With Gamescom quite literally in our wake as the Traxion team furiously type out articles on the ferry back to Newcastle from Amsterdam, I am taking some time to reflect on what this year’s edition of the popular event meant for us racing game fans.
Last year, the Cologne gathering provided little excitement for sim racers. There was only one sim racing manufacturer (Moza) with a dedicated stand for gamers who made the pilgrimage to Germany to enjoy.
There were some brands such as Trak Racer, Fanatec and GetCloserRacing who piggy-backed onto more mainstream gaming brands’ activations, but nothing major (I got overly-excited in a LinkedIn article about it here).
Gamescom 2024, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of racing game announcements, exclusive hands-on sessions with new equipment, software announcements and plenty of schnitzel-fuelled networking between various sim racing brands.
Amongst the frenzy, hidden in a quiet(ish) corner of the hive, I sat down with André Eriksen, founder and CEO of Asetek SimSports. We recorded a Sim Sundays episode of the (soon to be re-launched) Traxion.gg podcast and I asked him why the Danish equipment manufacturer didn’t have a huge stand at Gamescom like they do at the ADAC SimRacing Expo.
The answer was obvious really – money. Asetek has invested in Gamescom activations in the past but has not made sufficient returns from sales at the event, according to its leader.
Perhaps, Gamescom is for gamers, and not for sim racers?
In Asetek’s case, the contentious but conceptual schism between gaming and sim racing is exacerbated by its target market, its price point and the deeply-laid motorsports roots (more on that here).
Interestingly, André provided some broad details about a new line of products at a lower price point than the existing La Prima range, while suggesting that having products at this lower price point would lead Asetek to consider a larger activation at Gamescom from next year akin to its usual commanding presence at a dedicated sim racing event.
While Asetek believes that their range of products is not yet suitable for the wider Gamescom audience, that’s perhaps not true for the whole market.
In stepped Corsair.
Corsair is a gaming brand at its very core. It owns Elgato, the brand for those who love games enough to stream them online to strangers, and Scuf for those who think that 16 buttons and 2 joysticks on a normie controller just aren’t enough to harness the power of their burgeoning gaming talent.
It also makes parts for gaming PCs and turnover of more than €1 billion each year.
And now, here they are in the Koelnmesse debuting its very own sim racing cockpit. Corsair knows gamers, more gamers too, than arguably any sim racing brand.
It has game data, hardware data, streaming data and it knows how to read it. The decision to commit to a sim racing product and pursue the acquisition of possibly the largest brand in sim racing suggests it’s seeing positive trends in the world of racing games.
I would expect to see more and more Corsair-related sim racing products and activations at Gamescom next year.
Speaking of which…
It’s no secret that Fanatec is in a bit of a pickle and no one can really interpret the press releases, earnings calls and, erm, forum posts accurately enough to know what’s going on there.
However, it appeared Landshut-based team members spent Gamescom’s B2B days running around with a mysterious black flightcase between Corsair, a WRC stand and the various secret closed meeting rooms around the vast exhibition halls… what could it all mean? As long as it’s more sim racing – we’re happy.
Meanwhile, fortress Moza stood firm over in one corner of the event with a small but mighty activation showing their wheel bases, Porsche steering wheels, pedals, active pedals, flight sticks and yolks and the brand new force feedback-equipped flight stick (some closet flight simmers among you will know how big a deal that is… me included).
The Traxion team caught up with the Chinese company’s representatives there while they frantically polished the tableware ready for the arrival of none other than two-time F1 Esports champion Jarno Opmeer. It was busy, it was popular and it was absolutely packed with products and potential.
It’s stated aim was very simple – reach an even larger audience than just the hardcore.
Thrustmaster showed us, in an English-language exclusive, a new PlayStation-compatible direct drive wheel as promised back in December 2022, making it only the third manufacturer to have an officially licenced PS5-appropriate DD device. Big news from a big brand with a big place in our hearts.
The French-American outfit investing in a console-compatible product proved to me that a regrounding of the sim racing market towards gamers rather than sim racing (in the purest “motorsports as esports” sense) is in full swing.
Meanwhile, Nacon and its KT Racing subsidiary showed us its progress on the Endurance Motorsports Series. A game which typifies the concept of gamification within motorsport-inspired virtual experiences.
Mid-event, you can switch seamlessly between driving, engineering, strategising and even playing integrated mini-games to earn repair bonuses – and why the hell not? Racing is racing, not just driving, there’s a place in gaming for a more holistic look at the sport. The promise of a genuinely original co-op multiplayer mode, grounded in the twists and turns of endurance racing, is a welcome addition to our current roster of more serious racing titles.
No doubt, you’ve already seen the news that Farming Simulator is bringing out a new type of rice to the next game…
Well, maybe not, but you might be interested to know that it shares a (GIANTS 10) graphics engine that will be used by Ian Bell and the team at Straight4 Studios in Project Motor Racing.
Farming Simulator is estimated to have between 2.2M and 4.7M players (Source: Steamdb). Those are numbers that sim racing (and I mean serious sim racing) just can’t compute and yet now GIANTS Software is lending technology, and publishing, for an upcoming driving title.
These deals don’t happen unless serious numbers are expected on both sides. Another positive signal that the world of gaming is starting to look favourably on our little corner of the gamerverse.
That’s a whole lot of news in just a couple of days and honestly, there’s plenty more that we were shown that we just can’t talk about just yet.
Courtesy of South West Vision, the team that brings us the aforementioned ADAC SimRacing Expo each year, we set up camp in the B2B area of Hall 2 at Gamescom along with dozens of sim racing brands.
The energy was incredible, everywhere you looked brands were talking to each other, showing demos, planning campaigns and generally having a good time. There was some secrecy, flight cases, closed doors, whispered conversations; there always is and usually for good reason.
However, my general sense was that everyone in that lounge was working towards a similar goal – to make sim racing and racing games better, bigger, more fun.
Sim racing is merging (arguably re-merging) with gaming and personally I think that’s fine. Great, even. Sim racing was a little quiet at Gamescom last year, but this year it felt like one of the cool kids.
My prediction is that we’ll see more sim racing, more rigs, more racing activations, more new products on show, plus more game trailers in front of expectant crowds next year. Gamescom will become an attractive experience for sim racers in a way that it simply hasn’t been up until now.
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