Automobilista 2 V1.0.4.0 Update Released, now updated to v1.0.4.1

Before we had RUF
I really liked the RGT8-GT3 RUF from pCARS1.
The only reason for me to start this game from time to time

 

Unfortunately, there is no equivalent to RUF for Ferrari, Lambo, etc. That was a one-off work-around for exclusive Porsche licensing (of course, under the circumstances, RUF realized they should license to everyone possible).

 

Perhaps not a modern equivalent, but TOCA Race Driver 3 branded Ferraris and Lambos as "Koenig Specials" which in many ways is similar to RUF

 

Don't think so. RUF is "legal" as far as Porsche is concerned--they have some sort of official partnership. Koenig was not, so wouldn't help Reiza in a situation like this.

 

It’s worse if you like football games, where there’s only two mainstream ones but they spend more on licensing to make sure the other game doesn’t have it; terrible for the consumer and means the money you’re paying doesn’t go into improving the product at all.

With car brands, there are several factors; exposure, ability to make short term profits, ability to control the message and more. Again, this is my gut feeling, but it seems to me:

- BMW and the German brands are very much of the idea that exposure in video games grows their brand; the more games you’re in, the more young, impressionable minds see, like and develop a positive impression of your cars and history

- Some are very wary of need to control the message; for example, Audis in several games cannot have fictional liveries; Toyota spent a long time not being in games for various reasons like ‘not wanting to promote illegal street racing’ for a NFS game and there are rumours that Ferrari have stipulated their cars must be quicker than rivals’ in certain games

- and then there’s price; Ferrari make more money from their brand than from car sales, so having high prices for their trademark, that people are willing to pay, is entirely justified. My personal opinion is that this is a short term gain at the risk of long term brand exposure, but at the end of the day it’s a more tangible addition to the bottom line

When you say Porsche “woke up”, Porsche made a deal with EA to hand over control of their brand in video games for a set number of years, back in the mid 00s. It was a shortsighted move that didn’t factor in a) the explosion in popularity of gaming and b) the decline of EA in automotive gaming. This is why they were in Need for Speed games and little else (they were in one Forza, when Microsoft paid EA to sublicence cars, but MS concluded it wasn’t worth it). So rather than ‘wake up’, they regained control of their brand in house and have seemingly been making up for lost time by being very approachable. Hopefully this continues to be the case.

The RUF was a workaround to the Porsche licence unavailability - Porsche probably could have shut that down if they wanted to, but we’re probably happy to look the other way knowing it was good to have a representation when they couldn’t officially licence their own name.

In terms of workarounds, you can do it by making changes to the model and using another name or look for an alternative brand - Raceroom have the Glickenhaus P4/5, which was a Ferrari 430 GT2 underneath a shell modelled on a Ferrari P4 as a workaround, but there’s nothing as obvious as that now. Koenig (the tuner) would make sense, as they are rebadged cars, but if Ferrari or Lambo wanted to claim copyright infringement they’d probably be able to make a convincing case.


Sorry, I’m just rambling now - come on Reiza, give us a September blog post distraction please

 

Yeah that exclusivity agreement Porsche had for so many years was a killer!

 

where is the september development update?

 

I think Reiza is not bothering with one--there were many bugs to fix with the actual September software update and there is nothing new to report other than what was in that update....that we now already have. The published schedule of what is coming (October is going to be a very popular update!!!) has not changed.

 

Hello,
When I select championship mode, the menus are empty.
I don't see any choice of routes or vehicles
I uninstalled and reinstalled the game deleted the ams2 folder in my documents and steam but still nothing.
This problem appears in VR and on screen
my configuration i5 8600k. 1080ti founder. 32 go
all my drivers are up to date
Thanks for your help

 

Unfortunately championship mode isn't fully implemented yet . As far as I'm aware you can't change the track selection and have three different cars to choose from . Other than that you can alter the race duration and that's about it .

 

Aza340, that shouldn't cause the bug that Lgars is experiencing, though. Championship is working fine for me, within the current limits of course.

 

anyone want to tickle me nuts with some whispers =)

 

here it is

 

Can we please have the next developer blog ASAP?
Or is there still nothing to say production wise?

 

At this point I guess we're waiting on the October one and time to write off the September one.

 

October is nearly finished and I'm still holding my breath for Nordschleife and GT3’s...I think I’m going to pass out!

 

I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed the date again. It is a small studio that is trying to do many things at once. And they have a lot of work ahead of them ...

I hope that does not happen and that we can have the GT4 / GT3 and Nurburgring in a few days, but we will have to wait to see what happens

 

Exactly. The Nordshleife is huge and if must be a daunting task for a small team to put together fast.

 

assume Nordschleife is in development since months, not since 3 weeks.

 

You would be correct.