Dom Duhan, Head Of Studio 397 And Le Mans Ultimate Conceptualist, Leaves Studio

Posting this item late due to sickness. Apologies for the gap in coverage (whole of February, 2024).

In a post on LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago Dom Duhan, head of Studio 397, announced he would be leaving the studio after the successful release of Le Mans Ultimate into Early Access.

Dom strikes me as the kind of person who ‘can’t sit still’ for long, with a decent history of successful ventures in his back pocket, it was he that first mentioned a Le Mans game to me at least five or six years ago while Marcel Offermans still sat at the helm of the fledgling studio that had recently bought rFactor 2 from Image Space Incorporated. He worked incredibly hard to make that happen both before and during Motorsport Games’ ownership of the studio, and advocated heavily for Studio 397 to remain largely independent.

A couple of months ago in a brief chat Dom told me he would be leaving Studio 397. Seeing him post publicly, it really hit me just what an impact certain people can have on this genre… Dom has absolutely made an impact and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

His text:

Bit of an update! I joined Studio 397 with Marcel Offermans back in 2016 with the purpose of bringing rFactor 2 https://lnkd.in/epm__Vrx back to life. I think it’s fair to say mission accomplished, growing the business significantly with strategic content, partnerships and reshaping the product.

As a small studio we certainly made a mark, leveraging the growth of esports – from Formula E Accelerate, McLaren Racing’s Worlds Fastest Gamer, Le Mans Virtual and countless others. I am also proud to have helped launch F1® Arcade with rFactor 2, truly a ground-breaking activation.

With the successful launch of Le Mans Ultimate this brings an end of an era. Many months ago I decided that I needed a new challenge and I’m super-excited about where that will lead me. Time to making some more sim racing history!

Thank you to the S397 team for all your hard work over the years and for the partners that helped us make this happen.