iOpener Media, creators of the innovative system that will allow sim racers to compete against real life drivers thanks to GPS technology, have signed a deal with Simbin Studios that will be announced tomorrow.
Right now, not much is known about the planned partnership, the logical conclusion is that coming Simbin simulations will have the iOpener technology built-in, bringing the realism to a whole new level. More details on the deal are scheduled to emerge tomorrow.
In the meantime, here’s a little food for thought as iOpener Media announced to be part of an upcoming World Rally Championship simulation back in April. Is this just a coincidence or may Simbin be changing the motorsport genre for an upcoming title?
Update: As expected, the deal was confirmed today as Simbin is working on a iOpener Enabled title, allowing sim racers to race against real race drivers. Both iOpener Media & Simbin gave away no further info what the future title will be about other than both parties will fully concentrate on working on the new title in the coming months.
“In the iOpener technology I see the start of the next generation of race gaming and a major leap in optimising the race experience for the gamer. What is better than racing against the real pros?!” , Simbin’s Henrik Roos commented. “Besides playing live, the gamers will also have the opportunity to select recorded races, based on stored data”, Roos added.
joseki
June 23rd, 2009 at 02:50
This deal sounds interesting but I’m still hoping that the upcoming World Rally Championship simulation is made by Slightly Mad Studios.
xilix
June 23rd, 2009 at 02:53
Adding new tech to old tech, doesn’t make the old tech new.
Uff
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:50
But adding new tech to a new tech may result in something interesting.
Let’s hope to see something new and interesting, after Race On!
flips
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:17
With Playstation putting WRC into GT5, doesn’t that mean that the license is going to be tied up for a bit? Or are they not always exclusive licenses like F1?
Mr. A
June 23rd, 2009 at 14:36
I remember Henrik Roos talking about technology like this when I met him at Anderstorp, before even the first GTR was released. So I’m not surprised to see Simbin being interested in implementing this tech into their games.
Sensekhmet
June 23rd, 2009 at 14:54
Forget WRC, IRC or even ERC sim would be great.
I hope Simbin comes up with something that’s really new: right now we all simrace using technology that’s 10 (or 15?) years old! Maybe save for iRacing and Richard Burns Rally, but the first will remain unaccessible for a lot of people while the latter is an unfinished, dead game, regardless of new fantastic cars and tracks and online plugins (sorry!).
What we need is a next-gen sim: not only in the 3D/physics engine department, but the whole experience. Let’s face it, our sims feel dead, it’s like comparing Eye of the Beholder to Fallout 3. Yes, both are fantastic RPGs but try EoB today… it deserves the respect and place in history but it belongs in a museum! And so do the sims we play.
Oh, and I’ve made a comparison of RPGs but it works in other genres too: Wolfenstein 3D vs. Call of Duty World at War, for example. See what I mean?
O11
June 23rd, 2009 at 15:28
Mr. A is right.
I read about that in a magazine way back. The plan was to let you race in realtime against live telemetry from the FIA GT races.
ctv
June 23rd, 2009 at 16:26
isnt iopener collaborating with the belgian gt? (belcar or somthing?) i think this is the way they are brining us another gt game…
F1_fan_1
June 23rd, 2009 at 16:48
Or the Dutch Supercar Challenge. I remember seeing a car from that series in a vid.
DW
June 23rd, 2009 at 17:34
While I take your point that gMotor2 is dated and at the end of its life, you exaggerate its age. Try installing SCGT – I did about a year ago – and you will see how far we have come in the last 10 years – it really has nothing in common with say GTR Evo.
ral42
June 23rd, 2009 at 20:03
“What is better than racing against the real pros?!”
Racing with other people close to my skill level who are racing under the same conditions, in real-time, whenever I want. Sound familiar?
Sensekhmet
June 23rd, 2009 at 20:06
I agree, it might be an exaggeration, but not a big one. Fire up a modern game, any game and I bet you won’t find the bleak, sterile feeling of racing sims. They just feel like playing with toy cars on an empty table as far as overall gaming experience is concerned.
I might be biased, because I am close to motorsport in real life (amateur competitor and FIA licensed marshal) and in my opinion there really isn’t much save for physics that modern sims take from real motorsport. Because of that I’m a poor simracer, I just can’t get immersed into a game, sometimes I feel like dozing off mid-race!
Raikku
June 24th, 2009 at 10:49
Khmet, you’ve already tried iRacing? I suck there(although C now), but so many real life pro’s said that it’s close so i guess it should be then.
Sensekhmet
June 24th, 2009 at 12:10
Raikku, I didn’t and I probably never will. I don’t have a credit card and even if I did I can’t see how an expensive pay-to-play game/sim could come before my real life money devouring hobby.
Hell, I didn’t buy anything for my self (save for the DFGT, because my Saitek R100 broke and a cheap Sony MP3 player… because someone stole my old one) in 3 years, every penny goes into racing. I’m a motorsport junkie and I’m on the edge because I ‘used up’ my second car a few months ago. I’m trying to finish my master’s degree to finally get a ‘real’ job. After that it’s getting two cars (daily driver and competition car) and racing until I die or coffers run dry again.