It certainly seems to be a big week for Porsche fans. Hot off their Le Mans win, the German purveyor of sports cars has announced a serious tie-up with Kunos Simulazioni to bring the marque’s best and brightest to Assetto Corsa this autumn. It now appears another sim title could be seeing Porsche’s inclusion soon, judging by comments from Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell.
Over on the official Project CARS forums, members were naturally discussing the big coup Kunos pulled off last week in a thread dedicated to upcoming DLC teases. Only a day after the big Assetto Corsa news, Ian Bell made an appearance in the thread. “I can’t say much but I can say it is not exclusive” Bell stated, before adding that “fans of the pCARS series should have some good news very soon.” Not even a full day later, his next statement leaves little up for interpretation: “We’ll be making a formal announcement very soon.”
Considering Project CARS’ DLC program has slowed down now – over a year out from the original game’s release – and Bell’s choice of words (“pCARS series“), it’s likely any announcement regarding the Stuttgart sports cars will be for the upcoming sequel.
This is the latest in a string of events that signal the decade-plus exclusivity deal between Porsche and EA could finally be coming to an end. There were rumours of just such a thing last year, but before Kunos’ announcement, not much seemed different in 2016. Forza Motorsport 6 received its own 21 car Porsche Expansion back in spring, but the lack of high-demand models like the Cayman GT4 or the latest 911 GT3 RS had some gamers wondering if EA was still calling the shots on some level. Both cars appeared in 2015’s Need For Speed release, after all.
We’re more than a little curious about what Bell and the rest of SMS have up their sleeves, and look forward to this upcoming announcement. With any luck, it might not even be the end of the Porsche news for the genre…
Thanks to mister dog and Johnnypenso for the tip!
they never released patch 11 for console…they dont care
The chances are the PCars announcement will be regarding Porsche but SMS have been in discussions with Ferrari too. It could be them. Either way it will be good news.
With games like PCars I prefer racing cars to road cars so I would rather see Porsche as it’s stable of race cars is, in my opinion, far more appealing and varied. Screw it… Give me both of them!
IMMHO, ‘cross-platform’ means Sony/Playstation/GranTurismo can get some. However, the hack ‘Porsche 993’ (?) from PS2 days my cost them a pretty premium.
Seems like the EA license is over (or almost). Would be strange not seeing Porsche is GTS.
Can’t imagine GTS being the only game without Porsche.
Abbreviated GT? Yeah, i can see it fail to appear. But it would be real sad for it not to offered in 7.
Yeaaah!!! Best news i’ve read here in months! 24h real-time endurance with my buddies on 919s and RSRs! Please make it happen!!!
Well someone at Porsche must really hate Gran Turismo and PD like I said before…
It doesn’t help that PD tried sneaking one into GT3.
LOL, that would have certainly cost them (PD) some cool points. But it sho was fun!
Meanwhile, in Gran Turismo, the granddaddy of them all where racers will actually be able to take part in FIA sanctioned simulated racing events… Porsche will remain a no-show. I have zero confidence that Porsche will ever come to GT. It’s hard to put into words how nonsensical it is, but it is reliably so.
The same also for Koenigsegg that appears in all racing game but not in GT.
Mmmmmm Ian Bell selling smoke?
Why his team is saying on their instagram a lot of times that the on demand content(DLC) for Pcars is finished??
EA still got the “exclusive” licence contract with Porsche till end 2016 or beginning 2017.
If EA don’t renew the contract, then every game can ask the licence from Porsche.
Kunos got the license thanks that they will make the simulators of the porsche center…
That maybe in Pcars 2 there will be porsche? Surely, when the license contract finished with EA…but it will not only be Pcars 2… GT and lot’s of other game will have them also..
So i realy think Ian was a bit jaulous of kunos
What are you talking about? All the Wookie said was, “it’s not exclusive” and “announcement soon”. You sound like you’ve got some kind of axe to grind rather than someone responding to what was actually said.
PCARS 2 is still far from a released game, their sound engineer said 2017 in one the “making of video” of the Bannachbrae soundtrack. So it would fit that end of EA-Porsche deal perfectly.
How can we be sure Kaz isn’t working this out behind the scenes?
Jonny,EA still have the exclusive Porsche contract till end 2016 or 2017 (Aris,a dev of assetto said it on twitter).
But assetto received an “exclusive” licence directly from Porsche because they are making the simulators for the Porsche center.
The Wookie last QA also said they where in conversation with Porsche, but they have too wait till the exclusive contract ends with EA..then indeed they can make an announcement. But not only SMS,surely that PD is also in contact with Porsche and waiting till the contract with EA ends.
So for the moment, kunos is the only that got the license in a multiplatform simulator game.. So.. For me thats certainly a exclusive for the moment.
The Wookie should better look at his own game, and fix bugs like those from the paid DLC like classic Silverstone and nurburgring combined box bugs.
i mentioned both of those bugs on their forums and they have yet to release a console patch….they dont care…the pc fix has been out 2 months
@Donnced we don’t know the details of the agreement between Kunos and Porsche nor does anyone know for sure the exact expiry date of the agreement with EA. It could be over now for all we know. Kunos claims to be the only multi-platform sim that has Porsche in the fall and I believe them, but, again, that does not preclude that GTSport for example will have Porsche, since GTSport is not a multi-platform game. It also has nothing to do with bug fixing since the guys modeling cars and negotiating contracts are not the guys doing the coding and working on the bugs.
@Johnnypenso kunos said they’re got a special agreement directly with Porsche, cause they will make the simulators for the Porsche race centers:
“The gamers, and our fans really want to have the chance to DRIVE the Porsche cars in a realistic manner. It’s a privilege, and a big responsibility for us. We are working closely with Porsche with the aim to reproduce each single model with the maximum accuracy, and the fact that the same simulation will be used at Porsche race centres will push our team even more to provide the best Porsche virtual experience ever.”
Later on, a Dev of kunos (Aris) in his twitter said that the license is still in hands of EA:
“EA still has the rights up to 2016 or 2017 can’t remember. But Porsche has a special agreement with us.”
GT Sport isn’t a multiplatform, yes,but when the contract of the license with Porsche ends I’m sure that Porsche will como to GT also.
And i now that the Wookie don’t do only bug fixes, but it’s a real shame that people ask about bug fixes for the console versions,that even 2 paid DLC tracks are bugged and the Wookie don’t says nothing, but with the Porsche announcement from kunos he jumped fast saying “it’s not exclusive” and some post later “announcement soon” like a little angry jealous child.
You dare put the devil’s name on front page?! I’d prefer you refer to him as the wookie.
It’s probably just me, but even here this dude acts sort of like a douche.
The way Kunos worded their original statement left it open to just about every other game on the market potentially having access to Porsche after the fall if you read between the lines. I have a feeling the Wookie is going to announce Porsche for PCars 2 and potentially even some PCars1 DLC next spring or summer. Thanks to @mister dog for spotting this in the PCars Forum and alerting me a few days ago!
All in all it’s good news for the sim racing community as a whole, the more games the better. And what about Gran Turismo? Will we see this in GTSport?
Yep, Summer 2019.
I hope so. Would love to see Porsche in GTSport :)
I’m not sure if i would buy Project Cars 2 so a Porsche DLC for PCars would be great.
“With any luck, it might not even be the end of the Porsche news for the genre…”
If that’s not a Porsche for GTS hint, I don’t know what is… :)
It’s really, really not. :)
Haha, you ruined it!
(still have hope)
You’re assuming he means it’s not a Porsche hint. Maybe he means it’s not even the end of Porsche news for the genre…lol.