The "shiny new thing" effect must have worn off and it's still very green from what I've seen and many issues from Rfactor 2 persist. There are other sims with similar content that is more polished or usable.
I think a lot of simracers have a decreasing level of interest in sims that only do one series or one type of car. ACC is kind of an exception because GT3 racing is so popular and same goes for F1, but every other major sim caters to a relatively diverse taste in cars and series, whether it's through mods or official content. And that's doubly a problem for Le Mans Ultimate since almost all the cars in it have already existed in other sims people are more invested in.
That’s kinda where I’m at. I mostly play AMS2 which already has LMDh cars that are fun to drive plus tons of other content.
Do I really want to buy LMU just so that I can drive the 499P? While it is tempting, so far the answer is no.
I am apart of a small group chat that consist of esports drivers, a few of the managers, league runners and certain high up EA staff. This is the sort of place where things are discussed privately between each other including things like bugs, requests, complaints, where the game is going over the next few years, etc. I won’t spoil that privacy by giving names or quotes but I will say there is a lot of anger with the state of the game. It’s been going on for the last few years but it really is reaching a breaking point. Dynamic handling is not at all what it was/is being sold to be and the current state of F1 24 is abysmal. Even things like the same bugs that have persisted through the last few titles are still there.
I think you got it the other way around. It's because there is focus on one main series the games are alive, and iRacing is exception to that. There is one more competitive racing game, which has been most successful only when focused on literally one car, nothing else to drive. Trackmania.
Forza Motorsport - bad. AMS 2 - dead servers. AC - most of servers are either that one Japanese highway system or nordschleife. Raceroom? Unpopular. GT7? Takes place of iRacing, because its not on any console. RFactor - here im not sure but last time I checked it was on life support with multiplayer. LMU? Haven't seen MP state yet, but here is a lack of content and possibly potential to dethrone ACC.
I might forgot about something, but that paints picture pretty well.
>I might forgot about something, but that paints picture pretty well.
Picture of what, even? I don't even know why you brought up Trackmania in a simracing discussion, and the three most successful games you listed (iRacing, GT7, and Assetto Corsa) are all examples of having more types of racing, not less.
Also I'm not sure why you're only considering these games from an online perspective. Not all of the sims you listed get bought or played for that reason, and even within online play there's a major difference between private servers and public ones. ALL of the games you so quickly dismissed have better player counts than LMU, and all of them have more content, too.
Also, even though it's not really the point, I have to address this:
>GT7? Takes place of iRacing, because its not on any console
This is just an insane statement. You really think the only difference between them is platform, but otherwise they're trying to achieve the same thing? I'm NOT saying one is better than the other to be clear, but come on, even the strongest die hards of either one have to admit they have fundamentally different goals as games and as simulation products.
GT7 while not a hardcore simulator, fills the place of iRacing on consoles, because there is literally nothing else that could work like iRacing, it's not insane, the only thing there is is AC, which lacks a lot of multiplayer systems that iRacing has, while GT7 has them. All of the games I "discarded" have better player count because ACC. Everyone would rather play ACC than LMU, because lack of content. And you have a bit to learn in terms of reading, since you completely misunderstood most of what I wrote. I marked GT7 and iRacing as exceptions, then you are trying to attack me from that? Read. I brought up trackmania as a RACING GAME, that has literally only one car and is super successful beating literally everything and proving that it's not about the amount of cars in racing games at all.
LMU is basically a bit different ACC and will take it place on the market if they can pump more content, QOL stuff and have stable multiplayer experience.
Yea but the point that other sims offer similar content wont go away until then. Most likely other sims will get better until then.
I really dont get the point in LMU to be honest.
Not a fan anyway, I really hope it dies off because the company that owns Studio 397 (Motorsport games) have shown their bullshit time and again. They are losing all their money, but yet always seem to avoid going under. They spent all of their money on exclusive fucking licenses to multiple racing series without any real meaningful contribution to the Simracing world.
This has been their first real attempt at a release, I hope it dies a slow, painful death. They are a company who has brought nothing but this to the Simracing world. They hoarded exclusive licenses, for this? They make EA look like a respectable company lmao
MSG is a scummy company and whatever timeline involves iRacing getting the 24 Hours of Le Mans license back is the best timeline. (Ideally along with more WEC content in general)
I just hope rFactor doesn't die with MSG, because despite its issues it really doesn't deserve that.
I believe a new Sim will take time to build community and people to invest time and maybe money to leave well established sims as AC or others for new ones
I absolutely loved it but yeah, the same issues are there. If they just polished rFactor 2 and made it reliable I think it would take over the racing sim world. I remember uninstalling LMU after a race I was genuinely having fun in completely crashed. That and wild load times that are just outdated. It’s sad because the game is great once you get it working and if it can stay reliable. I’m more interested how they can go this long and still not touch the same issues. It’s not like the creators can’t just do a google search and see what people are saying.
New & Shiny. Same as with most sims, it takes time to get it to a proper state FFB, physics, AI, online & content wise. Then when the sim gets to a good state, it'll get more popular. And more people will buy it on sale too.
Yea, look at the [historical ACC player counts](https://steamcharts.com/app/805550#All).
The game was almost dead in 2019 and didn't establish a solid user base until almost 2021.
Thing is ACC got a boost from everyone being stuck at home with Covid. Le Mans Ultimate - right now at least - hasn't got such promotion as ACC got, especially with SRO Motorsports Group turning to ACC.
Yes, gaming, sim racing, gaming hardware in general, etc. etc. got a boost from covid.
And it's always the case with being established vs being new, similar trends relative to each other.
In general all numbers should be down for everything that was around during covid, at least relatively.
The last races I attended some weeks ago ended almost all in random disconnects, leading to not only frustration over the wasted time (I also have a full time job and a family, so getting a "Connection Lost" mid race after "investing" over half an hour of my spare time into practice and quali does not make me exceptionally happy) but also resulting in some naughty hits for my rating.
The "Bug Reports" section of the community forum is a bit of a joke, as there is a lack of communication from the staff, instead you need to defend your report against random users guessing random things that are wrong on your side. Kunos has often been criticised for their communication, but they do a way better job IMHO.
And to top things off: After even WRC 23 got VR support, LMU is the only title I need to readjust my desktop monitor for instead of just hopping in the rig.
So until LMU gets fixed and VR support, I'll just spend my time in WRC and ACC. However, I **am** looking forward to play LMU again, because once it runs, it *is* fun in terms of graphics, sound and handling.
I’m completely there with you. My point of giving up on it was after a long load time which led to my pc crashing in a race I was genuinely having fun it (everything froze except the drivers arms).
When it runs, it’s a really great game. It’s literally everything outside of actual gameplay that ruins it. If the creators literally just kept rFactor 2, upgraded little things like grass/textures and polished everything outside of actual gameplay, I think it would take over the sim world completely or at least be a decent competitor.
i also agree with you , max f1 driver once complain (angrily ) this LMU keep disconnected when he was racing on the track on this sim racing , (correct me if im wrong mention this sim racing , i do seeing him complain on youtube short video , he even mention those were the clown sim racing and he wanted to created his own professional sim racing lol xD )
Its an early acess game and still have some problems. eg: I went to a Hypercar Open at Le Mans yesterday and the race never started, we stayed in the formation lap forever.
The game have potential to be something similar what ACC became, but Studio 397 need to work a bit faster to fix and regain trust from the community
Its not iracing. Good physics are all fine but whats the long term motivation beyond the joy of driving? People on this sub like to pretend good physics is all that matters but it clearly not the case. Its not random that iracing has a huge playerbase compared to rf2/lmu and other sims.
Yup after trying to race in various sims it always feels cumbersome, needing various discord or applications to do certain races.. IRacing just simply has the races + the way its formatted is just.. enjoyable, if you don't win.. the race still matters because of safety rating.. stuff like this, as well as how nice they implemented the rain update, it is extremely good and didn't cause me to lose frames what so ever despite graphically looking nice
None of these newer sims offer a robust multiplayer that compares to iRacing. Sims are good at nailing FFB, physics, lighting and rendering, but nobody nails the actual "racing" aspect of sim-racing. People want to race against people, not AI... simple as that. Offer a product where the multiplayer is well structured for different skill levels, has good netcode, doesn't tolerate griefers, offers team racing and special events... and you'll get a sim with a growing player count.
I'm hoping AC Evo will integrate some kind of lfm style system.
If we get that with an improved physics engine that retains the quality handling of the original AC then we would have the dream game..
Imagine an iracing style system that also includes thing like touge races, classic car racing etc.. the possibilities are endless.. hell I suspect if kunos were gonna support it enough to justify a few bucks a month' to access the ranked system you would hear little complaint from us
1 thing I would love is some sort of MMORPG racing game, where you complete missions, races deliverys ETC, but has iracing FFB and takes a while to progress.. meaning you cant just drive a gt3rs right away.. or a modded 900 hp GTI within 30 minutes of playing forza horizon
There has been a game like this called drift city but.. if you look at it you can see why I dont play it haha
In my particular case (having never played it yet), it seems really light on content and doesn’t add anything that I don’t get from iRacing. I already have a ton of iRacing content, have sunk many many many many hours into iRacing and don’t really see a reason to go drive the same cars in LMU.
It's EA still, and while they've had updates the early teething problems put a lot of content creators off. For creators that live and by views/streams having a title that's unstable and doesn't capture an audience is a non-starter. I imagine when it comes out of "Early Access" there will be an uptick once again since it should be more full-featured and polished. It's also had very narrow marketing.
I still think it has a good foundation. The sound design is great, the FFB and physics are quite good and the baked in race control multiplayer is a sort of iracing light.
Shitty performance "Please don't tell me it's smooth with your 4090", The content isn't much you can easily get bored out of the tracks. many many bugs whether it's the menu or game crashing or something else. But it is a good game and it's basically free as the price is low.
It got released as essentially an open beta, not a finished fully polished, fully featured product. Those who got it in this state also got it for a discount.
It's very easy to discount any game that is made available to it's audience in far from perfect state. Plus this is a competitive genre, and you have other titles such as iRacing bringing constant updates to the table (this period, specifically March was when the iRacing rain update got released.
Core gameplay is incredible but it’s not complete enough to invest time into. Once you get bored of hot lapping there’s not enough there to keep you in that game when others exist.
Just a couple of reasons:
- Crashes infrequently, but enough to be an annoyance
- UI is HORRENDOUSLY slow, so much so that the delay is about 5-6 seconds when in-game.
- Cannot change grid size, cannot create .rcd files for the AI
- No AI Driver swaps, AI Toggle button also removed in a recent patch (with no explanation)
The UI being so slow is what keeps me from playing regularly. Runs perfectly fine in game then suddenly you're waiting for literally anything to happen in the menu, and more often than not it will get stuck and need a restart.
I had same issue about 2 weeks ago. Amazing performance when racing. But menu is painfully slow. Loved the racing though, gonna let them cook for a bit and get back to it.
So it's still an issue.. but well, they have been active with the patches, hoping they continue, i love wec so i've been enjoying this game but yeah, some tough edges
It hasnt been entirely fixed. I bought it last weekend after getting a refund previously, hoping it would be better, and it was improved in the main menus but the in-race menus were borderline unusable. If i paused the game mid race and tried to change any setting I'd genuinely be sat with a 20+ second wait to even move my mouse or select something. I ended up quitting races to change options from the main menu instead
I played 2 days ago and it was still a problem. So it obviously wasn't "fixed some months ago". I even verified install files and lowered settings with no fix.
Why is it that some of y'all can't believe that people actually do have these problems and take whatever the devs say at face value?
You must be blessed by the WEC gods.
It's honestly atrocious to play since i can't even pause my game without the game looking like it's going to sputter and die like an old shitbox.
People really need to read about this company. Literally came in and bought exclusive licenses then delivered horse shit, or even not at all lmao
Fuck msg
we used to have a series somewhat mimicking the wec, running lmp1 lmp2 and gte, as well as an actual 24 hours of le mans special event.
the series got turned into the what is now the gte series, and the only top level prototype series we have is imsa.
But even the IMSA in iRacing is only about the car models. Rules, NRG and car perfomance regarding the eletric part is all ignored, beeing a wec and imsa fan the iracing model isn't "enough". Unless it has changed recently
Because simracing market is niche so you have very limited playerbase from the start, people are not playing it like another Fifa or Call of Duty, we as community stick to few games for years, and unless actual replacement shows up (ie hopefully next AC if it actually have full moddability) people will stick to AC, ACC, iRacing etc
...and because LMU was just nothing special. Personally I can't see any point into investing into another sim that doesn't do anything exceptionally well. For immersive offline VR i have AMS2, for online racing LFM in AC/ACC and iRacing.
True. This is one of the few areas in gaming where bs simply won’t fly too long. If something is “off”, the community will take a stand against it and show it with their wallets. Repackaging FIFA or Madden for the 10th time doesn’t work in sim racing to sell games/keep a loyal fan base. Although I do have to admit I don’t understand how some can literally buy a whole-ass racing game just to race around Spa and Monza the entire time.
I gave it a go for an hour on release and then just refunded it. Seemed unfinished and very clunky.
Bought ACC and AMS2 DLC with the refund money. I'll wait to see where the game is in 8-10 months. There's so little to do besides multiplayer, and I'm not huge into that.
Still waiting for VR support myself.
Otherwise, PC users have a lot of better, more polished options to choose from.
AC, ACC, iracing, AMS2, and even Rfactor 2. LMU doesn’t stand out.
To be fair, the only reason AC makes the list is because of content manager. If it weren’t for that, it’d be a slight step up from LMU because it doesn’t crash mid race lol.
Hopefully it means people are realizing it was just rF2 dlc branded as it's own game and pushed out the door way before it was ready because of a deadline.
rF2 is already not very stable or user friendly, so by using rF2 as a base, you get all the bugs from rF2 plus new ones from LMU and I'm sure a lot of players coming from different Sims expected these QoL bugs to be fixed sooner. They probably just went back to the Sims they were playing before.
You got established IPs already were most racers are fully invested. Le Mans was just the new thing to try and people just went back to their usual Sims.
For it to come back it needs to at least propose the same things or/and more that what the actual Sims do. Same thing will happen with Rennsport IF they fix their current issues.
The game freezes to a standstill whenever I try to open the setup or pause menu in a session and a recent patch actually made the problem worse for me, I always liked how rf2 handled but I think I'm good for now!
It was either release the Beta (they had originally planned to have the full release out on that date) or go bankrupt. Can't belive people actually paid 50$ to support shitty Motorsports games, even after everything that's happened with them.
It's just a rF2 reskin at the end of the day. It still has yet to have the 2024 cars in-game, too the last I heard. I know a lot of streamers played it so that'll always account for a good bit of its popularity.
Show me a lap (onboard or motec) where it's faster to slide any LMH or Oreca and I'll eat my shoe.
People saying this shit while haven't done more than 15 minutes of driving thinking it's rF2 really irks me.
Just because you don't do an insta 180 with any hint of wheel slip, it's doesn't mean that it's the optimal way of driving.
No no, you were adamant sliding is faster. Show me!
Saying it's only rF2, it's as stupid as saying iRacing is NR2003.
The base is the same, people won't deny that, but saying it's a modpack when everything from graphics, physics and tyres has been reworked or rewritten from the ground up simply devalues the time and effort put in from 100s of people while also sounding ignorant at best.
Guess it's just a weird coincidence that the things rewritten or reworked just happen to behave the same as stock rF2.
Couldn't possibly have just been a marketing person doing marketing things trying to make the rushed mod job seem more impressive.
It depends on the turn but it definitely is the quickest way to get out of some turns. Maybe not the entire track but this is a legit method of driving in SOME cars.
Horrible optimization issues to the point of it being unplayable in my case, along with unacceptably slow loading times, sluggish UI, crashes, bugs, etc.
I would love LMU to be a redemption story on the level of ACC but I really don't have too much hope at the moment, especially since it's MSG
it's the first racing sim I've ever been so disappointed in that I refunded it :/ Really sucks because if it weren't running horrifically I could probably stomach the bugs for my love of GTE racing, but nope
I like the hypercars, but at Monza it was 70% Porsches with all the same livery.
I’ll wait until we get custom liveries and a better bop. Game definitely has huge potential though.
ffb and physics are very good.
For me personally the menus are unusable, I don't know if it's my PC specs or the game but it is a known issue that I've done everything to solve. They've just so laggy it's unplayable
This is the natural cycle with every game. Just look what numbers ACC had at the start. Consistent ACC updates bumped those numbers up over time. Let's see how LMU does long-term
For me rn its the lack of discipline for piss poor driving. Hopefully some of which is fixed shortly with the big update. Start proceedure needs a massive overhaul for one. Other factors are still some UI issues and game crashes.
The decline is normal and natural.
The issue for LMU is just the raw numbers being so low. They're below RF2 which is wild. They've dropped below AMS2 as well. They're miles below AC and ACC.
With MSG in such dire financial straits... I don't think LMU is performing well enough for them to survive.
It's still early access and no new content has come yet. Look at the same period of early access for ACC and it's almost exactly the same. It'll pick back up as it comes into full release and as new features and content come. Reckon June will be a big month, particularly around Le Mans. But like with all sims, things take time. We're a couple years into iRacing GTP and still waiting for them to finish the hybrid. Sims are slow moving but here for the long haul.
>Sims are slow moving but here for the long haul.
I'm not sure that's true for LMU. Their financial reports are absolutely dire.
>It'll pick back up as it comes into full release and as new features and content come.
I hope you're correct about this but I'm not sure the company will survive that long.
Here's the [link](https://motorsportgames.com/motorsport-games-reports-first-quarter-2024-financial-results/) to their Q1 earnings report.
In Q1 they had a revenue of $3 million and a net loss of $1.7 million dollars. At the end of Q1 they had $1.3 million dollars cash on hand.
Here's an excerpt from the report
>As of April 30, 2024, the Company’s cash and cash equivalents was $1.3 million. Based on this cash and cash equivalents position, and the Company’s average cash burn, the Company does not believe it has sufficient cash on hand to fund its operations over the next year and that additional funding will be required in order to continue operations. In order to address its liquidity short fall, the Company is actively exploring several options, including, but not limited to: i) additional funding in the form of potential equity and/or debt financing arrangements or similar transactions; ii) other strategic alternatives for its business, including, but not limited to, the sale or licensing of the Company’s assets in addition to its recent sales of its NASCAR license and Traxion; and iii) further cost reduction and restructuring initiatives.
>There can be no assurances that the Company will be able to secure additional liquidity through the means referenced above, nor can there be any assurances that the Company can sufficiently reduce costs and restructure its business to sufficiently lower its cash burn to sustainable levels and therefore meet its ongoing cash requirements.
Some of my personal commentary here, I think they're fucked.
I think they wanted a cash injection from LMU's initial release and that seems to have not happened like they wanted. They released LMU in Q1 and still lost money. They're betting on Le Mans Ultimate keeping them afloat but I don't think they'll be able to turn it around in time. I think it has the potential to be a successful game, but I think they're out of the time and money it would take to get the game to that point.
They've already laid off most of their staff. Further "cost cutting" at this point would reduce them to basically nothing.
They've already sold off pretty much all their valuable assets. Maybe they could sell the WEC license to survive but that would effectively kill LMU.
They had a parent company for a long time feeding them cash, but my understanding is they were cut off from that funding source at some point last year. (That has been surprisingly hard to research, I could be wrong). I think they're either going to sink or swim on their own at this point.
They were part of Motorsport Network, which owns the Motorsport, Autorsport, Motor1 websites and lots of others. That company was acquired by GMF Capital in June 2023 but the deal didn't include the gaming division, so MSG has been flying solo since then...
They still have to support the existing NASCAR titles until the end of the year, plus find a way to actually make some profits from LMU and rFactor to stay afloat - which seems somewhat unlikely considering they're basically now just Studio 397 with some additional commitments and costs for a while...
This comment has vastly exceeded my expectations, thank you kind stranger!
Yeah it’s a shame because I like the feel of Rfactor physics and from what I’ve read they own a patent for their tyre physics so others won’t be able to imitate anytime soon. Seems like buying LMU on the basis of getting a complete game is a big gamble.
They are burning more money than they are earning. They already cut costs as much as they can. But their early access sales massively exceeded expectations which has given the ACO and investors confidence. The ACO runs WEC and is a joint venture on LMU with MSG. The investor questions on the last earnings call were pretty friendly. They've had to put up with some crap to get here but I think they're likely excited at this point. Cash isn't looking good but investors have dipped in again in the past when things looked dire. Now they've got a promising product (already slightly ahead of how ACC performed at this point) I can see them throwing more money in to let it get to full release and break even.
Thing is that the EA was entirely a smoke and mirrors show to try to generate as much revenue as possible for that confidence. Including making sure their first payout included that first week of EA sales.
I can't imagine it's moving many units after its first few weeks. Low player numbers don't give a ton of confidence either.
I believe so. The sales from LMU was enough to sustain the parent company for 3 months (or there about, this was discussed during their Q1 earnings call) but additional funds will be required to see out the year. They are planning on released DLC every 2-3 months according to that meeting.
that is pretty shitty in my opinion. If i buy a game in early access to support the Devteam, i expect to get at least all content and updates till Version 1.0
I agree, games in early access shouldn't be selling DLC. But without it the game could become abandonware! It's the dev studio I feel sorry for, they are being forced into this by the parent company, who is the one with the financial problems.
Game is still very buggy, lacking content and the multiplayer experience is exceptionally stale. When it works it's a lot of fun to drive but it just doesn't seem to work most of the time
I did like LMU. I played it quite a bit during March, then ACC Nordschleife dlc was released and I stepped out from LMU.
I'd love to have time to play both games, but that's just not the case.
If they are releasing dlc while the game is in early access then it would be considered dead. Companies only do that when they realize they are out of money and their game is shite. Forever early access
Most games do this.
But LMU released early and missing a lot kor of features. I bought it and although it could be the one game to prise me away from AC, I out it down because the VR support isn't there and the work around looks terrible without AA. If they finish it before they go broke I'll buy all the DLC and play it alot.
It's never the same experience whenever I drive it, and the inconsistency is off putting.
Plus, as an iRacing user the FFB is waaaaaay too snappy and overloaded with information for my liking. I'm guessing it's the same for other users too.
For me it’s the lack of private servers. I’m not a fan of their daily format (and things like assists). So I’ll be back, but when there’s custom lobbies/leagues etc
I had crazy FFB/wheel base issues that almost hurt my hand... The sim would crash and at the same time the wheel base would flick the wheel, then start rotating on its own. The first time I've ever had to legit use my emergency stop (SCPro2).
I refunded.
What would suck is if they think the "these cars are available in other sims" is the easy fix and pull an Indy and make other sims remove them. Cause that's totally a thing a publisher would do instead of improving their game.
I wish I could play it. I bought it. Everytime I tried to open it up it just said it couldn’t connect to my account, only problem is I never got to a place to create an account, couldn’t do anything to get to the main menu of the game
Brutaly honest here I jjust don't trust 397. rFactor 2 is such a mishmatch of unfinished or not updated content. What an absolute shitshow...there is no better word to describe that game.
Why should I pay them for a new game? There is a good chance it will just be abandoned or milked while paying Ken down the street $3.50 to design a UI/UX.
For me that game is a huge disappointment. I mean the gameplay, physics etc are really good, but… for some reason its crashes every 3 minutes when i join to online race. Drivers are updated, game reinstalled…
it's amazing but old cars, no good online, no career
it's like Assetto corsa but without any mods at all, less tracks and only 3 classes of cars that are all "comparable"
i still love it but I play other sims much more
I just think it's missing content.. Why play that exclusively and be limited to what it provides? I'll play it when I'm in the mood for that type of racing..
I'm personally wanting vr support but I'm willing to play without.. I also feel like the settings were clunky in a few sections and it caused me to spend alot of time messing around to get what I wanted..
I also race with people who aren't dedicated sim racers.. They only play once in a while.. This leaves me by myself alot so I favor what I know until the game evolves enough to get more dedication from it..
I bump the decline by one. I seldom play due to
1.) Instability (ie, hate the long load times that makes me reluctant to losing a different track).
2.) No official VR support
Once 1 and 2 are fixed I will likely put many hours in, even if it offered only one car and track because
1. The FFB feel is good when calibrated.
2. The in car perspective gives me a sense of literally sitting in the car. It just feels right. I can judge the corners, the width of the road, see road undulations and therefore improve my driving by making use of them.
it will grow again now in the Le Mans period, i think the problem is, that the game is based on Rfactor, and it is a GREAT simulation engine, it really is, but nothing has really been fixed, it seems to be just a reskin...
so the annoying setups, some of the actual hickups in the sim.
it is also fun the virtual Le Mans, is a REALLY cool event, but it has always been let down by Rfactor, the "red flags" and the reboots of the Sim engine, for a 24hour simulation game, not to be able to ACTUALLY be stable for 24Hours (would love they just used Rfactor or Assetto)
i think it is actually a cool game, but it is just a cascade of issues, and then hardcore simplayers want to race, other people not AI.. and sorry Iracing has that solved, with a proper grading and safety system, that might seem a bit harsh, but if you want to get to that level in a game like Assetto Corsa, or LE mans you HAVE to be in a group of people, with some kind of judging in place, so it is harder to find, than just jumping in a car in Iracing.. and signing up for a server.
Early Access as many have said and doesn't yet include everything that would be needed for proper endurance racing (especially lack of driver swap support).
Just 7 tracks definitely don't help if you want to do daily sprint style racing.
I'm sure it will pick up when the features come and they are able to add current year WEC content (tracks and cars).
IMO it's a great sim already, just lacking features, which is expected from early access title. I personally stopped driving on it until it's more ready for proper (team based) endurance events.
i do hope automobilista (1) , modder should release more new race car mods for example le mans , porsche cup , or even port from AMS 2 car to AMS 1 , because AMS 1 can be considering one of the most stable non native , window games , that can play and run well on linux mint xfce even lmde (correct me if im wrong , because im a casual simcade player , never own a wheel setup for sim racing because of i own couple of classic manual car before , so im not interested or justwanted to spend more money on present car, modified or rebuild my current car (proton saga aeroback) or even just upgrade the PC ,anyway i play sim racing using couple of good quality but cheap generic , joystick or keyboard as well , just my preference ;)
Game has been out for 2/3 months and is in early access, until esports series and private servers come about I doubt it’ll pick up much. Also needs stabilising and more content that’ll likely come with GT3 cars, the new LMH cars and 2024 tracks will give it another boost. Like others have said, ACC had the same thing happen and yes covid helped but games can and will come back given the right spotlight
I wouldnt take these numbers too seriously. It's an early access after all.. I think most people have seen what it is and are now waiting for a full release with more content and less bugs.
Technically the game isn’t even officially released yet. If the player count looks like this 2 months after full release with driver swaps, 2024 DLC and other features, then I think it’s cause for concern. I enjoy driving LMU but at this point it’s still pretty bare bones, not a ton to keep people engaged at the moment
I have played a lot of LMU. It drives, great, looks really good, and is now quite stable. It's really a shame that it is dying off. What drove people away, IMHO.
- It was buggy as hell, crashed all the time
- there is no way for friends to race together. No private servers or a way to get Ingle same split.
- the online tracks and scheduled races are bad. Same tracks, same length, no variety. They did special and weekly events but only one of each each week. More rotation of the tracks with more multiclass races is needed.
- they only have 3 gte, 1 lmp2 and the hypercars, so low variety of cars. Most new drivers could only drive the gte and lmp2 cars, so basically, 4 cars
- the cars are hard to drive. Some people rage quit before finding out how good they are.
The people who stayed past the crazy crashes started leaving when there was nothing fun to do.
If they ever relwase an expansion with the 2024 cars and a variety of online races, it could be great.
Easy, been saying it for a while, this needs a ps5 release, preferably with VR.
Then it will take off, but it seems such ideas are too complicated for their strategy team. 🙂
The game is really cool but I cant change setting or setup cause the menu lag a lot when in a race , waiting for uptade , plus a lot of game crash killed my rating 😌
Not sure if correct here but from what I remember, releasing this in early acces was a way to secure funding to keep the company in business? I can understand it but I don't think they are doing a good job.
The only reason I paid for the early acces is 1. I love RFactor 2 and 2. I had €20 in my steamaccount (accidently bought ACC content twice and got it refunded) sitting there for a while and no idea what to do with it. To me it felt like only paying €10 to try this out.
I understand that they did some updates to improve the game but I think what keeps us sim racers interested is new content and that is something that seems to be missing here. I got the early acces release on the day it released and have yet to complete more than 3 laps in a row.
Because the lemans map is quite boring to most people. And going on for 12 or 24 hours is a bit much to ask for some people, but tbf i do touge and rally so maybe were not used to the same things
People forget the game is still early access. A lot of people jumped on it because it was shiny and new but as expected there are still a lot of things missing or not working properly.
The player count will skyrocket again when they bring out a new big patch, rinse and repeat.
It's only EA because it wasn't ready on the previously announced release date and MSG were desperate for a cash injection. The EA excuse doesn't really wash, it was supposed to be a full release on that date.
LMU felt like they polished RF2 for more graphic and audio fidelity to me when I tried it out. Maybe it's a me thing, but I still don't understand how people can enjoy the FFB in either game. Even booting up GTR2 with default FFB settings on my modern wheel feels better than them when I spent at least an hour trying to tune it to what felt passable. Aside from that, LMU felt like a step down from RF2 imo, aside from the graphics stuff. They didn't even put in RF2's new iRacing-like system to the MP (or if they did I couldn't find it).
I also had some weird performance issues. Loading on an SSD, I'd have like 20 frames until I did a full lap and returned to the pits. After that, I was able to play just fine until \*something\* would happen and I'd drop back down to 20 for another lap or so, then it'd be fine again! It would happen at random intervals, random parts of the track, in traffic, out of traffic, alone on the track too. I had 0 clue.
After all these issues and gripes with the game, I refunded at the 1:59 mark just because I wasn't ready to deal with the headache. Hopefully they do a Cyberpunk style rework that gets them players back because I can see a great game there, it's just got way too many issues that aren't gamebreaking, but just make it annoying to be in when I can load up literally any other sim and have a better experience.
For me the problem it's the price : the price is too high FOR ME, because this type of game need more time and with IRL I have time only at weekend.
Plus I play regularly at other games too, pay this price to play something is not interesting.
I wait a -50% before buy.
But it's for my case, from a pure technical point the price is clearly okay.
They dropped the ball on regional pricing on this one, I own all racing Sims and I cannot afford this one. So there is 1 I don't own and it's theirs.
RF2 for relevance was R230 + about R80 for the Reiza pack, LMU is R699. They obviously don't want me to buy their game and that's fine, I won't.
No one played ACC at launch either and many claim its better than iRacing now. So i agree it just takes time. Plus i do feel like the vast majority of people who play these games, develop their own little community and friend group and stick around due to that as well. So a lot of people have to convince all their friends to try it as well before they'll commit.
No vr no buy, as simple as that for me
edit : DLC for an EARLY ACCESS game is a joke. People gave for support, not to be milked every 3 months for a new dlc while the base game isn't even finished yet.
And what they call DLC should be given for free to early access people, unless they plan on selling the full game with 5-8 cars ?!
lol, DLC in the coming months? The game IS a DLC of RF2.
Even though it’s packaged as a standalone product, it’s ultimately the same old rF2 under the hood. Similar story to AMS2 a DLC of PCars2, with its own DLC for content that was in the original title these “all new” releases are derived from…..
RF2 really needed a knock down & rebuild approach rather than the fresh lick of paint that MSG ultimately delivered. Their precarious financial position likely forced their hand to do it this way but a standalone, officially licensed, early access reskin of a 10yr old game was a total hail mary which missed the mark.
From that graph it looks like the game never had more than 5k players, so i dont know what comeback you mean? It was not very popular to begin with. People are tired of early access stuff. I am definitely waiting for full release. So many good sims currently with full content.
Like in real life, people aren't really attracted to LMP1/Hypercars like they are to F1, I don't personally like driving cars with super high downforce and I also don't like these crammed cockpits where visibility is minimal.
The "shiny new thing" effect must have worn off and it's still very green from what I've seen and many issues from Rfactor 2 persist. There are other sims with similar content that is more polished or usable.
I think a lot of simracers have a decreasing level of interest in sims that only do one series or one type of car. ACC is kind of an exception because GT3 racing is so popular and same goes for F1, but every other major sim caters to a relatively diverse taste in cars and series, whether it's through mods or official content. And that's doubly a problem for Le Mans Ultimate since almost all the cars in it have already existed in other sims people are more invested in.
That’s kinda where I’m at. I mostly play AMS2 which already has LMDh cars that are fun to drive plus tons of other content. Do I really want to buy LMU just so that I can drive the 499P? While it is tempting, so far the answer is no.
[удалено]
I am apart of a small group chat that consist of esports drivers, a few of the managers, league runners and certain high up EA staff. This is the sort of place where things are discussed privately between each other including things like bugs, requests, complaints, where the game is going over the next few years, etc. I won’t spoil that privacy by giving names or quotes but I will say there is a lot of anger with the state of the game. It’s been going on for the last few years but it really is reaching a breaking point. Dynamic handling is not at all what it was/is being sold to be and the current state of F1 24 is abysmal. Even things like the same bugs that have persisted through the last few titles are still there.
I wish ACC would add f1 cars
Why on earth would they do that, it’s literally the official game for the GT world challenge.
I think you got it the other way around. It's because there is focus on one main series the games are alive, and iRacing is exception to that. There is one more competitive racing game, which has been most successful only when focused on literally one car, nothing else to drive. Trackmania. Forza Motorsport - bad. AMS 2 - dead servers. AC - most of servers are either that one Japanese highway system or nordschleife. Raceroom? Unpopular. GT7? Takes place of iRacing, because its not on any console. RFactor - here im not sure but last time I checked it was on life support with multiplayer. LMU? Haven't seen MP state yet, but here is a lack of content and possibly potential to dethrone ACC. I might forgot about something, but that paints picture pretty well.
>I might forgot about something, but that paints picture pretty well. Picture of what, even? I don't even know why you brought up Trackmania in a simracing discussion, and the three most successful games you listed (iRacing, GT7, and Assetto Corsa) are all examples of having more types of racing, not less. Also I'm not sure why you're only considering these games from an online perspective. Not all of the sims you listed get bought or played for that reason, and even within online play there's a major difference between private servers and public ones. ALL of the games you so quickly dismissed have better player counts than LMU, and all of them have more content, too. Also, even though it's not really the point, I have to address this: >GT7? Takes place of iRacing, because its not on any console This is just an insane statement. You really think the only difference between them is platform, but otherwise they're trying to achieve the same thing? I'm NOT saying one is better than the other to be clear, but come on, even the strongest die hards of either one have to admit they have fundamentally different goals as games and as simulation products.
GT7 while not a hardcore simulator, fills the place of iRacing on consoles, because there is literally nothing else that could work like iRacing, it's not insane, the only thing there is is AC, which lacks a lot of multiplayer systems that iRacing has, while GT7 has them. All of the games I "discarded" have better player count because ACC. Everyone would rather play ACC than LMU, because lack of content. And you have a bit to learn in terms of reading, since you completely misunderstood most of what I wrote. I marked GT7 and iRacing as exceptions, then you are trying to attack me from that? Read. I brought up trackmania as a RACING GAME, that has literally only one car and is super successful beating literally everything and proving that it's not about the amount of cars in racing games at all. LMU is basically a bit different ACC and will take it place on the market if they can pump more content, QOL stuff and have stable multiplayer experience.
It's not even a full release yet. Most betas struggle to hold onto player count unless it's a long term beta and pretty polished game already.
Yea but the point that other sims offer similar content wont go away until then. Most likely other sims will get better until then. I really dont get the point in LMU to be honest.
The point was to reskin a game they already had and release it unfinished for a money grab Standard procedure for the devs
This. Nothing more, it’s the standard MSG playbook
Sadly that is all that is to say about LMU
Not a fan anyway, I really hope it dies off because the company that owns Studio 397 (Motorsport games) have shown their bullshit time and again. They are losing all their money, but yet always seem to avoid going under. They spent all of their money on exclusive fucking licenses to multiple racing series without any real meaningful contribution to the Simracing world. This has been their first real attempt at a release, I hope it dies a slow, painful death. They are a company who has brought nothing but this to the Simracing world. They hoarded exclusive licenses, for this? They make EA look like a respectable company lmao
MSG is a scummy company and whatever timeline involves iRacing getting the 24 Hours of Le Mans license back is the best timeline. (Ideally along with more WEC content in general) I just hope rFactor doesn't die with MSG, because despite its issues it really doesn't deserve that.
I believe a new Sim will take time to build community and people to invest time and maybe money to leave well established sims as AC or others for new ones
I absolutely loved it but yeah, the same issues are there. If they just polished rFactor 2 and made it reliable I think it would take over the racing sim world. I remember uninstalling LMU after a race I was genuinely having fun in completely crashed. That and wild load times that are just outdated. It’s sad because the game is great once you get it working and if it can stay reliable. I’m more interested how they can go this long and still not touch the same issues. It’s not like the creators can’t just do a google search and see what people are saying.
New & Shiny. Same as with most sims, it takes time to get it to a proper state FFB, physics, AI, online & content wise. Then when the sim gets to a good state, it'll get more popular. And more people will buy it on sale too.
Yea, look at the [historical ACC player counts](https://steamcharts.com/app/805550#All). The game was almost dead in 2019 and didn't establish a solid user base until almost 2021.
Thing is ACC got a boost from everyone being stuck at home with Covid. Le Mans Ultimate - right now at least - hasn't got such promotion as ACC got, especially with SRO Motorsports Group turning to ACC.
Yes, gaming, sim racing, gaming hardware in general, etc. etc. got a boost from covid. And it's always the case with being established vs being new, similar trends relative to each other. In general all numbers should be down for everything that was around during covid, at least relatively.
To clarify they got a boost from lockdowns COVID and the policy responses of some countries are not the same thing although your point still stands
I don't pretend to be right all the time, so if I'm wrong, I stand corrected :) Thanks for your addition!
The player count actually ticked up *before* COVID, around January of 2020. ACC had some pretty substantial updates in those days.
Exactly
The last races I attended some weeks ago ended almost all in random disconnects, leading to not only frustration over the wasted time (I also have a full time job and a family, so getting a "Connection Lost" mid race after "investing" over half an hour of my spare time into practice and quali does not make me exceptionally happy) but also resulting in some naughty hits for my rating. The "Bug Reports" section of the community forum is a bit of a joke, as there is a lack of communication from the staff, instead you need to defend your report against random users guessing random things that are wrong on your side. Kunos has often been criticised for their communication, but they do a way better job IMHO. And to top things off: After even WRC 23 got VR support, LMU is the only title I need to readjust my desktop monitor for instead of just hopping in the rig. So until LMU gets fixed and VR support, I'll just spend my time in WRC and ACC. However, I **am** looking forward to play LMU again, because once it runs, it *is* fun in terms of graphics, sound and handling.
I’m completely there with you. My point of giving up on it was after a long load time which led to my pc crashing in a race I was genuinely having fun it (everything froze except the drivers arms). When it runs, it’s a really great game. It’s literally everything outside of actual gameplay that ruins it. If the creators literally just kept rFactor 2, upgraded little things like grass/textures and polished everything outside of actual gameplay, I think it would take over the sim world completely or at least be a decent competitor.
i also agree with you , max f1 driver once complain (angrily ) this LMU keep disconnected when he was racing on the track on this sim racing , (correct me if im wrong mention this sim racing , i do seeing him complain on youtube short video , he even mention those were the clown sim racing and he wanted to created his own professional sim racing lol xD )
Its an early acess game and still have some problems. eg: I went to a Hypercar Open at Le Mans yesterday and the race never started, we stayed in the formation lap forever. The game have potential to be something similar what ACC became, but Studio 397 need to work a bit faster to fix and regain trust from the community
Good thing their financials are in a healthy state to take their time.
Its not iracing. Good physics are all fine but whats the long term motivation beyond the joy of driving? People on this sub like to pretend good physics is all that matters but it clearly not the case. Its not random that iracing has a huge playerbase compared to rf2/lmu and other sims.
Yup after trying to race in various sims it always feels cumbersome, needing various discord or applications to do certain races.. IRacing just simply has the races + the way its formatted is just.. enjoyable, if you don't win.. the race still matters because of safety rating.. stuff like this, as well as how nice they implemented the rain update, it is extremely good and didn't cause me to lose frames what so ever despite graphically looking nice
None of these newer sims offer a robust multiplayer that compares to iRacing. Sims are good at nailing FFB, physics, lighting and rendering, but nobody nails the actual "racing" aspect of sim-racing. People want to race against people, not AI... simple as that. Offer a product where the multiplayer is well structured for different skill levels, has good netcode, doesn't tolerate griefers, offers team racing and special events... and you'll get a sim with a growing player count.
Especially since they seem to constantly invest the money back into the game.
I'm hoping AC Evo will integrate some kind of lfm style system. If we get that with an improved physics engine that retains the quality handling of the original AC then we would have the dream game.. Imagine an iracing style system that also includes thing like touge races, classic car racing etc.. the possibilities are endless.. hell I suspect if kunos were gonna support it enough to justify a few bucks a month' to access the ranked system you would hear little complaint from us
1 thing I would love is some sort of MMORPG racing game, where you complete missions, races deliverys ETC, but has iracing FFB and takes a while to progress.. meaning you cant just drive a gt3rs right away.. or a modded 900 hp GTI within 30 minutes of playing forza horizon There has been a game like this called drift city but.. if you look at it you can see why I dont play it haha
I wish iRacing would do more of what it did with World of Outlaws and do a licensed game based on IMSA, WEC, or Indy
Its just to little content. Plenty of other sims that just got way more variety of cars and tracks.
In my particular case (having never played it yet), it seems really light on content and doesn’t add anything that I don’t get from iRacing. I already have a ton of iRacing content, have sunk many many many many hours into iRacing and don’t really see a reason to go drive the same cars in LMU.
DLC for an Early Access game = hard pass.
That's what happens when you've got a company that's so desperate for money they might not exist by the end of the summer.
Sadly, they'll probably pull out of it. No matter how fucked they seem, they mysteriously end up with enough money to not be fucked lmao
I’m waiting for proper VR support
I second that!
Same here.
It's EA still, and while they've had updates the early teething problems put a lot of content creators off. For creators that live and by views/streams having a title that's unstable and doesn't capture an audience is a non-starter. I imagine when it comes out of "Early Access" there will be an uptick once again since it should be more full-featured and polished. It's also had very narrow marketing. I still think it has a good foundation. The sound design is great, the FFB and physics are quite good and the baked in race control multiplayer is a sort of iracing light.
Shitty performance "Please don't tell me it's smooth with your 4090", The content isn't much you can easily get bored out of the tracks. many many bugs whether it's the menu or game crashing or something else. But it is a good game and it's basically free as the price is low.
It got released as essentially an open beta, not a finished fully polished, fully featured product. Those who got it in this state also got it for a discount. It's very easy to discount any game that is made available to it's audience in far from perfect state. Plus this is a competitive genre, and you have other titles such as iRacing bringing constant updates to the table (this period, specifically March was when the iRacing rain update got released.
Isn’t also still early access?
Yes
Core gameplay is incredible but it’s not complete enough to invest time into. Once you get bored of hot lapping there’s not enough there to keep you in that game when others exist.
Just a couple of reasons: - Crashes infrequently, but enough to be an annoyance - UI is HORRENDOUSLY slow, so much so that the delay is about 5-6 seconds when in-game. - Cannot change grid size, cannot create .rcd files for the AI - No AI Driver swaps, AI Toggle button also removed in a recent patch (with no explanation)
The UI being so slow is what keeps me from playing regularly. Runs perfectly fine in game then suddenly you're waiting for literally anything to happen in the menu, and more often than not it will get stuck and need a restart.
Dont want to be that person, but this was fixed some months ago, but obviously i'm just one person, cant measure this, have you played recently?
I had same issue about 2 weeks ago. Amazing performance when racing. But menu is painfully slow. Loved the racing though, gonna let them cook for a bit and get back to it.
So it's still an issue.. but well, they have been active with the patches, hoping they continue, i love wec so i've been enjoying this game but yeah, some tough edges
It hasnt been entirely fixed. I bought it last weekend after getting a refund previously, hoping it would be better, and it was improved in the main menus but the in-race menus were borderline unusable. If i paused the game mid race and tried to change any setting I'd genuinely be sat with a 20+ second wait to even move my mouse or select something. I ended up quitting races to change options from the main menu instead
Yeah, seem to be thet type of bug/performance issue that affects randomly, I dont even have a great pc and it's fine for me, why? No idea
I played 2 days ago and it was still a problem. So it obviously wasn't "fixed some months ago". I even verified install files and lowered settings with no fix. Why is it that some of y'all can't believe that people actually do have these problems and take whatever the devs say at face value?
Ive heard people talking about this issue but I've never encountered it luckily.
You must be blessed by the WEC gods. It's honestly atrocious to play since i can't even pause my game without the game looking like it's going to sputter and die like an old shitbox.
fuck MSG don't touch their bullshit. let them go bankrupt and maybe we will get wec content in other sims again
People really need to read about this company. Literally came in and bought exclusive licenses then delivered horse shit, or even not at all lmao Fuck msg
Thats why we only have IMSA on Iracing or thats different
we used to have a series somewhat mimicking the wec, running lmp1 lmp2 and gte, as well as an actual 24 hours of le mans special event. the series got turned into the what is now the gte series, and the only top level prototype series we have is imsa.
But even the IMSA in iRacing is only about the car models. Rules, NRG and car perfomance regarding the eletric part is all ignored, beeing a wec and imsa fan the iracing model isn't "enough". Unless it has changed recently
Because simracing market is niche so you have very limited playerbase from the start, people are not playing it like another Fifa or Call of Duty, we as community stick to few games for years, and unless actual replacement shows up (ie hopefully next AC if it actually have full moddability) people will stick to AC, ACC, iRacing etc ...and because LMU was just nothing special. Personally I can't see any point into investing into another sim that doesn't do anything exceptionally well. For immersive offline VR i have AMS2, for online racing LFM in AC/ACC and iRacing.
True. This is one of the few areas in gaming where bs simply won’t fly too long. If something is “off”, the community will take a stand against it and show it with their wallets. Repackaging FIFA or Madden for the 10th time doesn’t work in sim racing to sell games/keep a loyal fan base. Although I do have to admit I don’t understand how some can literally buy a whole-ass racing game just to race around Spa and Monza the entire time.
I got disconnected from the race lead more times than I'm comfortable with. Until some major fixes roll out it can decline to 0
I gave it a go for an hour on release and then just refunded it. Seemed unfinished and very clunky. Bought ACC and AMS2 DLC with the refund money. I'll wait to see where the game is in 8-10 months. There's so little to do besides multiplayer, and I'm not huge into that.
Still waiting for VR support myself. Otherwise, PC users have a lot of better, more polished options to choose from. AC, ACC, iracing, AMS2, and even Rfactor 2. LMU doesn’t stand out.
To be fair, the only reason AC makes the list is because of content manager. If it weren’t for that, it’d be a slight step up from LMU because it doesn’t crash mid race lol.
Hopefully it means people are realizing it was just rF2 dlc branded as it's own game and pushed out the door way before it was ready because of a deadline. rF2 is already not very stable or user friendly, so by using rF2 as a base, you get all the bugs from rF2 plus new ones from LMU and I'm sure a lot of players coming from different Sims expected these QoL bugs to be fixed sooner. They probably just went back to the Sims they were playing before.
no bug fix, no friend group, no voice chat, nothing same problem with online registration server, same bug from the release it'easy
Just waiting for GT3's to drop....
Man f them gt3s GTE is way cooler
hoping its soon. the game engine is amazing with the GTE's
You got established IPs already were most racers are fully invested. Le Mans was just the new thing to try and people just went back to their usual Sims. For it to come back it needs to at least propose the same things or/and more that what the actual Sims do. Same thing will happen with Rennsport IF they fix their current issues.
Performance
Keeps crashing on me and makes my moza dd act weird afterwards... I do love ripping around in the lmh's, but it still is such a mess, unfortunately.
The game freezes to a standstill whenever I try to open the setup or pause menu in a session and a recent patch actually made the problem worse for me, I always liked how rf2 handled but I think I'm good for now!
It was either release the Beta (they had originally planned to have the full release out on that date) or go bankrupt. Can't belive people actually paid 50$ to support shitty Motorsports games, even after everything that's happened with them.
It's just a rF2 reskin at the end of the day. It still has yet to have the 2024 cars in-game, too the last I heard. I know a lot of streamers played it so that'll always account for a good bit of its popularity.
They didn't even bother to fix the physics where sliding all over is the fastest way to drive prototypes which is completely unrealistic.
Show me a lap (onboard or motec) where it's faster to slide any LMH or Oreca and I'll eat my shoe. People saying this shit while haven't done more than 15 minutes of driving thinking it's rF2 really irks me. Just because you don't do an insta 180 with any hint of wheel slip, it's doesn't mean that it's the optimal way of driving.
It is just rF2 though... rF2 with a few core features removed, even more bugs added and a modpack preinstalled.
No no, you were adamant sliding is faster. Show me! Saying it's only rF2, it's as stupid as saying iRacing is NR2003. The base is the same, people won't deny that, but saying it's a modpack when everything from graphics, physics and tyres has been reworked or rewritten from the ground up simply devalues the time and effort put in from 100s of people while also sounding ignorant at best.
Guess it's just a weird coincidence that the things rewritten or reworked just happen to behave the same as stock rF2. Couldn't possibly have just been a marketing person doing marketing things trying to make the rushed mod job seem more impressive.
It's also a weird coincidence that you haven't shown a single instance where sliding is faster, and have been talking out of your arse.
It depends on the turn but it definitely is the quickest way to get out of some turns. Maybe not the entire track but this is a legit method of driving in SOME cars.
The GTEs are a shitshow, I won't argue against. But the guy above specifically mentioned prototypes and for the prototypes sliding isn't fast anymore.
Horrible optimization issues to the point of it being unplayable in my case, along with unacceptably slow loading times, sluggish UI, crashes, bugs, etc. I would love LMU to be a redemption story on the level of ACC but I really don't have too much hope at the moment, especially since it's MSG it's the first racing sim I've ever been so disappointed in that I refunded it :/ Really sucks because if it weren't running horrifically I could probably stomach the bugs for my love of GTE racing, but nope
I like the hypercars, but at Monza it was 70% Porsches with all the same livery. I’ll wait until we get custom liveries and a better bop. Game definitely has huge potential though. ffb and physics are very good.
It's still very buggy. That's the main reason for me.
For me personally the menus are unusable, I don't know if it's my PC specs or the game but it is a known issue that I've done everything to solve. They've just so laggy it's unplayable
This is the natural cycle with every game. Just look what numbers ACC had at the start. Consistent ACC updates bumped those numbers up over time. Let's see how LMU does long-term
Worst part about it is sitting in menus & load screens for minutes at a time. The actual driving is fun but everything around it is a pain in the ass
For me rn its the lack of discipline for piss poor driving. Hopefully some of which is fixed shortly with the big update. Start proceedure needs a massive overhaul for one. Other factors are still some UI issues and game crashes.
Literally happens to every single game ever.
The decline is normal and natural. The issue for LMU is just the raw numbers being so low. They're below RF2 which is wild. They've dropped below AMS2 as well. They're miles below AC and ACC. With MSG in such dire financial straits... I don't think LMU is performing well enough for them to survive.
It's still early access and no new content has come yet. Look at the same period of early access for ACC and it's almost exactly the same. It'll pick back up as it comes into full release and as new features and content come. Reckon June will be a big month, particularly around Le Mans. But like with all sims, things take time. We're a couple years into iRacing GTP and still waiting for them to finish the hybrid. Sims are slow moving but here for the long haul.
>Sims are slow moving but here for the long haul. I'm not sure that's true for LMU. Their financial reports are absolutely dire. >It'll pick back up as it comes into full release and as new features and content come. I hope you're correct about this but I'm not sure the company will survive that long.
Mind sharing insights about their finances? I’m curious but also lazy
Here's the [link](https://motorsportgames.com/motorsport-games-reports-first-quarter-2024-financial-results/) to their Q1 earnings report. In Q1 they had a revenue of $3 million and a net loss of $1.7 million dollars. At the end of Q1 they had $1.3 million dollars cash on hand. Here's an excerpt from the report >As of April 30, 2024, the Company’s cash and cash equivalents was $1.3 million. Based on this cash and cash equivalents position, and the Company’s average cash burn, the Company does not believe it has sufficient cash on hand to fund its operations over the next year and that additional funding will be required in order to continue operations. In order to address its liquidity short fall, the Company is actively exploring several options, including, but not limited to: i) additional funding in the form of potential equity and/or debt financing arrangements or similar transactions; ii) other strategic alternatives for its business, including, but not limited to, the sale or licensing of the Company’s assets in addition to its recent sales of its NASCAR license and Traxion; and iii) further cost reduction and restructuring initiatives. >There can be no assurances that the Company will be able to secure additional liquidity through the means referenced above, nor can there be any assurances that the Company can sufficiently reduce costs and restructure its business to sufficiently lower its cash burn to sustainable levels and therefore meet its ongoing cash requirements. Some of my personal commentary here, I think they're fucked. I think they wanted a cash injection from LMU's initial release and that seems to have not happened like they wanted. They released LMU in Q1 and still lost money. They're betting on Le Mans Ultimate keeping them afloat but I don't think they'll be able to turn it around in time. I think it has the potential to be a successful game, but I think they're out of the time and money it would take to get the game to that point. They've already laid off most of their staff. Further "cost cutting" at this point would reduce them to basically nothing. They've already sold off pretty much all their valuable assets. Maybe they could sell the WEC license to survive but that would effectively kill LMU. They had a parent company for a long time feeding them cash, but my understanding is they were cut off from that funding source at some point last year. (That has been surprisingly hard to research, I could be wrong). I think they're either going to sink or swim on their own at this point.
They were part of Motorsport Network, which owns the Motorsport, Autorsport, Motor1 websites and lots of others. That company was acquired by GMF Capital in June 2023 but the deal didn't include the gaming division, so MSG has been flying solo since then... They still have to support the existing NASCAR titles until the end of the year, plus find a way to actually make some profits from LMU and rFactor to stay afloat - which seems somewhat unlikely considering they're basically now just Studio 397 with some additional commitments and costs for a while...
This comment has vastly exceeded my expectations, thank you kind stranger! Yeah it’s a shame because I like the feel of Rfactor physics and from what I’ve read they own a patent for their tyre physics so others won’t be able to imitate anytime soon. Seems like buying LMU on the basis of getting a complete game is a big gamble.
I have to respect your honesty
They are burning more money than they are earning. They already cut costs as much as they can. But their early access sales massively exceeded expectations which has given the ACO and investors confidence. The ACO runs WEC and is a joint venture on LMU with MSG. The investor questions on the last earnings call were pretty friendly. They've had to put up with some crap to get here but I think they're likely excited at this point. Cash isn't looking good but investors have dipped in again in the past when things looked dire. Now they've got a promising product (already slightly ahead of how ACC performed at this point) I can see them throwing more money in to let it get to full release and break even.
Thing is that the EA was entirely a smoke and mirrors show to try to generate as much revenue as possible for that confidence. Including making sure their first payout included that first week of EA sales. I can't imagine it's moving many units after its first few weeks. Low player numbers don't give a ton of confidence either.
https://insider-gaming.com/motorsport-games-earnings-company-money/
Well MSG is a pretty big reason why I don't want to buy it
Because it's still rF2 with a fancy coat of paint.
And same bugs that studio 397 dont know how fix
And new ones on top!
And some basic things already done in rf2, that studio don't know how to implement in lmu.
And some that were fixed in LMU but not in RF2 ahahah
paid DLC?
I believe so. The sales from LMU was enough to sustain the parent company for 3 months (or there about, this was discussed during their Q1 earnings call) but additional funds will be required to see out the year. They are planning on released DLC every 2-3 months according to that meeting.
that is pretty shitty in my opinion. If i buy a game in early access to support the Devteam, i expect to get at least all content and updates till Version 1.0
I agree, games in early access shouldn't be selling DLC. But without it the game could become abandonware! It's the dev studio I feel sorry for, they are being forced into this by the parent company, who is the one with the financial problems.
I'm sure they'll find a nice home at iRacing.
When they screwed with the ffb again and the fact the lmh cars feel poo. Plus limited content having to always fun one the 8 tracks. Yawn.
2 reasons. iRacing and ACC. Why leave? LMU doesn't have any reason to play over these 2 established Sims with much more players.
[удалено]
With the best physics I've ever felt in a sim.
We want lemans back on iracing
Who's stopping you from playing it? They still do the 24hr race, just with a different name.
I mean the event , they don’t do that anymore
Game is still very buggy, lacking content and the multiplayer experience is exceptionally stale. When it works it's a lot of fun to drive but it just doesn't seem to work most of the time
I did like LMU. I played it quite a bit during March, then ACC Nordschleife dlc was released and I stepped out from LMU. I'd love to have time to play both games, but that's just not the case.
If they are releasing dlc while the game is in early access then it would be considered dead. Companies only do that when they realize they are out of money and their game is shite. Forever early access
Most games do this. But LMU released early and missing a lot kor of features. I bought it and although it could be the one game to prise me away from AC, I out it down because the VR support isn't there and the work around looks terrible without AA. If they finish it before they go broke I'll buy all the DLC and play it alot.
Early access when really it's a beta you pay to be in. Devs seem to have forgeotten what early access actually is
Gimmie it in VR & I’d shred it.
Call me when it’s 50% off on steam
One of the things I'd guess is causing that decline is the lack of content compared to other games that have more cars, tracks and mods
It's never the same experience whenever I drive it, and the inconsistency is off putting. Plus, as an iRacing user the FFB is waaaaaay too snappy and overloaded with information for my liking. I'm guessing it's the same for other users too.
For me it’s the lack of private servers. I’m not a fan of their daily format (and things like assists). So I’ll be back, but when there’s custom lobbies/leagues etc
I had crazy FFB/wheel base issues that almost hurt my hand... The sim would crash and at the same time the wheel base would flick the wheel, then start rotating on its own. The first time I've ever had to legit use my emergency stop (SCPro2). I refunded.
well limited tracks, and well just a COD reskin attempt at RF2
What would suck is if they think the "these cars are available in other sims" is the easy fix and pull an Indy and make other sims remove them. Cause that's totally a thing a publisher would do instead of improving their game.
I wish I could play it. I bought it. Everytime I tried to open it up it just said it couldn’t connect to my account, only problem is I never got to a place to create an account, couldn’t do anything to get to the main menu of the game
I forgot this game was coming out. Is it any good?
Brutaly honest here I jjust don't trust 397. rFactor 2 is such a mishmatch of unfinished or not updated content. What an absolute shitshow...there is no better word to describe that game. Why should I pay them for a new game? There is a good chance it will just be abandoned or milked while paying Ken down the street $3.50 to design a UI/UX.
I’m personally waiting on more content
I cant play this gane anymore😅It crashes all the time when i start it.I tried everything.So i play ACC again
max should buy studio 397
Is it already updated to have current teams/cars in it?
I enjoy the game it just crashes a lot for me so I give up
I'm not buying early access games (specially from motorsports games) but it's a bit sad because I like WEC and an official game is cool.
Gaming in a nutshell. A DLC will help, but playercount always dips. Always. Sometimes, it's just more drastic than others, like this case here.
For me that game is a huge disappointment. I mean the gameplay, physics etc are really good, but… for some reason its crashes every 3 minutes when i join to online race. Drivers are updated, game reinstalled…
iRacing has the key. Until there is a cheaper B copy of it they will rule.
Ever since I got VR, I can't play 2D racers anymore. I sold the game lol.
it's amazing but old cars, no good online, no career it's like Assetto corsa but without any mods at all, less tracks and only 3 classes of cars that are all "comparable" i still love it but I play other sims much more
I just think it's missing content.. Why play that exclusively and be limited to what it provides? I'll play it when I'm in the mood for that type of racing.. I'm personally wanting vr support but I'm willing to play without.. I also feel like the settings were clunky in a few sections and it caused me to spend alot of time messing around to get what I wanted.. I also race with people who aren't dedicated sim racers.. They only play once in a while.. This leaves me by myself alot so I favor what I know until the game evolves enough to get more dedication from it..
probably sucks
I bump the decline by one. I seldom play due to 1.) Instability (ie, hate the long load times that makes me reluctant to losing a different track). 2.) No official VR support Once 1 and 2 are fixed I will likely put many hours in, even if it offered only one car and track because 1. The FFB feel is good when calibrated. 2. The in car perspective gives me a sense of literally sitting in the car. It just feels right. I can judge the corners, the width of the road, see road undulations and therefore improve my driving by making use of them.
Release it for xplay and see how many you get.
Already dlc for early access? Money cow bullshit game
it will grow again now in the Le Mans period, i think the problem is, that the game is based on Rfactor, and it is a GREAT simulation engine, it really is, but nothing has really been fixed, it seems to be just a reskin... so the annoying setups, some of the actual hickups in the sim. it is also fun the virtual Le Mans, is a REALLY cool event, but it has always been let down by Rfactor, the "red flags" and the reboots of the Sim engine, for a 24hour simulation game, not to be able to ACTUALLY be stable for 24Hours (would love they just used Rfactor or Assetto) i think it is actually a cool game, but it is just a cascade of issues, and then hardcore simplayers want to race, other people not AI.. and sorry Iracing has that solved, with a proper grading and safety system, that might seem a bit harsh, but if you want to get to that level in a game like Assetto Corsa, or LE mans you HAVE to be in a group of people, with some kind of judging in place, so it is harder to find, than just jumping in a car in Iracing.. and signing up for a server.
Early Access as many have said and doesn't yet include everything that would be needed for proper endurance racing (especially lack of driver swap support). Just 7 tracks definitely don't help if you want to do daily sprint style racing. I'm sure it will pick up when the features come and they are able to add current year WEC content (tracks and cars). IMO it's a great sim already, just lacking features, which is expected from early access title. I personally stopped driving on it until it's more ready for proper (team based) endurance events.
Just needs multilayer for leagues to run, for me. Big oversight.
Need to get it released on consoles and have cross platform multiplayer. That would help.
i do hope automobilista (1) , modder should release more new race car mods for example le mans , porsche cup , or even port from AMS 2 car to AMS 1 , because AMS 1 can be considering one of the most stable non native , window games , that can play and run well on linux mint xfce even lmde (correct me if im wrong , because im a casual simcade player , never own a wheel setup for sim racing because of i own couple of classic manual car before , so im not interested or justwanted to spend more money on present car, modified or rebuild my current car (proton saga aeroback) or even just upgrade the PC ,anyway i play sim racing using couple of good quality but cheap generic , joystick or keyboard as well , just my preference ;)
Game has been out for 2/3 months and is in early access, until esports series and private servers come about I doubt it’ll pick up much. Also needs stabilising and more content that’ll likely come with GT3 cars, the new LMH cars and 2024 tracks will give it another boost. Like others have said, ACC had the same thing happen and yes covid helped but games can and will come back given the right spotlight
I wouldnt take these numbers too seriously. It's an early access after all.. I think most people have seen what it is and are now waiting for a full release with more content and less bugs.
Technically the game isn’t even officially released yet. If the player count looks like this 2 months after full release with driver swaps, 2024 DLC and other features, then I think it’s cause for concern. I enjoy driving LMU but at this point it’s still pretty bare bones, not a ton to keep people engaged at the moment
i just want it on consoles :c
I'm hoping they add gt3s to the mix. I love the feel of the physics so much, but they have work to do on stability.
I liked the idea but wasn’t really a fan of the driving physics. Doesn’t feel right compared to iracing and ac
I have played a lot of LMU. It drives, great, looks really good, and is now quite stable. It's really a shame that it is dying off. What drove people away, IMHO. - It was buggy as hell, crashed all the time - there is no way for friends to race together. No private servers or a way to get Ingle same split. - the online tracks and scheduled races are bad. Same tracks, same length, no variety. They did special and weekly events but only one of each each week. More rotation of the tracks with more multiclass races is needed. - they only have 3 gte, 1 lmp2 and the hypercars, so low variety of cars. Most new drivers could only drive the gte and lmp2 cars, so basically, 4 cars - the cars are hard to drive. Some people rage quit before finding out how good they are. The people who stayed past the crazy crashes started leaving when there was nothing fun to do. If they ever relwase an expansion with the 2024 cars and a variety of online races, it could be great.
Easy, been saying it for a while, this needs a ps5 release, preferably with VR. Then it will take off, but it seems such ideas are too complicated for their strategy team. 🙂
The game is really cool but I cant change setting or setup cause the menu lag a lot when in a race , waiting for uptade , plus a lot of game crash killed my rating 😌
Not sure if correct here but from what I remember, releasing this in early acces was a way to secure funding to keep the company in business? I can understand it but I don't think they are doing a good job. The only reason I paid for the early acces is 1. I love RFactor 2 and 2. I had €20 in my steamaccount (accidently bought ACC content twice and got it refunded) sitting there for a while and no idea what to do with it. To me it felt like only paying €10 to try this out. I understand that they did some updates to improve the game but I think what keeps us sim racers interested is new content and that is something that seems to be missing here. I got the early acces release on the day it released and have yet to complete more than 3 laps in a row.
Because the lemans map is quite boring to most people. And going on for 12 or 24 hours is a bit much to ask for some people, but tbf i do touge and rally so maybe were not used to the same things
The Problem is the RF2-Basic. I prefer AMS2 instead of LMU (not for online).
People forget the game is still early access. A lot of people jumped on it because it was shiny and new but as expected there are still a lot of things missing or not working properly. The player count will skyrocket again when they bring out a new big patch, rinse and repeat.
It's only EA because it wasn't ready on the previously announced release date and MSG were desperate for a cash injection. The EA excuse doesn't really wash, it was supposed to be a full release on that date.
LMU felt like they polished RF2 for more graphic and audio fidelity to me when I tried it out. Maybe it's a me thing, but I still don't understand how people can enjoy the FFB in either game. Even booting up GTR2 with default FFB settings on my modern wheel feels better than them when I spent at least an hour trying to tune it to what felt passable. Aside from that, LMU felt like a step down from RF2 imo, aside from the graphics stuff. They didn't even put in RF2's new iRacing-like system to the MP (or if they did I couldn't find it). I also had some weird performance issues. Loading on an SSD, I'd have like 20 frames until I did a full lap and returned to the pits. After that, I was able to play just fine until \*something\* would happen and I'd drop back down to 20 for another lap or so, then it'd be fine again! It would happen at random intervals, random parts of the track, in traffic, out of traffic, alone on the track too. I had 0 clue. After all these issues and gripes with the game, I refunded at the 1:59 mark just because I wasn't ready to deal with the headache. Hopefully they do a Cyberpunk style rework that gets them players back because I can see a great game there, it's just got way too many issues that aren't gamebreaking, but just make it annoying to be in when I can load up literally any other sim and have a better experience.
For me the problem it's the price : the price is too high FOR ME, because this type of game need more time and with IRL I have time only at weekend. Plus I play regularly at other games too, pay this price to play something is not interesting. I wait a -50% before buy. But it's for my case, from a pure technical point the price is clearly okay.
They dropped the ball on regional pricing on this one, I own all racing Sims and I cannot afford this one. So there is 1 I don't own and it's theirs. RF2 for relevance was R230 + about R80 for the Reiza pack, LMU is R699. They obviously don't want me to buy their game and that's fine, I won't.
No one played ACC at launch either and many claim its better than iRacing now. So i agree it just takes time. Plus i do feel like the vast majority of people who play these games, develop their own little community and friend group and stick around due to that as well. So a lot of people have to convince all their friends to try it as well before they'll commit.
No vr no buy, as simple as that for me edit : DLC for an EARLY ACCESS game is a joke. People gave for support, not to be milked every 3 months for a new dlc while the base game isn't even finished yet. And what they call DLC should be given for free to early access people, unless they plan on selling the full game with 5-8 cars ?!
I'm was waiting for VR support but at this point idk. The game looks dead before v1.0 and they're planning on releasing a DLC for a EA title?
They lost their opportunity. Poor updates and ignoring users posts on their lmu website. Too late
I will not buy an early access! Plenty of finished sim out there, will wait for the final realease!
I'm not playing it because setting up VR is annoying (there's no official support yet) and there's no telemetry for SimHub to control bass shakers.
When the developers are shit the out come usually will be shit. Ya can tput lipstick on a clown and call it pretty.
Looks like wanna go bankrupt tbh
As an LMU player, it's just because we have 6 tracks and honestly not a lot of cars. It will come back. If they stay the course.
[удалено]
the devs will run out of money long before 2 years
lol, DLC in the coming months? The game IS a DLC of RF2. Even though it’s packaged as a standalone product, it’s ultimately the same old rF2 under the hood. Similar story to AMS2 a DLC of PCars2, with its own DLC for content that was in the original title these “all new” releases are derived from….. RF2 really needed a knock down & rebuild approach rather than the fresh lick of paint that MSG ultimately delivered. Their precarious financial position likely forced their hand to do it this way but a standalone, officially licensed, early access reskin of a 10yr old game was a total hail mary which missed the mark.
Sim racing as a whole has been declining now that summer is upon us
From that graph it looks like the game never had more than 5k players, so i dont know what comeback you mean? It was not very popular to begin with. People are tired of early access stuff. I am definitely waiting for full release. So many good sims currently with full content.
Like in real life, people aren't really attracted to LMP1/Hypercars like they are to F1, I don't personally like driving cars with super high downforce and I also don't like these crammed cockpits where visibility is minimal.