rFactor 2: Ferrari 488s & Le Mans To Be Delisted

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rFactor-2-Ferrari-Le-Mans-License-Expiring.jpg
Images: Motorsport Games / Studio 397
Two icons are set to disappear from the buyable rFactor 2 content roster: Le Mans and two Ferraris will no longer be available for purchase once 2025 commences.

Studio 397 and Motorsport Games are laser-focused on Le Mans Ultimate, so naturally, rFactor 2 has hardly seen any news since the official WEC game launched into Early Access in February of 2024. As the year winds down, however, there is a bit of news surrounding the sim - the Circuit de La Sarthe in Le Mans and the Ferrari 488 GT3 and GTE cars will no longer be available for players to purchase from January 1, 2025 onwards.

An expiring licensing agreement means that the content pieces cannot be sold anymore. Anyone who owns them, however, will still be able to run them. They are also part of the current Steam Sale and will also be part of the Steam Winter Sale, which should commence right before Christmas.

rFactor-2-Le-Mans.jpg


The two versions of the 488 are the only Ferrari cars available as first-party content in rFactor 2. Of course, that does not keep the community from creating mods for vehicles with the iconic prancing horse on them. Le Mans, meanwhile, used to be a staple for rF2, especially when Virtual Le Mans was the center of attention during the COVID pandemic.

For Motorsport Games, this is not the only content that cannot be sold anymore once 2024 is over. The publisher also cannot sell its NASCAR games any longer after December 31, 2024, since the NASCAR license has switched hands to iRacing. The latter are currently developing NASCAR 25.

Are you planning to get the outgoing Le Mans and Ferrari content for rFactor 2? Let us know in the comments below and join the discussion in our rF2 forum!
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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

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Comments

Rene / GRunner
OverTake
Premium
Emery said:
The rF2 Silverstone license expired a couple years ago. I recall MSG saying there would be no more licenses that would expire, so I'm rather surprised by this announcement. Leaves us with another reason to not trust MSG statements.
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You remember where you read that? Would be interesting to look into it.

Licenses running out is quite normal unfortunately, and not much that can be done there. Last years, tracks heavily upped their prices for licensing. If you don´t renew, it has to be pulled from shops as it can´t be sold anymore (using it is still fine obviously if you own the track). So while I would prefer for anyone to still be able to buy whatever cars/DLCs of whatever sim the want at any time, I think it is more than understandable that it doesn´t make a lot of sense to pay for an extension right now, when they work on a newer product, are short on money (as it seems), and the game is also very old (although I still love driving it).

It is the nature of the beast when it comes to licenses.

I agree tho that LMU and rF2 are two very different products (at least right now) but that still does not outweight the costs of such deals (and their actual use). Additionally, there are so many competitors now in this space when it comes to sim, so old ones at some point will have to be "left behind".
 
H
So this is why having a private server option not run by S397 is important. Then you can continue racing the content when the license runs out.

I bet this is going to be the next thing from the greedy people supplying the licenses: subscription for 1 year to circuit x etc. This is why modding is so important.
 
M
I understand if you already have the content you can still use it, but what if say you had to do a full uninstall/reinstall, or got a new computer and were doing a new install on that machine? Even if they're not listed for current sale would those pieces still be installed, or do we need to manually back them up for safe keeping and/or reinstalling later if needed?
 
Martin Vindis
MetalMania said:
I understand if you already have the content you can still use it, but what if say you had to do a full uninstall/reinstall, or got a new computer and were doing a new install on that machine? Even if they're not listed for current sale would those pieces still be installed, or do we need to manually back them up for safe keeping and/or reinstalling later if needed?
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My understanding is that you can still download the content if you own it, but new users can not buy it anymore.
 
Shannon Flynn
tr1v1um said:
This is some very wierd way of looking at a product like rF2. How is a product like rF2 going to "die"? It isn't going anywhere, people who buy the content can use it for the years to come and some creative people are still adding 3rd party content to it. Lately there has been an update that garantuees offline mode support aswell. Do you have the impression that GTR2 has died because license agreements with Ferrari or Porsche weren't extended? Or do you have the impression that AC has died after Kunos stopped supporting it?
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AC was dead the minute it came out :p
Ok, let me reword my post for you. Don't want to spend money on content for a game that will receive no further significant updates. Which it desperately needs, despite my love for it. I don't do mods, either.
 
T
MetalMania said:
I understand if you already have the content you can still use it, but what if say you had to do a full uninstall/reinstall, or got a new computer and were doing a new install on that machine? Even if they're not listed for current sale would those pieces still be installed, or do we need to manually back them up for safe keeping and/or reinstalling later if needed?
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The content you buy is in your inventory and stays there as long as Steam exists ... no need to back anything up. The only stuff people might need to back up at one point are mods from steamworkshop, because once they get taken down, they get uninstalled.
 
Frederick Alonso
Congratz to Ferrari and Automobile Club de l'Ouest for being so cheap that amazing content for many fans might halt and can become a problem for more and more simulators and arcade games. It's also us that go to real-life events thanks to these amazing virtual experiences. I'm serious here.
 
jappygamer
rf2 has created the best ffb and physics out there, but oh my gosh what a disaster of online platform.
They needed 11 years to create some online organized competition that never worked.

It allways have been my favourite sim but i never have relied on the company , so much money greed. They tried to sell contet priced as they had some iracing platform actually working... and that was not the reality.

So many years being a ui and online mess .... i think they had so many battles to fight and not a great target on mind.

People talk about rf2 without updates as it will be like AC with all the modding community support, lol. Rf2 will never have the same support as ac , never will had the same huge player numbers.

Each sim is for different purposes and targets.

Rf2 have been many years on Intensive Care Unit many years, and sadly the time about disconnecting the life support machine has come?

LMU just helped to kill rf2, everything was planned.

Just motorsports games and s397 did a bad job attracting gamers to their sim, they had so much time but not specifically great results...
 
Last edited:
T
jappygamer said:
rf2 has created the best ffb and physics out there, but oh my gosh what a disaster of online platform.
They needed 11 years to create some online organized competition that never worked.

It allways have been my favourite sim but i never have relied on the company , so much money greed. They tried to sell contet priced as they had some iracing platform actually working... and that was not the reality.

So many years being a ui and online mess .... i think they had so many battles to fight and not a great target on mind.

People talk about rf2 without updates as it will be like AC with all the modding community support, lol. Rf2 will never have the same support as ac , never will had the same huge player numbers.

Each sim is for different purposes and targets.

Rf2 have been many years on Intensive Care Unit many years, and sadly the time about disconnecting the life support machine has come?

LMU just helped to kill rf2, everything was planned.

Just motorsports games and s397 did a bad job attracting gamers to their sim, they had so much time but not specifically great results...
Click to expand...
The force of the tinfoil hat is strong with you. :p
 
D
Trebor901 said:
In fairness to them the game is 11 years old. Not many companies support their games for that long
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I got my "rFactor lifetime" license dierctly from ISI (before steam version) in January, 12th 2012: so almost 13 years ago :).
It was called "open beta" not "Early Access".
 
D
Recently grabbing some of the content I was missing from rF2 and going through the store made me wonder why they put so much effort into E-Prix content. I've never seen it in other sims and wonder how good the sales could even be for this type of racing. Was there a time when this was popular with the rF2 users?
 
D
Kingkoenig said:
A bit weird that MSG has the license for Le Mans in Le Mans Ultimate but not in rFactor2...
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Not weird at all...Le Mans was licensed for ONLY rF2 back in ...2018ish? You don't write a license agreement that states if the company is bought out some time in the future by a 3rd party that creates an entirely new product, well then the current license agreement is transferred, free of charge and extended another 10 years without any further negotiations.
License agreements protect companies by ensuring quality but also profitability. You license a track to increase sales of your product. The track owners license the track so they have final say on how it looks and performs AND whether other entities can also pay them for the same exposure. NOTHING is given away....well...almost nothing...Portland in rF2 comes to mind.
The license agreement that was signed back then was for a VERY SPECIFIC TIME PERIOD, which is negotiable. The more you pay the track owners, the longer you can keep their product for your title's use. If your company does not have wheelbarrows of cash sitting around, you can shorten the agreement to save 'some' money.
So to summarize. S397(not MSG) had the original agreement with both Ferrari & Le Sarthe. A certain time frame was agreed upon at a certain price. MSG was free to renegotiate the agreement but at what cost vs predicted limited future sales? EVERYBODY who wanted Le Mans, already HAS Le Mans. The small number of new users attracted to the updated multi-player module would be the only buyers left to generate income and certainly that is not a large number.
Remember, this has already occurred a couple of years ago when Silverstone was removed.
 

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