iRacing Studios Launches As A New Racing Game Brand
Having added console and more simple racing games alongside the core motorsport simulation, there’s some business restructing as iRacing Studios launches as a new racing game brand.
Now iRacing will sit within iRacing Studios, alongside NASCAR 25, the World of Outlaws: Dirt Racing series, ExoCross, iRacing Arcade and all future titles. Which is probably more about doing some housekeeping than anything else, given that alongside iRacing (the simulator), you have World of Outlaws and ExoCross developed by Monster Games and Orontes Games who have both been acquired by iRacing (the business), and iRacing Arcade coming from a partnership with Circuit Superstars developers Original Fire Games.
So if nothing else, this will make it easier to write about iRacing as the racing sim, and iRacing Studios as the business developing and publishing all sorts of racing titles.
Does it mean that the business will forget about racing sims and start churning out casual arcade games all the time? I can understand some of the worries, but it seems pretty unlikely. So far the attempts to branch out have been mixed, with NASCAR 25 looking interesting, World of Outlaws doing OK, and ExoCross falling short in terms of content and player numbers. And iRacing Arcade definitely sounds promising.
But it would be odd to give up on a player base paying around $13 a month (£9.69 before discounts, sales etc and additional cars/tracks), for the risk of a new title retailing at £41 each year which may or may not be successful. Especially when it’s the flagship product, and the name of the business division.
So as much as I can sympathise with some of the concerns around the future direction, especially given the recent issues with previous owners of the NASCAR license etc, this seems like more of a necessary move to separate iRacing the company and developers, from iRacing the specific racing sim. Which should make it a bit easier to write about with less confusion in the future.
