An often overlooked part of a sim racing roster owned by Motorsport Games, KartKraft has sat without new content or features for 31 months.
Created in Australia by Black Delta, the intellectual property was purchased by the Miami-headquartered racing game developers in March 2021.
KartKraft was initially released into early access in 2018. It is made from the ground up in Unreal Engine, with licenced real-world venues, support for VR and an AI mode that could adjust your opponents based on your lap times in-race.
Under Motorsport Games, new karts and tracks were added and version 1.0 was released in January 2022.
However, notable features were still missing at this point – online multiplayer was possible, but only against ghosted rivals in a practice session and plans for dynamic weather never materialised alongside console ports and a sequel.
This is due, in part, to the development team switching their attention to an official IndyCar game, which used the learnings from KartKraft as its basis.
This was initially scheduled for release in 2023, then 2024 – before development was stopped and the team was made redundant in November 2023. Last week, it was agreed that the IndyCar series takes ownership of the unfinished project, in the hunt for a possible new developer.
Don’t expect further Kartkraft updates under Motorsport Games
“I’m not intending to update KartKraft,” said Motorsport Games CEO, Stephen Hood, to Traxion when asked if the karting simulation could receive updates.
“When we acquired KartKraft, and we acquired the technology, we really only took two people from the Kartkraft team because that’s all that was left.
“People forget that back in the day KartKraft was all but gone. So we bought that team in to build that opportunity up again, but it was never really to build KartKraft into something huge.
“We took the technology and the underpinnings of the team and we grew that team over time to deploy that into a much larger title, and the Australian team wanted to work on IndyCar.
“KartKraft is not something we are focusing on right now.”
Parties enquiring to purchase KartKraft
Recently, Motorsport Games has made moves to scale down, placing its eggs in the Studio 397 basket with Le Mans Ultimate and legacy platform rFactor 2. It has also discussed the possibility of a rFactor 3 and a new form of ‘driving experience’, but only after the early access LMU is further along its development path.
The process has included the cancellation of the aforementioned IndyCar game, a new deal with the British Touring Car Championship that doesn’t promise a dedicated game and a restructuring programme.
Another possible option is the sale of KartKraft.
“Right now, a lot of people are knocking on the door asking to acquire KartKraft,” explained Hood to Traxion.
“They would like to resume from that point forward instead of starting something from scratch.
“We are in some of those discussions, but it’s on the back burner and it has to be. It’s another thing where in order to provide focus, you have to go ‘You know what? Not today.’”
