Back at the beginning of the year, we reported on the bombshell announcement of iRacing’s acquisition of Monster Games – now we know a World of Outlaws game is in development.
In that report, it was said that there was an unannounced Monster Games title in the works for a 2022 release. There was speculation about whether it was another SRX or Tony Stewart game, but as it turns out, it was neither.
On Monday (4th April 2022), we found out what the title is, and it involves bringing the iRacing name to consoles for the first time ever. The World of Outlaws, a sprint car racing series that competes on dirt oval tracks across the United States, will have a console game in the fall of 2022 from iRacing’s newest gaming studio acquisition, Monster Games.
The title will be coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles and will be the first time consumers will be able to get an iRacing published product and not need a PC to do so.
It will be the first World of Outlaws standalone gaming title since 2010 when World of Outlaws: Sprint Cars was developed by Big Ant Studios and published by THQ.
This is not straight up going to be the iRacing code on consoles, as some might have thought that it could have been. iRacing already has the World of Outlaws license and assets, such as the Winged Sprint Cars, the Dirt Late Models and other dirt racing vehicles.
They also have a ton of dirt tracks in which the World of Outlaws visit on a yearly basis, including the new Federated Auto Parts at I-55 Speedway, and other favorites like Eldora Speedway and Knoxville Raceway.
The PC subscription-based sim racing platform has two more dirt tracks planned to release at some point soon, including Port Royal Speedway and Lucas Oil Speedway.
The World of Outlaws console game is “wholly developed” by the Monster Games group, which has made games using the Unity game engine to this point. But thanks to the partnership with iRacing, art assets will be able to be provided, as well as an “improved physics model” for all of the vehicles that will appear in the game.
What those vehicles will be, as well as which tracks and drivers from the series, are still unknown at this time, or if both WoO championships – World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars and World of Outlaws Case Construction Late Models – will be represented
As already mentioned, iRacing already had agreements in place with the World of Outlaws, as they run two official World of Outlaws esports series, both the World of Outlaws Buttkicker iRacing Late Model Championship and the World of Outlaws Carquest Auto Parts iRacing Sprint Car Series, which will start up again in November.
iRacing also acquired Orontes Games late in 2021, and the other acquired studio was mentioned in the announcement, but there was nothing said that confirmed or denied if any of their technologies would be utilized in either the new console World of Outlaws game or any iRacing technology that currently exists or will at a later time.
“We’ve been exploring the right opportunity for iRacing to move into the console gaming market for quite some time and are excited to partner with World of Outlaws in order to take this first step later this year,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner.
The full announcement includes Monster Games founder Rich Garcia, iRacing President Tony Gardner, and World Racing Group Client Services Executive Director Tish Sheets all commenting on the news. Let us know your thoughts on the upcoming dirt racing console game, and stay tuned for more news on the game as it becomes available.
World of Outlaws platforms
The 2022 World of Outlaws game will be coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles. There’s no word on specifically which ones, but Monster Games’ most recent release – SRX: The Game – was on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and natively on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. There’s no word on a PC release at this juncture.
What is World of Outlaws?
World of Outlaws is a real-world USA-based motorsport governing body that runs dirt sprint car and late model racing championships. These are called World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars and World of Outlaws Case Construction Late Models.
Featured Image – Paint Scheme made available on Trading Paints by Arron Trotter
