Video game development is full of names that have made groundbreaking steps you’ve never even heard about. Shawn Nash is a behind-the-scenes pioneer responsible for SODA Off Road Racing’s incredible physics, Papyrus’ graphical advancements and iRacing’s use of laser scan data for the physical track surfaces.
This interview with RSC, published in 2021, details his early life and career, through both his own company, Papyrus, Electronic Arts, to his time at iRacing.
Shortly after the release of Grand Prix Legends the sim racing community looked forward to another title that promised to offer a similar insight into historic racing. Trans-Am Racing ’68-’72 ultimately never released, a victim of a publishers shady dealings, but as a part of my research I uncovered a VHS of a never-released trailer for the game. Watch the trailer and read about what sim racing missed out on.
As a person who watches developers for news I get used to patterns of development. Most studios release screens a certain amount of time before a trailer, a certain amount before the product releases, and have a specific schedule they can respond on when it comes to updates and fixes.
That’s why I noticed when Sector 3 seemed to halt development last year, stopped posting dev updates in the pattern they had for years, and fell out of their regular pattern by announcing and posting screenshots of TT Circuit Assen and then didn’t release it until almost four months later.
Well, it turns out, there probably was a reason.
I have no idea the circumstances of this name change, but throughout the time since this same studio was both SIMBIN and Sector 3 the same owner has been Klaus Wohlfahrt and it doesn’t take a lot of brain power to look at his initials. It’s also worth noting that SIMBIN UK, the studio developing GTR 3 along with Sector 3, was also owned by Wohlfahrt and shut down operations last summer.
I think the positive of whatever the cause of this name change is, is that some people will have kept their jobs, a great sim gets to continue development, and the community gets to continue to enjoy it. They did just announce a Ferrari license. They’re fine.
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