Featured Automobilista 2 June 2026 Development Update - Pt 1

This is the absolute best way to handle this unfortunate news. Well played Reiza. I'm going ot buy another copy of the game in solidarity

 

+1 for fully happy to pay for dlc

+1 for a mclaren loss not being a deal breaker for me. Its good that they have been courteous but this price is too high.

 

back in the days of pCARS1/2 there was a message on the forum that said one F1 manufacturer is allowed in a game, but to get more, you'll have to get an official license from FIA to have more or all.
I think this is the problem. Now that they wanted to update/enhance the McLaren contract, someone acknowledged that there are much more than one and stomped on the brake.
I think in pCARS that one was Lotus

 

So the DLC`S that would be affected are , Brazilian Racing Legends Pack ? and the Formula HiTech ? for new owners only ?

 

Hi Renato,

Without any doubt or fear of being wrong, I think there are many of us who could easily make monthly contributions like memberships or buying a coffee, as many content creators do.

I'm not suggesting or saying that this should be a rule that affects anyone who absolutely can't. I mean that if there’s a contribution system, many of us would be willing to contribute, and that would add up.

For example, I contribute to Overtake, and I wouldn’t have any problem contributing to AMS2 every now and then!!

Regards from Mexico!

 

Very unfortunate news as it must be gut wrenching thinking on all the time,money,passion and commitment it must have taken to make not only the licensing deals but all the cars, physics,etc done. But getting rid of the roadblock even if its a beautiful one is definitely the best option. It hurts me and I feel frustrated and I am just a simple customer, cannot imagine how the whole Reiza team must feel.

Still its not the end of the world, generic F1 cars are easily recognizable and the magic of all the great painters will do them justice.

 

The amount of effort that goes into preventing gamers from having a free advert for their products genuinely astounds me.

"hey, you're showing a football game to people? Here, have millions of pounds to show our car/sport for 30s whilst they're getting snacks" vs "hey, you have a video game where people have a genuine interest in the subject and will engage with our brand for hours at a time? No, you can't show them our logos or products"

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I'm not going to buy the F1 licensed game - the current iteration of it doesn't interest me at all - but for the first time in about 20 years the recent dev diary made me think "oh yeah, I remember F1, I'm going to read about those seasons", it made me have a fond thought towards F1.

Well that didn't last long.

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Same with car manufacturers thinking they're too high and mighty or not compensated enough for their image. There are cars that are icons because of their history in games - who benefitted from the Castrol Supra being so effing cool in GT or my love of the Skodas in early 2000s rally games...? Was it the companies whose games I had already bought? No, it was the car companies I later bought products from.

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Anyway, bring on more sportscar cars and tracks - modern, 2005, 1990s, 1970s... will happily pay the asking price for those.

 

I'm going to sum up all my thoughts into one censored word...

F**k

If I understand things right...

Honestly, I'm going to take back what I said because I'm not totally sure myself. It almost sounds like the there will be 2 versions of the game, one pre and post mclaren (With generic models replacing the Mclarens only on the post mclaren version of the game)

"Let me highlight again that existing users would not be affected by this - content already owned will remain available exactly as it is today. Any eventual change to the content would apply only to future game and DLC purchases."

Not totally sure how that's possible but we live in hope, will wait for confirmation and correction

 

That suck, but do these statement not contradict each other?

 

I agree. If there was any sense in the industry, game devs would use generic models and the manufacturers would PAY them to upgrade it to an exact replica. It's more value to the manufacturer than it is to the game (dev) IMO.

 

If it is a choice between the F1 mclaren and the other official F1 brands I would go for the other official F1 brands and change the mclaren model to generic so you can still bring out a DLC pack. But If it is a F1 (FIA) licencing thing then I don't know what is best.

 

Hey Reiza team, here's another idea: why not go the way of Wreckfest and GTA5 with their look alikes? As you know far too well with the Milano, these look alikes do not infringe upon trademark nor do they cost a ton of money due to licensing contracts, while giving us a taste of the real deal. Money that your client base would much prefer to see you spending in developing non licensed vehicles than to give to these corporations.

Non licensed vehicles also have the advantage of being damaged realistically in crashes, unlike the joke that are licenses that at most allow you to add a few scratches, regardless of how hard they crash. Nothing is more immersion breaking than crashing your car during a race and end up with a few scratches, as mandated by the manufacturer. Why do you think I enjoy Wreckfest so much?

 

It's a shame. I dreamed with more and more licensed F1 cars, but apparently it's very difficult... impossible. Would it be more viable to have an F1 grid with more models, but all generic? With community liveries, the result would be something very faithful and attractive. I would be very happy to see more generic F1 models from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Well, if it's possible, I would be very satisfied.

But the fact remains that AMS2 continues to be the best racing simulator; this is just an unforeseen that will be overcome easily. Renato has been doing an incredible job with Reiza; he has all my respect.

 

I will buy Automobilista 1 on Steam to show my support.
Thank you to the whole team developing new content we will never get to see.

 

So from what i understand no more licensed McLaren : Bye MP4/23 and /20 but we Will get generic model of those cars ? If yes its ok

 

Thank you so much for being transparent about this, what a bummer. But if it only affects McLaren, wouldn't be the easier choice to cut out McLaren instead of all other manufacturers? Of course without any knowledge how this could hurt other future McLaren agreements (hello LMDh)

It's good to hear it won't affect players who already own the licensed F1 cars. But it really sounds like tons of stuff to think about when generic versions will be added next ot them like handling liveries, custom AI, etc

 

What a weird obstacle, I could understand it if it would apply to all manufactures on F1 cars (because FIA for example), but being specific to McLaren is just strange.

In any case, we have already a lot of generic model only formula classes in the game and personally I have been fine with those.

 

Respect to Renato for being so open about it. It's a real shame.

Personally, I don't understand the intention behind clauses like these. To make money? That can't really be it. For Reiza, as a very small company, it would certainly be a burden, but for the manufacturers it's peanuts. To keep the brand exclusive? Well, in real life they all race together at the same time on the same track. And it works just fine in the official F1 games as well. So is it a Formula One Group issue? No competition for the official F1 game? But then Renault should have had the same problem, and that is obviously not the case.

I think this is a classic case of overregulation by lawyers. I've seen this myself in large companies (with more than 100,000 employees), where decisions like this can come down to one or two people simply being stubborn. Even senior management was sometimes surprised and would have preferred a different approach, but the usual response was: "They probably have a reason that we just don't see."

@Renato: Don't let this get you or your great company down. You have an excellent product and loyal supporters.

As for the financial side of things: +1 for some form of paid subscription in the future

 

I admire the transparency and I'm pretty sure you'll find the way to come up with the best available solution. It also surfaces how complex and difficult the game development is to make all stars to align.

If it is down to McLaren to be dropped then so be it, I like them to be featured, but I prefer bigger variety of other brands.
I misunderstood the issue, it kind of makes sense from FOM standpoint but it's clearly annoying. It indeed shows how tricky is to get the licensing to work and that there's no such thing as "brand license" or that some have invisible strings attached (remember Nord's situation from not so long ago with licence required renewal?)

 

The solution is clear .
Every set back is a opportunity