Motorsport Games' BTCC Title Might Be Delayed, President Stephen Hood Leaves

New BTCC Game Might Not Release in 2022.jpg
Following in the footsteps of the classic TOCA games, the BTCC was supposed to make a comeback to the sim racing stage with its own game in 2022: Announced in the summer of 2020, many touring car fans are looking forward to the title - however, it looks like its release might get pushed back.

As Traxion, a part of developer Motorsport Games, has learned, the new BTCC game's schedule is now listed as "to be determined" instead of a 2022 release. This became apparent in a call of Motorsport Games, outlining the plans for future titles - games like the brand-new IndyCar and WEC games announced earlier (and scheduled for release in 2023) are still listed, while the BTCC game has been demoted to merely a footnote.

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After the release of NASCAR 21: Ignition that was plagued by bugs, this may hint at a "get-it-right" approach regarding the BTCC game - another game release like the NASCAR one would not have looked great for Motorsport Games, which is likely what the developer is trying to avoid. Even if the BTCC game has been pushed back indefinitely, the developer still holds the license until 2027 - more than enough time to create a worthy successor in spirit to the old TOCA games.

President Hood Leaves Motorsport Games​

However, this is not all. According to Traxion, Motorsport Games President Stephen Hood is no longer with the company. A change in the bio of his Twitter profile seems to confirm this. However, no word is out on the reasons of Hood's departure.

Update: Stephen Hood left the company already on January 21, 2022 after his position was eliminated. CEO Dmitry Kozko will assume all responsibilities of overseeing Motorsport Games Development Studio, the PDF on their corporate website states.​

The last time the BTCC had an exclusive, standalone game was in 1998 when TOCA 2 Touring Cars (or Touring Car Challenge in the US) was released. It then evolved into the Race Driver series, which featured many more different classes, and eventually laid the cornerstone for the current GRID series.

What do you think about the game possibly being delayed? How much are you looking forward to a dedicated BTCC game for the first time in more than 20 years? Let us know in the comments!
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Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

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Comments

The job openings they have in the team at Silverstone (supposedly working on the BTCC game) remain open for months now:


If you haven't managed to hire a Senior Game Designer, how exactly is the game going to be made?

So it seems no BTCC game will come out, but hey at least you can now buy screenshots of rF2 as NFTs:

 
I don't think a poor game would be a good look for the BTCC so this is probably for the best. I'm also not sure a BTCC only title would hold interest in this day and age. They are only using 9 tracks for the series. Back in the PSone days having 9 tracks and a full field of cars was exciting and progressive stuff but I'm not sure it would go down as well now.
 
A delay is worst case scenario situation. I'd say BTCC saw the disaster that was NASCAR Ignition and pulled the license. It seems Motorsports Games don't actually know what they are doing. They don't listen to fans, they don't listen to their content creators and in general it showed with how bad Ignition was.
 
I find it interesting that you guys reported on what MSG-owned Traxxion wrote, but somehow failed (refused?) to bring to public attention your own community member's findings about how MSG's financial report implies they won't survive until next year or how they blatantly lie to potential investors about Virtual Le Mans viewership figures.

Not even mentioning the NFT scheme.
 
I find it interesting that you guys reported on what MSG-owned Traxxion wrote, but somehow failed (refused?) to bring to public attention your own community member's findings about how MSG's financial report implies they won't survive until next year or how they blatantly lie to potential investors about Virtual Le Mans viewership figures.

Not even mentioning the NFT scheme.
Welcome to access journalism.
 
Premium
I don't know when MSG did the deal with the BTCC for the new "game" but if they now aren't in a position to give even an estimated year of release then having the licence until 2027 isn't really going to help much as they won't hold it long enough to recoup their costs of licence and development.

When you do a deal like this you'll be working out your costs and what you can charge customers and the period of time required to start making a profit.
If - a big if - MSG were initially planning on releasing BTCC in 2022 they would have been planning on having at least five years to recoup their costs - longer if BTCC wanted extend the licence period.

If it's not likely to be released until 2024 or 2025, and then produce another NASCAR 21, are they going to see any profits from a BTCC "game"?

At the moment, is the BTCC licence is an asset that MSG could sell to another developer?
If MSG do have cashflow issues then selling this on to would perhaps make sense?
 
Premium
I know we'll never find out but I'm always curious how much these licenses cost.

The BTCC probably think "gaming is big thing these days, they can afford to pay X amount" and the developers are sitting there wondering how the hell they target the game to get a decent return on investment.

BTCC maybe big in UK Motorsport along with some global interest from "Motorsport" fans but I'm not sure how far something being the "Official BTCC Game" carries it.

I'd assume you've either got to target the game as a genuine Sim built to what the "community" wants which will be a relatively small target audience or you broaden the appeal and make it a "good game" and it sells on that basis.

If you take the first option you probably don't want to be spending a ton of money on the licenses.

Motorsport games I fear will make a complete arse of it on both counts.
 
I find it interesting that you guys reported on what MSG-owned Traxxion wrote, but somehow failed (refused?) to bring to public attention your own community member's findings about how MSG's financial report implies they won't survive until next year or how they blatantly lie to potential investors about Virtual Le Mans viewership figures.

Not even mentioning the NFT scheme.
you have a link for that first thing? I'm curious
 
OverTake
Premium
I find it interesting that you guys reported on what MSG-owned Traxxion wrote, but somehow failed (refused?) to bring to public attention your own community member's findings about how MSG's financial report implies they won't survive until next year or how they blatantly lie to potential investors about Virtual Le Mans viewership figures.

Not even mentioning the NFT scheme.
I find it interesting that people expect us to bring rumors as news without having any confirmation from the company itself. Is that the kind of journalism you like to see?

Now Traxion/MSGM confirmed it themselves and I have reached out to BTCC and Stephen Hood today for a comment so we can do a follow-up newsarticle if needed.

How are we ignoring community member's contributions when the post is right there?
 

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