Automobilista 2 August 2022 Development Update

you’d think, as far as the ir18 goes it would be like a copy and paste. Iracing, they’re releasing a World of outlaws “console” game with monster games. You’d think Monster games would sit back and just learn. IRacing’s appeal to do it is to gather more customers to come to the pc side. Meanwhile the dirt section is in dire need

 

Making a car for an existing platefrom and making and brand new game mostly from scratch on a different engine are two completely different tasks even if they reuse S397's work (which they prolly will).
The management at MSG from what has been publicly said my ex-employees is a dumbster fire anyway, so if they massed it up ultra bad with NASCAR 21 while also having the support of S397 and their tech they will most likely mess it up again for the Indy game.
That all is assuming MSG survives the year which might not be the case since they are bleeding out cash very, very fast.

 

Maybe they’re ok with the massive bleeding with Motorsports Network being the parent company?

 

MSG is its own publicly traded company, it's going to be in trouble regardless if it runs out of cash and its stock price drops too much

 

I think the ai did have random breakdowns but honestly it was that long ago I can’t be sure.
Was a fantastic game back in its day. I remember the original Microprose GP had a thick booklet with it full of information on the tracks , flags etc.

 

Well, I hope Monster learns how to implement VR. I have a couple of their dirt track games. No VR. I don't think any of their racing games have it.

But I would greatly prefer to see Reiza Studios get the nod for Indy Car, BTCC, and anything else.

I'm really looking forward to the Historic Track Pack, and any other historic content that they might like to release.

But I'll buy all DLC. If it starts taking up a lot of hard drive space, I have two big SSDs and a gigantic high speed mechanical drive. I'll just use the Steam, "Move Installation Folder" function to free up more SSD space for Automobilista 2.

And if it came to it, I'd even uninstall other stuff to make room for Automobilista 2 content. But I'm nowhere near needing to worry about running out of space.

 

It's a penny stock at this point. The bottom fell out, it's a matter of when MSG collapses not if.

 

Hey now it hit 60 cents for a few minutes today!! Things are looking up for MSG.

 

I bought in when it was $20. Sold it as soon as I saw the first non msg gameplay for nascar 21

 

Oh I'm sure their CEO will be looking up...

 

We have to remember why it became that way, it's because they focused on the main things the NASCAR Heat fans were complaining about instead of the actual core gameplay. Made it look pretty, had a paint booth, and stuff that made the game feel more immersive. Those were things NASCAR Heat fans shouted on the rooftops about basically since day one. Instead of keeping the same upward trajectory that the Heat games were heading in, they decided sometime during Heat 5's development to redo the whole thing and thus split the dev time between Heat 5 and Ignition. MSG was probably banking on that game making them money (remember, the hype for the game was unreal) but because of their poor choice of what to focus on that didnt happen. It would be like if Renato focused on making the multiplayer better instead of focusing on physics updates and adding new content, AMS 2 wouldn't be nearly as good as it is today.

I guarantee you the devs at MSG worked their hardest to make Ignition a good game and are trying their best with the other IPs, but when the focus is on what the fans want instead of what the game needs there is just no way you're gonna be able to make something decent in a year or two. Of course in the end it is their game and thus their fault it failed. But, I really think us racing fans should look in the mirror and realize that maybe we are also part of the problem, that it was our voice that they were listening to. Its easy to say "why isnt there X?" "why isnt there Y?" but most of us don't know how most of this stuff works and thus overvalue these certain failures because they seem "easy to fix." That isn't to say we shouldn't criticize game devs, but we should put those criticisms in perspective and at least try to show some sympathy to devs

 

I don't mind their dirt track games, All American Racing, and Sprint Cars, but I sure wish they'd offer optional VR support. Most of my sim racing time is spent in VR.

 

Only 1% of Steam players use VR, but I feel it's getting a lot of attention nowadays and it can't be missed by the actual and new racing games.
In 2023 we will have 1 more bump in VR usage cause PSVR2 is right on the door and it will sell a lot. It will have much more acceptance from the public cause now it's much more easy to use, has more overall graphics quality and more good games being already released.
Maybe after this AMS2 update, Reiza may find a place in its development schedule to address more QoL and performance improvements regarding VR gameplay.

 

There is a point in re-examining what we as fans ask of dev studios, at the same time, management can easily sink a business/project etc. I watched this happen personally while working in the music industry first hand seeing a successful artist ruin her career by listening to a narcissistic manager. I will 100% admit that the playerbase doesn't have the best view on what would make a sim successful or not, but all of the signs point to MSG management luring people in with empty promises.

The fanbase didn't:

• Lie to investors and brands over having "80 million viewers on Virtual Le Mans eSports."
• Promise unrealistic schedules for upcoming games.
• Lure in more series than they had the resources to handle at once.
• Treat their own devs badly forcing most of them to leave.
• Slowly run their finances into the ground.

All of these are MSG management errors. Yes, the fanbase might have put unrealistic expectations on the quality of the game, but MSG just kept throwing around the "NASCAR/IndyCar, but with RF2 physics" promise on everything. I'm not criticizing the devs so much as I am the upper-level heads of the business. Sometimes things don't work out exactly like you want, the launch of AMS2 can attest to that, but at least Reiza worked to fix major issues. Meanwhile, MSG looks to run itself into the ground.

I feel sorry for all of the devs caught up in this mess, it's not their fault the business collapsed around them. I went through something similar leaving a Grammy nominated artist right before she needlessly "bit the hand" of the label that gave her success. It's easy to get tied in with an organization that appears successful, to only realize the nightmare behind it down the line. Any piece of content, whether software, art, music, film, engineering, etc. is more than just a product of those who worked on it, but also the environment it was made in. You could put the best people together, but in a stressful, toxic working environment, the product will suffer.

 

And since they were at it, they added also WEC...

 

Bro, I agree, the Devs are as much victims of this as the fans of these racing series who have now pretty much given up hope of getting a good game for the next decade. If anything the devs have it worse, because MSG's money feeds their family, yet the ship is sinking fast. Ruins their reputation, ruins their careers, ruins their lives. I hope the sim racing community gets togeather to lift them out of the water when it happens.

 

Oh yeah for sure none of those things shouldn't be forgotten, I also wanted to mention the whole aspect of crunch and how that will often produce not only unhappy devs but bad games all around. However it has to be recognized the way many in the wider gaming community (not just racing) do push for stuff like crunch. Fan backlash due to delays still happen (even in this very community) and that is a decent part of the reason crunch happens. Of course gamers becoming more understanding towards devs (which is thankfully already happening) that won't solve crunch and crunch will still probably occur, but maybe at a lesser rate.

I just feel like some people are going too far with the MSG stuff, criticism is of course warranted for the bad stuff they've done and the bad products they've made but it feels like people actually want it to fail. Especially with people calling it a scam, it just all makes zero sense. MSG can't both be smart enough to trick 4 seperate racing IP into this elaborate scam and also being too dumb to actually make money off of it.

I do agree though with everything you said about the working conditions, I know I mentioned at the start of this post but it's very important because crunch needs to go. It just makes everything worse.

 

Does anyone think there is a possibility Reiza might get licenses for a 1995 Penske PC24, 1998 Penske PC27, and maybe a 2000 "Reynske" in Racin' USA part 4?

 

...hopefully, of course

 

I've make my korean friends to buy AMS2 more than 10 copies recently to prepare local leagues on next update.

and now, all time trial record have been cleared.
The Time is coming.