F1 2020 F1 2020 | Any Additional 'Replacement' Tracks Won't Be Included In New Game

[Paul Jeffrey]

Codemasters F1 2020 game director, Lee Mather has confirmed the studio have no intention of including any new for 2020 replacement circuits in the upcoming F1 game.

As we are all now more than aware, the ongoing world health situation has played havoc with the yet to begin new Formula One season. As various travel restrictions continue to blight Liberty Media and the FIA in their plan to salvage whatever then can from the year ahead, it is looking increasingly likely that Formula One 2020 style could feature at least a couple of tracks not originally on the published pre-season schedule.

With many circuits falling by the wayside, the need to ensure Formula One retains a healthy number of events this year has led to speculation that venues such as Hockenheim, Portimao, Mugello and potentially even Imola could be set to appear on the calendar, but according to Codemasters, these tracks aren't going to be included in the upcoming F1 2020 videogame.

Speaking during an interview with GP Blog, Codemasters F1 Game Director Lee Mather had the following to say:

"Circuits are the most time intense element of the development, with each circuit taking the time equivalent of 1 year of development to create. Along with building the circuits, there’s also the AI to train, the camera placement to set-up."​

​

"F1 2020 is based on the original 2020 season and we are delighted to include Hanoi Circuit and Circuit Zandvoort. Unfortunately it is not possible to add new circuits to the revised 2020 season".​

Pretty disappointing news considering the sim racing community can often put together scratch built circuits at an equal or higher quality than those within the F1 games, in a much shorter timescale and without the resources available to a developer such as Codemasters.


Original Source: GP Blog

F1 2020 is set to release on July 7th for PS4, Xbox One, PC and Google Stadia.

Got questions about the game? Start a new thread at the RaceDepartment F1 2020 sub forum here at RaceDepartment, and let the community help you out!

 

[Chris Down]

Pretty disappointing news considering the sim racing community can often put together scratch built circuits at an equal or higher quality than those within the F1 games, in a much shorter timescale and without the resources available to a developer such as Codemasters.

Shots fired!

That said, I can empathise with them somewhat. Generally sim racing modders don't deal with:

• Commercial licensing negotiation
• Sponsorship obligations and nuances
• Back-and-forth with license holder to check that they're happy
• (In many cases) AI optimisation
• ...and a whole bunch of "F1 experience" things which simply don't exist in most sims.

I agree that the track quality in F1 games is lacking though. I really enjoy playing F1 2019 casually on occasion, but the version of Spa in F1 games is verging between "not great" and "completely wrong" depending on the corner, which seems pretty egregious for such a core track.

 

[dersirromet]

There is a certain irony in the fact that, coincidentally, Assetto Corsa might become a more representative game of the 2020 F1 season than the original game, simply due to the focus on Italian tracks (and some other coincidental European inclusions). And, of course, due to the modding scene

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

I'm sure that now that SMS is an arm of Codemasters they would have data for most of the possible tracks, except for Mugello maybe.

Hockenheim, is in F1 2019, just check to see if the 2020 cars don't break things.
Portimao, SMS has a nice laser scanned version.
Imola, SMS has a meh... hand moddeled version.

Licensing is something the rights holder(FIA) should solve it, can't see it taking too long.

They just called it a day imo.

 

[Matthew327]

Codemasters: "Unfortunately, modeling another track or two is too much effort for our multimillion-dollar game studio which outsources most of its production anyway and has a track record of stealing 3D models from the modding community."

Assetto Corsa modding gods: *single-handedly creates real-life or fictional racetracks in a matter of weeks*

 

[RufGTI]

Codemasters are lazy pricks.

And don't give me the "but it's from the PS3 era" excuse. The overall track quality of F1 games is generally anything but great.

 

[IMrIMike]

They haven´t yet fixed their absolutely disgusting version of Spa from 10 games/years ago, so what are you expecting?

 

[Matthew327]

Codemasters are lazy pricks.

And don't give me the "but it's from the PS3 era" excuse. The overall track quality of F1 games is generally anything but great.

Purely in terms of visuals, that looks just about F1-2020-ready.

 

[Andrew King]

Yeah it'd be too difficult to do something other than copy/paste

 

[GT VIRUS]

Pretty disappointing news considering the sim racing community can often put together scratch built circuits at an equal or higher quality than those within the F1 games, in a much shorter timescale and without the resources available to a developer such as Codemasters.

Bwhahhahahahahaa No. Even Lilski and other top modders require month's and months to get tracks done, and they honestly do not come close to the amount of unique objects that are around F1 circuits. I do not know of any level of track that has been made by the community to that level since VirtuaLM's Le Mans 1996!

 

[ears]

I think it's unfair to expect all of these 'extras'. The game was developed and delivered in good faith,

Have any of these extra venues even been confirmed yet?

Whether the game itself is perceived as high or low quality, good or bad, is irrelevant to the purpose of the thread,

 

[Syndrami]

• Commercial licensing negotiation
• Sponsorship obligations and nuances
• Back-and-forth with license holder to check that they're happy

I wonder why the sponsors are happy with a track such as Spa in the F1 games. That track is an abomination to what is possible with today's standards. (Unless they have a several year contract with the track for it to be used in its current state).

I just don't get it. (Unless they can't get contracts as the track owners have seen what horrible job Codemasters can do with building Spa for example )

 

[PegaMixel]

I'm usually very critical when it comes to CM and their F1 series approach, especially with their borderline lazy , "minor annual update" idea of releasing games, but i have to defend them here.

They're aiming for an 10th of July release and we don't even know what tracks are considered to be replacements for the 2020 season.

I can get behind their decision to not include any possible replacement tracks within such an incredible short timsespan.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

What I find interesting is how they do not grab the oportunity to do a DLC early in 2021 with all the tracks, cars, skins that actually made it onto track in 2020. I will probably never own the game anyway, but I thought this was a good shot. Them letting it pass probably shows how ignorant I am of all the behind scenes work going on to get such a DLC together.

edit: both Leclerc and Vettel obviously enjoying Mugello:

‘Spectacular’ Mugello deserves to host a Grand Prix, says Vettel after Ferrari test run | Formula 1®

The four-time world champion enjoyed his run at Mugello so much he reckons the Italian track deserves a spot on the F1 calendar.

www.formula1.com

 

[Chris]

No great surprise there. Codemasters had to make a game fit the calendar that was meant to be before COVID, and tracks are probably one of the most time consuming parts.

That said, if they could take more time to update that goddamn atrocity that is Spa-Francorchamps that would be really cash money of them.

Good lord that thing is an abomination.

 

[Pepega123]

Codemasters is super lazy, what did you expect, their old tracks are from 2010 and they were updated only because F1 drivers were asking for changes during the pandemic.

 

[Case_]

I was actually about to post something along the lines of that surely people couldn't have been expecting them to include multiple additional new tracks this late into the development, and then I got to this part...

Pretty disappointing news considering the sim racing community can often put together scratch built circuits at an equal or higher quality than those within the F1 games, in a much shorter timescale and without the resources available to a developer such as Codemasters.

Yeah, I think you might be a bit too optimistic about how fast a track can be put together. And the whole statement is not a very professional one, to be honest.

(Unless the quoted part was put there just to make people comment on the article and create artificial controversy. Which still wouldn't be very professional, but at least would make some kind of sense in the clickbaity media world we enjoy nowadays.)

 

[CDwyer]

I pre ordered with cd keys, but I expect this game to be discounted very quickly. Probably matching cd keys within a month, then to about $20 in 3 months tops.

 

[BrettSinclair1]

That would be 'too much' to develop, I suppose

 

[Ben Lee]

The quality of Codemasters track assets is so poor, I don’t know why anyone who gives a damn about track accuracy would be bothered by an inaccurate track roster.