Le Mans Ultimate team “feeling like a true games company again” following launch

A collective sigh of relief.

That’s what I imagine it must have been like inside Motorsport Games and Studio 397 when the Version 1.0 update for Le Mans Ultimate was released.

It marked something that many irascible people actively didn’t want to happen following several hubris-led missteps. But working through the hate for close to 18 months, the indefatigable company has emerged with an enjoyable sim racing platform, and crucially, momentum.

“The release is proof of life – the company is still here, not just surviving, which we’ve done for the last couple of years, but actually feeling like a true games company again,” explains Motorsport Games CEO to Traxion in the immediate aftermath of the launch.

“Version 1.0 is a flag in the sand of our continued ascent to where I think we should have been several years ago.”

Good vibes

Through the development challenges to reach this point, the company underwent a change of tack following its profligacy in the early ‘20s. Projects were cancelled, followed by sweeping redundancies – a skeleton crew remained to focus solely on Le Mans Ultimate.

“I’m just so proud that the team that we were able to retain were able to reach this point and see the ongoing positive community sentiment, which suggests that we delivered a really good endurance title.

“At the end of the day, I bore people to tears, but I said we just had to make a really good game and deliver it. What’s a games company if you can’t deliver games? That has been our history up until now.”

Ahead of its Q2 earnings call, which follows a profit-generating Q1 and noticeable investment from Chinese VR firm Pimax, the development team is continually looking forward to further tweaks and enhancements, according to Hood:

“The vibe here is really positive, but everyone is tired [speaking the day after Version 1.0 arrived]. We supported people walking up to the limit and going beyond, because Le Mans Ultimate is a passion project for Studio 397.

“But that continual positive feedback fuels the team, because people in the team can directly read comments all the time.

“There are pros and cons to that. But when it’s really positive, I think that makes the team appreciate that people are waiting for this stuff and they’re enjoying it. ‘Oh, they’re finding this is happening with the race starts, or this is happening with the pit stops, I need to make sure there’s a ticket for that and I’m going to get this fixed.’

“If it was negative and flat all the time, that would be super demotivating, but because it’s positive, because we’re delivering what we think is right, that’s recharging the team.

“Version 1.0 was a big milestone for us. We said we’d do it. We did it.”

Version 1.1 planning

Naturally, as this is 2025 and not 2005, the game will continue to be worked on, with further features, content and bug fixes in the pipeline – the Silverstone track is set to be in playable form for the September real-world ELMS event, and a career mode arrives early 2026. Sounds far away, but it isn’t, really.

“Career mode is already in the works, and that’s going to be the big hitter,” says Hood.

“We have started prioritising things for Version 1.1. The one thing I’m very keen to do is bridge this gap between multiplayer and single player.

“Co-op was a way of bridging that gap, the career mode is obviously going to bridge that gap, but I think there are other things as well. A lot of people miss out on the fun of playing online because of their fears. Well, we should tend to those fears.”