BTCC Game Cancelled After BTCC Terminates Agreement With Motorsport Games

Header image from rFactor 2.

This week the British Touring Car Championship announced that they have terminated their agreement with Motorsport Games to develop a BTCC game. The official press release, quoted below, states that due to “breaches of the agreement” they will “withdraw all licensed BTCC rights that were provided to Motorsport Games under that agreement.”

It’s difficult to know which breaches may have been the final straw here as the BTCC obviously expected a game, on-site entertainment during races, esports and most likely on-going payments whether a product had been delivered or not. In any case, this is disappointing for fans.

I am, however, slightly amused by the closing paragraph which states that the lack of a BTCC game is wholly because of “Motorsport Games being unable to fulfil its contractual commitments”. With this agreement, signed in 2020, we can certainly blame Motorsport Games for the lack of a BTCC title for a couple of years… So who is to blame for the 17 years of elapsed time since TOCA Race Driver 3? I’m the guy who wanted to license BTCC back in 2011, and only ended up with the Honda.

Regardless, I am unsure how this termination of the BTCC game license will relate to rFactor 2’s BTCC content. The content is possibly licensed separately, so will be unaffected (I think).

Press release:

TOCA TERMINATES BTCC VIDEOGAME LICENCE WITH MOTORSPORT GAMES
6th November 2023

BARC (TOCA) Limited – more widely known as ‘TOCA’ – is the rights holder to the British Touring Car Championship (‘BTCC’).

In May 2020, TOCA entered into an agreement with Motorsport Gaming US LLC – an entity more widely known as ‘Motorsport Games’.

That agreement exclusively licensed Motorsport Games to produce interactive video gaming products relating to the British Touring Car Championship.

It is with regret that TOCA now advise that it has been forced to terminate that agreement forthwith, due to ongoing fundamental breaches of the agreement by Motorsport Games. Having been given sufficient latitude to rectify those contractual breaches, unfortunately Motorsport Games has failed to do so.

In order to protect the reputation and intellectual property of the BTCC, including those of its participants and partners, TOCA had been left with no option but to terminate the agreement and immediately withdraw all licensed BTCC rights that were provided to Motorsport Games under that agreement.

TOCA is aware that this news will come as a huge disappointment to our hundreds of thousands of fans, many of whom were eagerly anticipating the release of a new BTCC game… and we very much share that frustration, due to Motorsport Games being unable to fulfil its contractual commitments.