Will 2017's Bumper Fall Sim Racing Harvest Bust the Console Slump?

[GTPNewsWire]

This is the discussion thread for a recent post on GTPlanet:

Will 2017's Bumper Fall Sim Racing Harvest Bust the Console Slump?
It might not seem like it, but console sim-racing is having a bit of a hard time of it right now. While the breadth of choice is undoubtedly the strongest it has ever been...

This article was published by Andrew Evans (@Famine) on November 23rd, 2017 in the Gaming category.

 

[RaceFuchs]

Maybe sales are not where they could be or once were, but i refuse to see 2017 as a bad year for racing games. In fact, in my view, its the greatest year this genre has seen so far. With GTS, Forza 7, PC2, F1 and Dirt 4 this year has been magnificent for sim racers. Sales could be better, but huge publishers still put a lot of trust in these games. GTS is Sonys big exclusive this holiday season and Forza 7 the flagship title for the One X. Bandai Namco did a lot of marketing for PC2, too.

We should also be aware of the fact that arcade racers aren't doing any better in a commercial view, in fact, they are doing much worse.

I really couldn't be any more happy with so many great racing games in such short time.

 

[FT-1]

Fascinating read! 👍

Every year we hear about how the gaming industry is growing and outperforming the film and music industry but even a sales slump for console sales doesn't hinder growth. I do hope we enjoy the same level of choice for racing games we had this year in future despite falling sales figures; 2018 has a decent forecast already for those into arcade racers (The Crew 2, Gravel, OnRush and most likely Forza Horizon 4.)

 

[PocketZeven]

Great article! GT sport is going to be a landmark game again. Esports and online gaming is on the rise. And GT sport is the first who has access to this huge potential user base. Hopefully with the big update coming in December, sales will spike. More users= more content online as well as offline. For me GT sport is the first game to have fun in an online race in a long while. Before (on console) it was either laggy or bumper cars galore.

Really would like to know more data about online racing PC games (iRacing, rFactor, assetto etc.) vs GT sport. Probably GTsport already hosts more races online daily then these combined!

 

[SleezyBigSlim]

Sales have never been good for racing sims. Only GT.

 

[HarlemG27]

Developers usually tend to follow the leader. With the success of gts and the forza serious; Ea is bound to try their hand at a Sim.

Fh4 is sure to be epic. Test drive unlimited is rumored to be in development. That's to say theirs definitely more money to be made.

I believe with the emergence of 4k and vr, steering wheels will become more popular. I'm enjoying myself

 

[Obelisk]

Fantastic article. I think the up and down of the past year is down to game trends. Infinite Warfare tanked because it was the wrong game at the wrong time.

Assassin's Creed...


Also...Is that title word salad or am I just completely confused?

 

[UKMikey]

Sales have never been good for racing sims. Only GT.

It depends what you mean by good. Forza Horizon 3 may not be a racing sim strictly speaking but it did pretty well against other games in last year's global chart and is still shifting a fairly decent amount of copies this year. I'm sure Microsoft aren't worried about it breaking even.

 

[GT6mebe]

It depends what you mean by good. Forza Horizon 3 may not be a racing sim strictly speaking but it did pretty well against other games in last year's global chart and is still shifting a fairly decent amount of copies this year. I'm sure Microsoft aren't worried about it breaking even.

FH3 isn't a sim

 

[breyzipp]

I think from the last few years the biggest racing game that was a good financial success was FH3. It’s been generally well received as well, there are hardly any bad reviews out for it and rightfully so. Apart from rubberbanding AI there is not much to complain about.

As far as the 3 big new games from fall 2017 go, still way too early to tell IMO especially since all 3 are even on Black Friday sales now. GT:Sport is also bundled with a console and PCARS 2 just got a demo out.

Another “decline” of the racing could just be that the offering is much bigger now. I mean we do have a lot of great franchises nowadays. On consoles alone:

Gran Turismo
Forza Motorsport
Project CARS
Assetto Corsa
The Crew
Forza Horizon
Need for Speed
Dirt
WRC
F1
NASCAR Heat
Then there is also the fluff like Micro Machines, Track Mania, etc.

I think back in the glory days there were not so many racing franchises out, or maybe there was fewer competition from other genres or platforms. I think the impact of mobile devices as gaming platforms should not be neglected either. Not only the CSRs, Asphalt and RR3s of today but for example there are over 70 million Hearthstone accounts I believe.

 

[UKMikey]

FH3 isn't a sim

1) I already said that in the first sentence of my post.

2) The article jumped between covering sims only and covering all racing games. Even GT's infographic covered NFS.

3) You can adjust parts and settings in FH3. It simulates weight transfer and understeer. At best it's a simcade title, at worst it's arcade with sim tendencies. It's a long way from Mario Kart or Rocket League for the purposes of this article's discussion.

 

[TVR27]

For Me this has been the best car racing game for 12 years now.

 

[GT6mebe]

3) You can adjust parts and settings in FH3. It simulates weight transfer and understeer. At best it's a simcade title, at worst it's arcade with sim tendencies. It's a long way from Mario Kart or Rocket League for the purposes of this article's discussion.

Well I guess NFS is a sim then. FH3 is an arcade racer and has no intention of being a sim.

 

[UKMikey]

Well I guess NFS is a sim then

Why?

FH3 is an arcade racer and has no intention of being a sim.

Words.

https://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012...on-is-a-blend-of-arcade-racing-and-simulation

 

[SavageEvil]

Good write up but I'm pretty sure that FH3 really did some work in sales it beat both mainline Forza 5/6 in sales in a shorter time frame as to boot. Sure 2016 wasn't all that great but it allowed FH3 to spread it's legs although I think something happened and now Playground Games is building some open world action game, what is happening?!?

 

[RZ05]

From a different perspective one possible cause could also be the rpg racer design that most racers apply these days. My gaming time is very limited and having to spend hours and hours completing tasks and driving cars(in conditions) I have no interest in is a deal killer for me. I just simply want to race or put in laps so that generally leaves my option solely to games like F1 or MotoGP.

Don't undersand why devs won't provide this simple option. If PC2, GT Sport or Forza had a straight forward offline mode where I could just select the car I want and the tracks I want (single race or championship) I'd be all over them, but all 3 titles go out of their way not to allow players to do that. I've tried all 3 titles and while the driving was enjoyable it wasn't enough to make me want spend a lot of time with them because of all other stuff I'd have to go through to drive. So that means another year of F1 2015 for me. That game got slammed for being barebones but I loved it especially for that reason. It's focus was 100% purely on driving. Start the game pick a car and put in the laps. That's just me I guess

 

[cjr3559]

No new releases in 2018 so what am I going to do? Play all the games released in 2017.

 

[Scaff]

No new releases in 2018 so what am I going to do? Play all the games released in 2017.

Personally I would disagree that no new releases will be coming in 2018.

Now Forza, GT and PC will not have any releases in 2018, but Gravel is already due early in 2018 and we will have F1 2018 and WRC8 without any doubt.

 

[NoizeboyMugen]

Don't forget that super street is also developing their own racing game too. They're saying it's set to release in 2018, no idea what quarter though, which would give nfs some competition if it's decent.

 

[UKMikey]

From a different perspective one possible cause could also be the rpg racer design that most racers apply these days. My gaming time is very limited and having to spend hours and hours completing tasks and driving cars(in conditions) I have no interest in is a deal killer for me. I just simply want to race or put in laps so that generally leaves my option solely to games like F1 or MotoGP.

Don't undersand why devs won't provide this simple option. If PC2, GT Sport or Forza had a straight forward offline mode where I could just select the car I want and the tracks I want (single race or championship) I'd be all over them, but all 3 titles go out of their way not to allow players to do that. I've tried all 3 titles and while the driving was enjoyable it wasn't enough to make me want spend a lot of time with them because of all other stuff I'd have to go through to drive. So that means another year of F1 2015 for me. That game got slammed for being barebones but I loved it especially for that reason. It's focus was 100% purely on driving. Start the game pick a car and put in the laps. That's just me I guess

Somebody needs to introduce you to "free play" mode. In fact I'm pretty sure PC2 is one big free play mode with added championships so at least two of the three games allow you to do just what you're saying you can't do. The third has an offline single player mode coming next month as I understand it.

 

[NLxAROSA]

If PC2, GT Sport or Forza had a straight forward offline mode where I could just select the car I want and the tracks I want (single race or championship) I'd be all over them, but all 3 titles go out of their way not to allow players to do that.

Not sure what you're on about here? FM7 has a free play mode where you can simply pick a car, track, conditions and drive against the AI. So does PC2 (which also has private testing, offline time trials and community events). PC2 has all cars and tracks unlocked and if I'm not mistaken you can just pick a loaner if you don't own the car in FM7 (all tracks are available there too). Both these game allow you quite easily to just dive in and drive. Haven't played the full GTS yet, but in the demo you could also just pick a car and track in the arcade mode.

 

[RZ05]

@NLxAROSA and @UKMikey bot are not actually correct and miss my point

Forza 7 Free play: doesn't save your settings so you have to go back to the main menu after each race and setup again if you change tracks. Or accept the next track/settings the game picks for you.

PC2 can do single race but again you can't run through a series of races without having to go back to the main menu and do the setup again after the race. so no offline championship and I have no desire what so ever to go through the career

GT Sport - Even with the announced patch you are still required to be online or esle your progess isn't saved. This is an issue because like forza the majority of the content is locked. Not interested in the Esport or online racing or taking a bunch of repetitive license tests/challenges that are pretty much the same from the first GT so that doesn't leave me with much of a racer to enjoy.

This is just a simple matter of personal preference. Of the 3 PC2 is the most tolerable to me because at least the majority of the content doesn't have to be unlocked. If you are a fan of online or rpg progression great, but I'm not so I pass on these because the pros don't out weigh the cons for me (note again I stated for me).

It's frustrating because the only gaming I do is racing and these racing titles have gone in a direction I don't care for with their design. and the option I'm looking for is something that is so simple and wouldn't take any effort or time to have included or added to the game. This is direction racers have gone so my only choice is to stick with older games or limit myself to the F1 titles that provide the gaming option I prefer

 

[NLxAROSA]

@NLxAROSA and @UKMikey bot are not actually correct and miss my point

Your original post spoke only about single race or championship, not about having both. That's what @UKMikey and me responded to. Nothing about saving settings. Nothing about being always online or otherwise. Fact is that neither PC2 or FM7 go out of their way to prevent you from just hopping in a car and drive. So you didn't like being proven wrong, then make up some additional demands and then saying the people trying to help you miss the point? That's a pretty douchy thing to do. 👎

Oh, and you're wrong about FM7 again: free play retains all your settings (e.g. car, AI, etc.), it only rotates the track. It's like a mini-championship mode, so you can do race after race with the same car and not have the same track all the time. And you can change track right there, no need to back out to the main menu. But I'm sure you'll find some other reason to hate it.

 

[GT6mebe]

1) I already said that in the first sentence of my post.

2) The article jumped between covering sims only and covering all racing games. Even GT's infographic covered NFS.

3) You can adjust parts and settings in FH3. It simulates weight transfer and understeer. At best it's a simcade title, at worst it's arcade with sim tendencies. It's a long way from Mario Kart or Rocket League for the purposes of this article's discussion.

Also doubt this data displayed. Where are they finding these sales data that has never been public?

 

[UKMikey]

Also doubt this data displayed. Where are they finding these sales data that has never been public?

I would guess someone on Wikipedia speaks Japanese.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Turismo_(series)#Releases

 

[Lizard72]

Well i think if steering wheels could move with each console a bit more people will buy racing titles.
First was my G25 - PS3 , now G29 - PS4 , PS5 - ?
Cannot afford to buy new one with each console, to play a racing title with controller just isn't the same.
Make them more affordable or interchangeable, because i think otherwise i will skip racing titles on next generation PS5 .
Don't get me wrong I'm a real car racing lover, but can not keep up any more.
I'm so glad for all of the different racing games that are out at this moment , and I'm using my G29 to the max.
Thanks to all racing games development people that still makes it possible for us to dream and play, they could rather invest
in non racing titles where the money is but they dont. Thanks again .

 

[JStreet]

I think the whole steering wheel situation has held back a lot of people like myself. I have a G27 which i used alot with GT5 and GT6. But the point of entry for having the same experience on the PS4 just doesn’t seem worth while for the cost.