Search engine traffic analyser AnswerThePublic ranked the following queries as some of the most popular about the official FIA World Endurance Championship driving simulator Le Mans Ultimate:
- Will Le Mans Ultimate be on console?
- Will Le Mans Ultimate be on PS5?
- When is Le Mans Ultimate coming out on Xbox?
Ahead of its early access PC launch in February of this year, a console release was neither confirmed nor denied.
“We are actively exploring the opportunity to bring this experience to console,” read the Motorsport Games-supplied FAQ.
Whoever approved that line should work as a political campaign spin doctor – a Malcolm Tucker, less the expletives.
However, buoyed by “above expectations” sales figures and the first content-adding update for the platform, the company is speaking more openly about its vision for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S owners.
“We want to do it, it’s more of a focus consideration because I don’t want to take too many things on,” explains Motorsport Games CEO Stephen Hood to Traxion.
“It’s also a financial one because there is a big upfront investment. It’s one that I bring in front of the investment community all the time as a way to substantially increase the LMU revenues; bring a larger player base into it and bring this technology console.
“What we’d like most likely do is bring a partner in to assist us to convert it so that we didn’t just dominate the internal team with navigating onto consoles.”
Former Codemasters CEO Frank Sagnier is listed as an advisor to the Le Mans Ultimate custodians – often credited as being influential in the decision to port the once PC early access DiRT Rally to consoles once complete.
A more contemporary blueprint is Assetto Corsa Competizione, where console ports are handled by Untold Games.
As LMU stands today, it and the rFactor 2 platform it shares a technology basis with, are not fit for the more consumer-friendly devices thanks to often befuddling settings, performance challenges and work-in-progress systems.
“rFactor 2 and Le Mans Ultimate were never built for console, so bringing the entire project across, including the renderer, and everything else that makes the game, [would be] a lot of work.
“A lot of that takes place currently. So when you get updates, like netcode improvements or what we’re doing with race starts, trying to improve performance or aiming to fix the menus that can be very laggy for some people… we’re ripping out some of that legacy code and replacing it to not only make the game more performant on PCs, but making it fit for console in the future when we start the transfer process.”
That’s certainly a lot more detailed than the aforementioned website one-liner, but when pressed for timelines, it would seem PlayStation and Xbox releases remain a distant vision.
“I’d love to do it tomorrow,” Hood is at pains to explain.
“But we’re going about it sensibly and I also need to make sure that LMU is shipshape and making money before we can push it to console. I think the business case is incredibly strong.”
You can listen to or watch the full interview with Guinet on the Traxion YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcast feeds.
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Watching from afar as an external studio flounders to convert an ISI-Motor Engine game into an effective console release promises to be a captivating drama for any of us interested in sim racing and game development. Can’t wait.