iRacing Announce IndyCar Licensing Restrictions

iRacing have today announced within their forum some details on the restrictions from the exclusive license Motorsport Games acquired two years ago that goes into effect for the release of IndyCar 23 next year.

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Our current license agreement with Indycar is set to expire on December 31, 2022. Indycar has signed an exclusive license with another developer that goes into effect on January 1, 2023. While we are still working on finalizing a new license with Indycar, it is clear there will be some notable changes to the way we are able to present Indycar racing on iRacing. Most significantly, we will no longer be able to run an official Indycar branded series and there will not be an iRacing Indy 500. You will also see the removal of the Indycar Series logo from our sites.

We plan to continue to support the Dallara race cars (IR18, DW12 & Dallara IR -05). There will be no changes (unlimited use and racing) in regard to the non-Indycar series at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for other series – NASCAR, IMSA, etc. Until the new license agreement is finalized, we won’t know all of the details so there may be further changes.

If you’ve read my posts featuring the occasional rant about Sony holding the Pikes Peak Hillclimb license and then doing nothing with it, or were around on RSC when EA and Sony traded exclusivity on F1, NASCAR, Porsche and many other content items and brands, you’ll be well aware that I’m no fan of exclusivity and although I understand it from a business perspective, don’t think it’s in the general interest of pushing the genre forwards – which is the thing I’d always prefer to see.

However, the response today has been interesting. It seems that very many people had no idea what exclusivity would mean, despite the effects already seen on the Le Mans 24 Hour races within the iRacing service, when they were happy to see an official IndyCar title announced back in July, 2021. Not only that, but Penske and Indianapolis Motor Speedway are taking flak today for something that happened a couple of years ago when things probably looked quite different. At that time, IndyCar fans – me included – were just incredibly happy that we’d hopefully be able to buy any title with “IndyCar” on the cover.

Things will turn out however they’re meant to and we as a community just have to ride it out and see. I’m not sure it’s worth the stress I see being poured into it right now on social media which will, of course, make no difference.