Better known today as the developer of Skyrim and Fallout, Bethesda once had a well-respected racing game franchise and were deep into development of a licensed Skip Barber Racing title that never released.
Video game development is rarely about one man, but if it was, then Terence Groening should certainly get a mention for his contributions to the genre as the man responsible for the physics of Sportscar GT, EA’s PC F1 and NASCAR games of the early 2000’s, rFactor, rFactor 2 and every title and rFpro simulator that spawned from ISI’s engine.
This interview with RSC details his early life and career, through to him joining iRacing in 2021.
Studio 397 have today released their fully licensed Monza for rFactor 2. It follows the free BMW car release this morning and is paid DLC coming in at $10.71 USD (Steam prices vary).
Official screenshots:
Official trailer:
A little commentary:
Licensed content. That’s what Studio 397 brought to rFactor 2 first when they took over. With ISI, pricing was set with modders in-mind and frankly the landscape had changed so much since rFactor (2005) that it just didn’t work the same way for the second title. Adding Assetto Corsa into the mix and really, the costs just didn’t add up. What content found it’s way into rF2 during the ISI-development period were part of special deals or directly offset via sales, but it was a very difficult thing to keep doing – so they didn’t. Studio 397 took over and changed the pricing to allow for a paid-DLC model which works. As someone who worked at both ISI and S397 I can’t tell you how delighted I am to have seen some of the content come to rF2 which has, items that never would have worked when you had to license, build, and hope for NEW sales of the whole product to come forward to offset what you already spent.
I spoke to someone at Monza years ago about licensing the track for ISI and we couldn’t afford it, with Ferrari laughably out of reach as well. The fact that you can pound laps in a Ferrari at Monza in rFactor 2 right now makes me so damn happy for everyone at that studio.
No replies yet
Loading new replies...
Join the full discussion at the Race Sim Central Community Forums →