SimBin Studios Makes a Shock Return!

[Paul Jeffrey]

The legendary SimBin Studios name is to make a shock comeback to sim racing, with industry veteran and former Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe and Route 1 Games producer Allan Speed taking the reigns of the new UK based concern, in collaboration with Sector3 Studios.

SimBin, responsible for such classics as GTR2 and the RACE series of sim titles, sadly closed its doors back in 2014, only to find many of its former employees find a new home as Sector3 Studios, and continue development on the last SimBin product, RaceRoom Racing Experience. The "new" studio will be based in the North West of England (yes, I'll be asking for a site visit) and will be focused of developing "cross platform titles for the current and next gen platforms, primarily in the racing genre".

"We are extremely excited to announce the collaboration with newly formed SimBin Studios UK being headed up by Allan, his industry knowledge and talent network will provide the perfect spring board for our future strategy and let’s not forget the revival of the Simbin name which has a long, rich and successful heritage in delivering some of the best racing titles to date" said Chris Speed, CEO of Sector3 Studios.

With an enviable heritage in racing simulations and a positive track record with community engagement, it will be highly exciting to see what the future holds for the company, and how the announcement will effect the desire for RaceRoom Racing Experience to continue with licencing the WTCC series, an historically well embedded associate of SimBin.

Coming alongside the announcement is news that SimBin will be partnering up with Mathias Lauda "to provide his expertise, insight and support for their up and coming racing projects".

Son of three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, Mathias is perhaps best known for his time in the German DTM series and more recently driving an Aston Martin in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

More news to follow....

Excited? Do you think SimBin can regain its former glory? What do you hope from the new studio? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Gary Horneck]

RRE is my favorite title also. It has the Simbin feel to it, and at least with my setup, its almost perfect.

 

[shedz]

This could be excellent news if it wasn't for the fact that it's been published by Sector3.
Without trying to sound too pessimistic, what's the point if Sector3 are behind it? Don't the R3E crowd say that the reason for the failings of R3E are due so Sector3? So what's likely to be different?

 

[Diabolikpt]

HOLY S*** so my first Sim Racing experience was with GTR and GTR 2 and always loved SimBin studios games and work so yeah #Excited

 

[Blimey]

Their next game should be GTR4 (with Blancpain GT series and other SRO stuff, like GT4, etc)

 

[Kenny Paton]

This could be excellent news if it wasn't for the fact that it's been published by Sector3.
Without trying to sound too pessimistic, what's the point if Sector3 are behind it? Don't the R3E crowd say that the reason for the failings of R3E are due so Sector3? So what's likely to be different?

No we don't blame S3 for the issues in R3E, we blame KW who are the financiers of S3. The games original purpose as a platform for Raceroom meant that it got off to a difficult start and it's due to the hard work of S3 devs that the game has improved so much in the past year and is now heading in a very positive direction.

 

[M D Gourley]

I am excited...I think...but to early to tell really....I have all the Race07 series and add ons still on my HD...but not sure what this will mean with SimBin and Sector 3, are they going to work together?... use the code, base core engine etc for GTR2 and improve on it, drop the Graphics and Audio from R3E into it to make another title...personally I think.that wouldn't be so bad, much like Reiza's Automobilista has improved on the old rF1 engine a lot....only guessing though.

 

[shedz]

No we don't blame S3 for the issues in R3E, we blame KW who are the financiers of S3. The games original purpose as a platform for Raceroom meant that it got off to a difficult start and it's due to the hard work of S3 devs that the game has improved so much in the past year and is now heading in a very positive direction.

Ah I see, thanks for clarifying that Kenny. Well best of luck to the new Simbin team.

 

[-Alf-]

Here it is something we don't see everyday...
I just hope it will be the good old SimBin and not a "reskinned" S3. I'll wait to see how this works out.

 

[natedogg1867]

Don't the R3E crowd say that the reason for the failings of R3E are due so Sector3?

lol

That's all you can say to that.

But for an actual answer, R3E was made by SimBin if you were unaware. This was back in 2012 or so. They chose to go a certain direction with the game, and made many poor choices which made the game suffer. In late 2014, SimBin became defunct, and Sector3 formed, and took over all of the previous SimBin games. They have been developing it since then, and have made many improvements to the game not only from a playability aspect, but also bringing better physics to the game and making it more of a sim.

To say that Sector3 is the reason R3E has some failings is simply naive and ignorant to the history of the game.

No we don't blame S3 for the issues in R3E, we blame KW who are the financiers of S3

This plays an big aspect in the games development of course, but there is also the near certain fact that without KW/RaceRoom AG bank rolling development of the game, it wouldnt be developed any further because there would be no money to pay employees with.

RR AG may make some decisions that the average customer may not like, but they are also the reason we still have this game, its still being developed, and will still be worked on in the future.

That said, I do take issue with plenty of decisions made.

 

[DriftMachine]

Gonna say this outright, I'm not hugely optimistic about the future of R3E if Sector3 are opening a new studio with the SimBin name.

I fear you may be right. I really hope they release an offline version for all us people who have bought some content. I Personally feel this is the best sim I have ever played atm. Not to say other sims are any less, but I really like RaceRoom Racing Experience.

 

[Andrew Harper]

I'm just happy that there's another development in the sim racing world that on the whole will benefit us. Fingers crossed!

Gtr2 is still one of my favourites. If the Simbin link up gives us what some on here are asking for (weather, endurance races, even the rewrite for the unreal engine) then that's got to be a good thing.

It might also answer the question about the apparent delays in new content if discussions about this tie up have been ongoing?

 

[shedz]

But for an actual answer, R3E was made by SimBin if you were unaware. This was back in 2012 or so. They chose to go a certain direction with the game, and made many poor choices which made the game suffer. In late 2014, SimBin became defunct, and Sector3 formed, and took over all of the previous SimBin games. They have been developing it since then, and have made many improvements to the game not only from a playability aspect, but also bringing better physics to the game and making it more of a sim.

Thanks for clarifying Nate.

 

[David Wright]

I think we have to be realistic. The name Simbin is just a name now. The people who produced GTR, GT Legends and GTR2 will not be part of the new company. The details so far are rather confusing. Until we hear more its hard to get too excited.

 

[kmanitou81]

I fear you may be right. I really hope they release an offline version for all us people who have bought some content. I Personally feel this is the best sim I have ever played atm. Not to say other sims are any less, but I really like RaceRoom Racing Experience.

I think there's a lot to like there, but it's associated with so much negativity and a really bad business model that it ruins the experience for me.

 

[Shenmue_X]

I think we have to be realistic. The name Simbin is just a name now. The people who produced GTR, GT Legends and GTR2 will not be part of the new company. The details so far are rather confusing. Until we hear more its hard to get too excited.

I think you're right.
The people who developed GTR and GT Legends are still working for Slightly Mad Studios while RaceRoom is made by the creators of Race 07.

 

[Deleted member 130869]

I wonder if the unreal 4 was the original goal for this new company and s sector3 has been quiet due to working on it. Then roll it out and have future content developed through it.

 

[MrRandom287]

Four Letters: BTCC

 

[Alex72]

Cool! The more the merrier.
Just skip the 'pay to play' thing, right?

Well... Pay once. At least.

Looking forward to it but im too old to get hyped. Once again i will carefully be hopeful that this COULD be something good. Sounds nice at least. Like others said - the more the merrier (if its good that is).

 

[M D Gourley]

I wonder if creating a console racer with pretty graphics and dumped down physics is a draw card for an experienced Sim Development team....meaning more sales of the game....this must be a slightly easier route than developing a full blow Sim with all the troubles associated with creating one.....unless you have Niels Heusinkveld working for you

 

[Ghoults]

I hope I'll be positively surprised. But at the same time it is easy to see why simbin went bankcrupt if you look at their wiki page. Gtr, gtl and gtr2 were good games on their own but what happened after that is just pretty bad. Endless variations of single game and light physics. I think gtr and gtr2 at their release had flawed physics but those games were still solid and honest attempts at making realistic racing sims.

But race07 was never really a sim and the countless variations that followed did not feel then and do not feel now very good. Raceroom followed that thought process into its natural conclusion. Free demo with all content sold as expensive dlc. Not free2play because having a demo where you can buy DLCs is not f2p. Expensive, lacking basic features, physics that some seem to like but for most of us it is very much on the light side of all things. Attrocious business model is what really defines it. Had it been boxed game with dlcs like ac it might have done well enough although it would still need the basic features for that. As a product it was horrible concept and unless you are willing to spend three figure sums to hotlap alone it was dead at start.

It is hard to see how these guys could bounce back from all that. It's clearly been downhill on all possible areas after the first 3 games. Now they are aiming consoles with this future platforms doublespeak. I have hard time seeing any kind of simulation being part of their future. Race2017 anyone? Now on ps4 and xbone! Pre-order our early access now and you get the simbin glorydays 2-car pack dlc for free!