spent. As is the case now in all things.

 

[Hannes-Joshua Thor Barthel]

do we get night and rain now ?

 

[Helmut Skrdla]

Not perfectly happy whenever small studios get swallowed by big companies.
However, from another POV the AC I enjoy right now, while open for improvements in some areas, is quite a complete racing experience already. If I had to freeze my version today and rely on modders to keep adding interesting content I wouldn't have a big issue.

That's the nice thing about moddable sims - if there's ever a point where the developer/publisher takes it the wrong direction, if enough people agree it to be the wrong direction, you end up with a "legacy culture" that can quite well support it's own. Haven't checked back there but I'm fairly sure there's a healthy non-steam RF2 community around, for example, running the last non-steam build.

 

[Tbear]

Gotta love the simracing community.

I find that this community is much like the religious communities, much argument about things like infant baptism vs. adult baptism ... while EVERYBODY ignores God.

My observation is some folks object to ANYTHING just to be objectionable. Always have, always will:

.

AC, the sim, is much more fun without all the squabbling.

 

[M D Gourley]

AC, the sim, is much more fun without all the squabbling.

I personally agree and one can not help but think that Kunos might have got sick and tired of all the squabbling...I want this, I want that, that's no good etc....and just gave up....only guessing and probably way of base.

 

[Tbear]

... one can not help but think that Kunos might have got sick and tired of all the squabbling...I want this, I want that, that's no good etc ...

I hope that both of the designers take the money and go off on a 30 day holiday in a nice warm climate then come back with a hot girlfriend and equally hot car. As much as I enjoy AC ... I think they've earned it.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I'm old enough to remember when publishers financed the development of all racing sims and in several cases (Papyrus, Crammond's Microprose and Blimey!) owned the developer too. I actually prefer these older generation sims to the present generation.

That's not exactly comforting, Microprose was bought by Infogrames and closed shortly thereafter.
Papyrus was also killed by a bigger company, Sierra, though that partnership lasted a lot longer.

And somehow they both died right after delivering their "crown jewels" so there's no predicting how bean counters judge success.

 

[Rodent]

A visual history of "big company purchases small developer."

This lists Bullfrog as the developers of Ultima and not Origin. I propose the court reject it for being a blatant lie, also RIP Origin.

 

[David Dominguez]

I'm old enough to remember when publishers financed the development of all racing sims and in several cases (Papyrus, Crammond's Microprose and Blimey!) owned the developer too. I actually prefer these older generation sims to the present generation.

Yeah, those old days when the games had basically one car.

 

[tunaphis]

The tv series Silicon Valley portrays all VC's as heartless number crunchers who will steal your lunch,A reputation mostly deserved so when the founders say nothing's changing,I'm with Gilfoyd....Their lying.

 

[Radu Oros]

The tv series Silicon Valley portrays all VC's as heartless number crunchers who will steal your lunch,A reputation mostly deserved so when the founders say nothing's changing,I'm with Gilfoyd....Their lying.

What do you think will change for the worst for a sim racing game, in this case Assetto Corsa? Some people already think AC is the worst, they've made sure to commentate and blog post about it as much as possible. But just like that 'are you disappointed with the porsche dlc' poll/thread: 31 yes, 243 no. Then what we see in the comments is resumed to "90% of voters are happy but most commenters are disappointed. Tells you all you need to know about the Internet." from user fortyfivekev
There are also those who commented as appreciation for the porsche dlcs, but unfortunately they are seen as fanboys in the community (by whom? by the vocal minority who typically is against anything coming from a game/devs they consider not to their standard). Just like the presidential elections.

But enough rambling, my reply to you is about "What do you think will change for the worst for a sim racing game, in this case Assetto Corsa?" with the influence from the new owners in comparison to the founders.

ps. Sillicon Valley series, I laughed so much so many times with it, and the story and characters are so great. Mainly because of the twists that you can't foresee.

 

[Emery]

The reason negative comments are higher than the poll is there is nothing to explain if you are satisfied.

 

[David Wright]

Yeah, those old days when the games had basically one car.

One type of car but not one car. Grand Prix Legends, F1 Challenge '99-02, Grand Prix 4, GT Legends and GTR2 all have lots of cars.

By contrast if I want to simulate a real championship in a modern sim such as AC, pCars, rf2 I typically do just have one car and very few of the tracks.

 

[David Wright]

That's not exactly comforting, Microprose was bought by Infogrames and closed shortly thereafter.
Papyrus was also killed by a bigger company, Sierra, though that partnership lasted a lot longer.

And somehow they both died right after delivering their "crown jewels" so there's no predicting how bean counters judge success.

The reason Crammond's team was closed was Sony bought an exclusive F1 license. The reason Papyrus was closed because EA bought an exclusive NASCAR license. Simbin too were badly affected by Porsche and Ferrari pulling out of their FIA GT license. Clearly reliance on flagship licenses is (or was) a risky strategy. However, the idea that publishers won't allow developers to produce sims is false.

 

[David Dominguez]

One type of car but not one car. Grand Prix Legends, F1 Challenge '99-02, Grand Prix 4, GT Legends and GTR2 all have lots of cars.

By contrast if I want to simulate a real championship in a modern sim such as AC, pCars, rf2 I typically do just have one car and very few of the tracks.

GP4 had one car, with just different "power" levels, that was all about it. Cockpits looked all the same. Other Papy games had like 3 cars as well, like those Indy games.

Maybe you can't simulate X championship like one of those games, but you can run multiple different championships with multiple car classes without having to buy 20 games.