Managing Director Marcel Offermans Leaves Studio 397


The rumblings under the Motorsport Games umbrella do not seem to stop: While news on the rFactor 2 side have been positive recently with the announcement of exciting content due this month, the end of May is going to be the end of Studio 397’s Managing Director Marcel Offermans at the company.

Offermans is not the first higher-up to decide that it is time to move on: In early April, it became known that Motorsport Games' President Stephen Hood had left the company, just as the planned BTCC game faced a delay that by now looks like a complete cancellation of the project.

What Offermans’ departure means for the future of rFactor 2 remains to be seen. He shared a YouTube video (see above) titled “So long, and thanks for all the fish!”, a reference to a famous book by Douglas Adams with the same name. The video shows his beloved GTE Corvette exiting the final turn of Circuit Zandvoort at night, followed by a statement regarding his departure.

“By the end of May, it is time to move on”, states Offermans while simultaneously expressing his gratitude for his time with Studio 397: “Over time, we grew the user base by an order of magnitude, improved just about every aspect of the simulation and did some really cool projects and collaboration.” Offermans has been with Studio 397 since 2016.

Update: according to this SEC filing the heads of Luminis, the previous owners of Studio 397, received a million dollars to complete the acquisition of the company but with 2.2 million being differered for undisclosed reasons.​

Interestingly, his successor is apparently already in place to take over in June: “I am leaving rFactor 2 in very capable hands”, reads the penultimate line of Offermans’ statement – although it is not yet known who is going to take over the reigns or what the future holds regarding the simulation. The next content drop including two BTCC cars plus Donington Park, Brands Hatch and Laguna Seca is expected sometime in May.

What are your thoughts regarding this news? Let us know on Twitter @RaceDepartment or in the comments below!
  • Like
  • Sad
  • Angry
Reactions: coolwhip21, Cure76, Dzul and 6 others
About author
Yannik Haustein
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!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

More in Misc

Comments

trichens
Premium
I'd like to say that in now 12 pages of coments, a thread about Marcel Offermans leaving S397/MSG consists mainly of complaints about the cost of DLC, the underlying code base, how AI is (or isn't) working, and loads of other c**p that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.

People may not like rF2 and that's their choice but I'm guessing that anyone leaving a firm would be pretty diappointed to get a card from co-workers and customers whinging about the products their company created.

I wish all the best for Marcel - and I'd imagine that he's probably happy to be rid of this carping on and on and on - I know I would.
 
Last edited:
Metla
Premium
R.Man said:
Yes mod is part of the game but it's time to ask if it add strategical values to the game.
Click to expand...

The entire foundation of rFactor 1 was modding and it was a huge success, Im pretty sure the intent was to transfer that player base and community to rFactor 2. They failed, the player base stayed with rFactor 1, I'm lead to believe that the original rfactor continued to outsell rF2 for a significant period of time.

Then came the change in direction, an attempt to build up the official content so it could stand along side other fully fledged titles on the market, But due to the low player base, poor user experience and cost of content that also seems to have failed.
 
Last edited:
Kenny Paton
Moderator
Premium
trichens said:
I'd like to say that in now 12 pages of coments, a thread about Marcel Offermans leaving S397/MSG consists mainly of complaints about the cost of DLC, the underlying code base, how AI is (or isn't) working, and loads of other c**p that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree both as a RD member and moderator.
One of the saddest threads I can remember in 13 years of membership.
No wonder people talk about how toxic sim racers can be when they come across stuff like we've seen on here since the announcement.
I hope those members who constantly dragged it off topic, insulted those who disagreed with them are happy with how a story about a well known figure leaving turned into a flame war.
BTW, before anyone points it out, I'm conscious that as a moderator I've not exactly covered myself in glory either.
 
wolftree
Richard Wilks said:
I am not invested in any "fanboy war", but it's funny that the AMS2 fanboys are out in force proclaiming RF2 as a failure, and yet, more people play RF2 than they play AMS2...

Comparison - Steam Charts

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.
steamcharts.com steamcharts.com
Click to expand...
Oh no, Steam Charts, what an original and relevant argument. :rolleyes:

You don't need to be an "AMS2 fanboy" to realise that rF2 is an outdated product stuck in the past, maintained by a caretaker dev team that is not good enough to ever fix the underlying problems and that has been superseded by every other racing simulator in the market.
 
Richard Wilks
wolftree said:
Oh no, Steam Charts, what an original and relevant argument. :rolleyes:

You don't need to be an "AMS2 fanboy" to realise that rF2 is an outdated product stuck in the past, maintained by a caretaker dev team that is not good enough to ever fix the underlying problems and that has been superseded by every other racing simulator in the market.
Click to expand...
That all might well be true, but still, that only reinforces what i said, and the fact that AMS2 and it's fanboys are in no position to call any other game a "failure", given that a game with so many bad points still has more people playing.

For the record, i don't consider either of the two products a failure. I said many times my opinion about rf2, and even about AMS2.

But that is all off topic. I do wonder if Marcel will stick to the simracing genre, or move to something else.
 
FeltHat
Kenny Paton said:
Yes I agree both as a RD member and moderator.
One of the saddest threads I can remember in 13 years of membership.
No wonder people talk about how toxic sim racers can be when they come across stuff like we've seen on here since the announcement.
I hope those members who constantly dragged it off topic, insulted those who disagreed with them are happy with how a story about a well known figure leaving turned into a flame war.
BTW, before anyone points it out, I'm conscious that as a moderator I've not exactly covered myself in glory either.
Click to expand...
RD at its finest :whistling: ;)
 
Metla
Premium
Thought it was pretty mild, Sure Ive seen (participated) in much worse .

That said, plenty of entertainment and engagement. Must be good for the clicks.
 
Last edited:
H
trichens said:
I'd like to say that in now 12 pages of coments, a thread about Marcel Offermans leaving S397/MSG consists mainly of complaints about the cost of DLC, the underlying code base, how AI is (or isn't) working, and loads of other c**p that has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
Click to expand...
This guy was the CEO though, and is leaving, and i think the state of the simulator/game is not entirely off-topic nor is the MSG stuff. If you read between the lines there is a lot of respect for this guy and what has been achieved with limited means.

Any rf2 topic will have a lot of this type of discussion, im more annoyed if its some topic about DLC that has actually been released (as opposed to "announcements") and you just want to know: what do people who actually bought it think.

Succes to Marcel and thanks! hopefully see you in the rear view mirror (when i have a blue flag).
 
P
Ghoults said:
I couldn't disagree more. Rf2 codebase and the dev team that understands it is a package that is worth a lot, especially if the licenses carry over. Which they probably won't. There are no physics engines on the market. Maybe the rf1 engine can still be licensed and maybe sms will license the pcars2 engine (like ams2 did) but that's it really. Rf2 engine is worth some just because it is good physics engine that is relatively modernized. 64bit, dx11, supports vr... etc...

It needs a lot of development but that is just what any new title needs. A lot of current rf2 issues stem from the fact that s397 had to balance on a very narrow rope with very complex spaghetti code of rf2 that had boatloads of existing content made for it and a somewhat active userbase. They obviously didn't want to change anything that could kill some of the old mods for example. It was shooting to moving target all along.

Someone who buys the rf2 codebase and makes a new game around it can take a hard look at the code and change anything and everything. Without having to worry about backwards compatibility or trying to test and release updates into an already existing product. New sound engine? Pick anything you want, the content will be made later to fit. Physics improvements? Change anything you want, the cars will be made later. Graphics, ui, packaging systems. Just pick anything you want. The content will be made to that standard later. No old content to convert and no backwards compatibility to worry about. The content is made to fit the engine, not the other way around.

The rf2 name isn't really worth much. I'd rather buy the gudest sim 2025 from s397 than rf3 from z developer. In fact calling it rf -anything might be bad because rf2 doesn't have a good reputation. Rf2 is known for being complex to get to work with good physics when it happens to work.

Meanwhile s397 are known as competent sim developers. They did not do too bad considering the bucketloads of issues and bad decisions they inherited from isi and the issues that come with changing as much of that on an actively played game.

I really hope someone buys the rf2 codebase. Makes the gudest sim 2025.
Click to expand...
It was a mistake. S397 should have pushed forward and tell modders to move forward or be left behind. Modders are passionate workers and will put their heads down to get sh!t done if it means their work will perform better, and should not be understimated.
 
wolftree
Richard Wilks said:
That all might well be true, but still, that only reinforces what i said, and the fact that AMS2 and it's fanboys are in no position to call any other game a "failure", given that a game with so many bad points still has more people playing.

For the record, i don't consider either of the two products a failure. I said many times my opinion about rf2, and even about AMS2.
Click to expand...
"AMS2 fanboys" are entitled to their opinions about rF2 since, gasp, most sim racers own and play more than one sim in sufficient amounts to make informed judgements about their respective qualities. "Your sim has less players, therefore your opinion is invalid" is just an ad hominem fallacy.

The orthodoxy that "rFactor 2 physics are really good" (yet few people actually play it or think that the constant sliding around is at all realistic) lingers on from a time almost 10 years ago when rF2 arguably did something unique and innovative, but in 2022 more or less every competitor has a tyre model of similar or higher quality and most of the other aspects of the sim have been left to rot for years.

If you consider that "success", I guess you're entitled to your opinion just like the "AMS2 fanboys" are.
 
Mekonrider
The main sims (apart from the own nothing and be happy Iracing) are all fairly cheap compared to nearly everything in real life. It's £3.90 for a medium caramel oat latte in Costa now. I'd think most people who are doing this as a hobby can afford the buy-in price, probably for all of them.

I don't think that many people are fanboys as such, it's just time is limited and we all spend it on what is our flavour of the month. I'm back into Raceroom at the moment with the DTM pack and 60s stuff in AC. I don't dislike Rfactor, I just kind of put it to the back of pecking order. When I do use it, it always impresses with FFB.
 
Richard Wilks
wolftree said:
"AMS2 fanboys" are entitled to their opinions about rF2 since, gasp, most sim racers own and play more than one sim in sufficient amounts to make informed judgements about their respective qualities. "Your sim has less players, therefore your opinion is invalid" is just an ad hominem fallacy.

The orthodoxy that "rFactor 2 physics are really good" (yet few people actually play it or think that the constant sliding around is at all realistic) lingers on from a time almost 10 years ago when rF2 arguably did something unique and innovative, but in 2022 more or less every competitor has a tyre model of similar or higher quality and most of the other aspects of the sim have been left to rot for years.

If you consider that "success", I guess you're entitled to your opinion just like the "AMS2 fanboys" are.
Click to expand...
Well you do seem very bothered with my opinion, don't you... :rolleyes: I just questioned the fact that even in a thread like this, they feel the need to state the obvious yet again, instead of looking at their own house.

And now we went from judging the game as a product, to physics talks. Now why is that...

Not that AMS2 is above criticism in that regard either. In fact, all "sims" we have get something wrong to some degree aparently, but hey, again, i never said rf2 is in a good state, but AMS2 is proving to be if anything, an even bigger commercial failure,

I just find amusing this discussion, it's like an ant saying that it is bigger than another ant.
 
Micahc
You guys can be brutal for sure. Thanks for all you have done with this great sim!!
 
M
R.Man said:
As I said earlier on one of my comment posted in few pages ago may be it's time for RF2 to retire. What i'm going to say may sound very weird for some of us but it will take form with the time...We now have AMS2 that is a good candidate to replace Rf2. A Kind of PC2 + RF2 baby. Very similar scenario. AMS2 may soon have the most advanced sim physic after a bad one that btw came a bit too late ( chronogically verifiable ) . It also has lot of die hard fanboys that triggered the same intensive bashing reactions from the sim racing community. It has expensive DLC content pricing that seem to be heritage from the Reiza packs from RF2. They may have said "It worked with RF2 so let's use it as reference " , randomly added content so lack of focus UE, US, F1,GT3, VW, and son one, average AI, devs not really listening to the players, strange features prioritization, etc. In sum we already have a better RF2 ready to take the flag. Like PC2 fans RF2 fans will be happy with AMS2.""""
Click to expand...
I disagree on almost all of this. AMS2 has undergone the worst bashing in the history of simracing just out of people who felt like their favorite sim may get pushed off the throne. Especially RF2 and ACC. Some people in all communities are always defensive, but the story that AMS2 is populated by fanboys that hamper its development is fake news. Reiza had their plans and they enacted them all along. It was haters that just kept using the argument that AMS2 could not be taken seriously that wanted everything to be done/fixed there and then who were totally unreasonable. Anyone who dared to talk about patience and support to small developers since the potential was evident was immediately called a fanboy, fueled by a few content creators who are together with their mob of audience behaving like bullies.
Luckily the work that Reiza has thrown to the game was such that AMS2 is finding their audience and getting its place even without those shady content creators advertising which is a refreshing sight.
Regarding DLCs, it was already explained that when you count by item included they are not any more expensive than any CURRENTLY ALIVE sim like ACC, iracing, RR etc.
If you just read the price tag without looking at the "weight" of the content when you go for groceries you will be easily mislead. AMS2 DLCs per item is far less expensive than iracing, ACC etc.
 
Last edited:
R.Man
MadDriver11 said:
I disagree on almost all of this. AMS2 has undergone the worst bashing in the history of simracing just out of people who felt like their favorite sim may get pushed off the throne. Especially RF2 and ACC. Some people in all communities are always defensive, but the story that AMS2 is populated by fanboys that hamper its development is fake news.
Click to expand...
I agree about RF2 , AMS2 is a menace for it and both almost sell the same content C8R, etc. As I said earlier both have similarities so may share the same market target and fanbase. BUT AMS2 has nothing to be proud about that, RF2 10 years old was already in weak position few years before AMS2 2 years old was released. AMS2 has just done better than the 6 th student in class out of 10 students if we consider 7th RF2, 8th AMS1, 9th LFS, 10th RF1...
What I find funny is why would AMS2 be a menace for ACC with it's few outdated GT3 and Gt4 cars? And it's controversial physic and handling...And if you VERIFY chronogically all the discussions about AMS2 on Reiza forums, here in RD, on Youtube etc, AMS2 fanboys are always the first to mention and criticize ACC or RF2 or any other sim before people come and ripost.
AMS2 fans will always say that steam chart or any Youtube review is not valid ...if they are favorable to AMS2. But I don't care I just would like to ask, where in this graph unless you are drunk of optimism AMS2 was or is a menace for ACC?

STEAM CHART ACC vs AMS2
 
R.Man
Kenny Paton said:
Yes I agree both as a RD member and moderator.
One of the saddest threads I can remember in 13 years of membership.
No wonder people talk about how toxic sim racers can be when they come across stuff like we've seen on here since the announcement.
I hope those members who constantly dragged it off topic, insulted those who disagreed with them are happy with how a story about a well known figure leaving turned into a flame war.
BTW, before anyone points it out, I'm conscious that as a moderator I've not exactly covered myself in glory either.
Click to expand...
Yes i'm guilty too...

Sim racing is a young industry. What we are witnessing now is not something exceptional, it's just how the community work after some stimuli and some years. The community is showing its character or its personnality. One positive thing that we may get from these is the opportunity for the actual remaining sim studio and the future studios to understand the limits of the community and they should avoid to push some boundaries.

All they have to do is listen smartly to the community. It's a community of grown men so usually VERY patient but VERY agressive once the limit is reached. It start from a whisper and usually end up with a scream if not correctly managed. It's simple and difficult at the same time. The consequence of not listening the community is that it's going to start scream at the studios one day or an another. And whatever the studio may say or do from this point nothing is going to change. A screaming person don't listen and don't look also. In sum the studios have to adapt to the community not the inverse.

S397 may have frustrated more people than they think along the past years in a higher degree than they estimated it. They have paid the sour price. It's not S397 only, Reiza gone through it with AMS2, SMS with PC3 and bit of PC2, Motorsport Games with Nascar 21.

I don't agree with people that in one way or another say that they've lost faith in the sim racing community, or people that say tha RD community is toxic etc. The community is not toxic , It's even among the best digital community ever, it just has its limits of tolerance.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: pai

Latest News

Article information

Author
Yannik Haustein
Article read time
2 min read
Views
32,499
Comments
273
Last update

Share this article

What is the reason for your passion for sim racing?

  • Watching real motorsport

    Votes: 170 66.7%

  • Physics and mechanics

    Votes: 112 43.9%

  • Competition and adrenaline

    Votes: 117 45.9%

  • Practice for real racing

    Votes: 44 17.3%

  • Community and simracers

    Votes: 70 27.5%
See comments…
Back
Top