Thrustmaster have releaed their roadmap for the remainder of 2021, and it has plenty to get excited about!
Photo credit: Thrustmaster
Renowned sim racing hardware manufacturer Thrustmaster dropped a proverbial bomb on the sim racing community on Tuesday, with their announcement that they will be bringing out a whole host of new racing peripherals before the end of 2021. Perhaps the most exciting part of the list was the “new direct drive racing wheel base for PC”, but there is plenty to discuss about Thrustmaster’s roadmap.
The Direct Drive Era
Following the revelation a few weeks back of Fanatec’s CSL DD, a racing wheel base which brought the cost of direct drive technology to an all-time low, many have been waiting for Thrustmaster to announce their competitor in this particular arena. Direct drive essentially means that the wheel hub is directly connected to the motor, without any need for belts and gears. This provides a more immediate and visceral response in terms of the wheel’s force feedback.
📆 Thrustmaster 2021 Roadmap ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/5UjGTNp2X5
— Thrustmaster Official (@TMThrustmaster) August 24, 2021
The recent release of the TGT-II went over fairly well with sim racing fans, but the absence of direct drive was certainly a limiting factor. As such, the announcement that Thrustmaster has an all-new direct drive wheel base in the works is certainly cause for excitement. Unfortunately this will only be available for PC players, but there are other items on the list which will be coming to console too!
Goodies Galore
Two intriguing new prospects for both PC and console players are the new racing pedals set and the new hybrid drive racing wheel. Both of these as yet unnamed pieces of hardware will be compatible with both Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
As of right now, it is unclear what this new pedal set will offer to consumers, as there are already a number of different Thrustmaster pedal sets available on the market. There is also some uncertainty around the ‘hybrid drive’ wheel base, as nobody yet knows what ‘hybrid drive’ really is. However, the name implies some kind of system which bridges the gap between standing racing wheels and direct drive, perhaps a sort of direct drive-lite which can be made available for consoles.
While there isn’t a whole lot of concrete information to go off of yet, the prospects revealed in Thrustmaster’s new roadmap have certainly got our motors running!
What new Thrustmaster peripheral are you most excited for? Tell us on Twitter at @OverTake_gg or in the comments down below!
