GTRevival renamed Project Motor Racing in GIANTS Software publishing deal

It was first christened GTR Revival, then GTRevival, but now the upcoming driving video game from Straight4 Studios will be called Project Motor Racing.

Founded by Ian Bell – leader of three GTR racing simulations in the ‘00s, plus the Need for Speed: Shift and Project CARS franchises, among others – the embryonic outfit announced a fresh sim racing title in 2022.

Back then, it was called GTRevival, harking back to the aforementioned GTR titles. Similar in not just name, but included cars, with the Lister Storm as a totem.

The team announced a publishing deal with Embracer Group’s PLAION in April 2023, however, it has now switched to Farming Simulator creators GIANTS Software – a privately-owned Swiss company that sold over six million copies of the most recent instalment.

It self-publishes across the PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms that Project Motor Racing will also appear on.

“With all the capabilities in-house, a successful history of strategic brand alliances, and an infrastructure proven through multiple projects, this partnership of combined strengths marks another milestone by expanding our genre expertise,” said GIANTS Software CEO, Christian Ammann.

Farming Simulator 2008 was the first title in the long-running series, running through to the upcoming Farming Simulator 25 set for a November 2024 release date. GIANTS has created and published the series across multiple platforms, spawning mobile spin-offs and esports competitions. Project Motor Racing is its first motorsport venture.

“Our partnership with GIANTS is the last piece of the puzzle for the development of Project Motor Racing,” said Ian Bell, CEO of Straight4 Studios.

“It’s fantastic news not only for our studio but the sim racing genre as a whole. Those who are familiar with GIANTS’ best-selling franchise will recognise why this partnership is going to refresh the sim racing genre in ways that the community is going to love.”

The news came from a trip to Silverstone, where the development team was capturing data from a Lister Storm. Traxion was there to interview both Ammann and Bell, which you can watch or listen to in our latest podcast episode (embedded above)

The upcoming sim racing title will use a new custom physics engine entitled Hadron but does not have a release window nor a graphics engine – more details on the latter, after recently abandoning Unreal Engine, are expected to “follow soon” according to the publisher. Further announcements are expected during August’s gamescom event.