Following its rebranding and move to a new publisher last month, Straight4 Studios has announced a 2025 release date and some further information on Project Motor Racing, as well the first screenshots from its new game engine.
Having partnered with GIANTS Software to publish the title, Straight4 has now confirmed that the new game engine underpinning the title will be that which GIANTS, as a developer, created for the Farming Simulator series starting way back in 2008.
Of course the engine has been continually developed since then and has the advantage that it is already used across PC and intended console platforms. That allows for the title to be developed on a single path for all three of its ecosystems — PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series — without the need for porting or redevelopment. This should apply to post-launch updates too.
Farming Simulator’s game engine ordinarily only deals with lower-speed vehicles, though there are some pickup trucks for getting around the town areas of the maps a little more quickly and some pretty powerful engines in the various machinery. Fans may be concerned then that the engine is — quite literally — a bit too agricultural to support a racing game.
GIANTS and Straight4 are confident though that there’s no issues, and the studios have been working on further refining the game engine to match the advanced physics that have been part of S4’s studio head Ian Bell’s promises since day one of the project.
Speaking of the collaboration ahead of Gamescom, Bell stated: “In the GIANTS Engine, we have … a game engine that allows us to build a beautiful simulator while ensuring framerates do not suffer as a result.”
Kevin Boland, the chief development officer at Straight4, added: “Competing in the specialized and technically challenging sim racing arena with Project Motor Racing is a testament to the versatility of the GIANTS Engine. We’re sure both Farming Simulator fans and sim racers will come out as winners from this partnership.”
To show off some of the development work, Straight4 also released some new images showing a static Lister Storm race car at Lime Rock Park running in the new game engine in a pre-alpha build of the title. There’s also a new official website, and new social media channels for the game.
Project Motor Racing is set to launch in 2025, coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series consoles.
See more articles on Project Motor Racing.
