Thrustmaster T500 RS Wheel Releases January 5 for $599

Accessories December 26th, 2010 by Jordan

Full details about the new “official” GT5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, have now been released, and it looks like Kazunori Yamauchi’s original tweet hinting at the price was actually correct. It will be released on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 in North America and Europe for $599.99, £449.99, or €499.99 (it’s coming Jan. 25 in Japan). Thrustmaster is clearly targeting the higher end of the market with this price range, especially considering the T500′s H-pattern shifter (to be released in the next few “months”) is not included with the package.

It is also still unclear if the T500 will be compatible with platforms other than the PlayStation 3, a luxury that owners of Logitech and Fanatec wheels have enjoyed for many years now. With the second batch of Fanatec’s new 911 GT2 wheel also shipping next month, it will be interesting to watch these two high-end devices go head-to-head in 2011.

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120 Comments

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  1. December 27th, 2010 at 5:44 pm - #
    djs

    I’ve ordered the GT2 club sport.

  2. December 27th, 2010 at 4:47 pm - #
    KilzoneStrife

    Kaz, you mad. In my country, it will cost double that. A G27 is $400 U.S here.

  3. December 27th, 2010 at 4:19 pm - #
    Randum

    Fixed paddles is not on all real cars. Mine is on the wheel and I definitely prefer that – that price is ridiculous, what exactly is so much better than the DFGT? Someone justify that extra $500 for me..

    • December 28th, 2010 at 7:38 pm - #
      BWX

      it’s WAY better than a DFGT. DFGT is a POS. Probably better than a G25/G27, but the question is, how much better.

  4. December 27th, 2010 at 1:30 pm - #
    PSUengr

    This wheel will have to be substantially discounted in order to gain wide adoption. At twice the MSRP price of a G27 with less included hardware this wheel will be a tough pill to swallow. And that assumes people pay full MSRP for logitech wheels….before GT5 came out a G27 wheel could be had for $150 by a savvy shopper. Personally, I picked up a DFGT for $70 to tide me over until either the G27 prices dropped again or this product came out. I can definitively say that I won’t be buying this unless it hits retailers with a 40% discount on day 1. $300 is the maximum I think the mass market would realisticly pay for a wheel. Even the hard core racing sim players won’t want to spend much over $400 and that is a very very small market to support a product like this and even then you won’t convince all of that super tiny piece of the gaming market to switch over.

    Epic Fail.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 3:45 pm - #
      Skiddy

      It’s an elephant of a pill.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 4:15 pm - #
      AGNT009

      Too big to be considered a pill. More like Elephant Tranquilizer needed to convince guys to shell out that cash. Shouldnt there be a rule the accessory cant cost more than the system did when it was launched?

    • December 27th, 2010 at 9:32 pm - #
      occasionalracer

      Poor babies, I know you can’t help yourself from crying… Your mommys got your milk ready but remember what she you told about growing up to be a good boy you gotta go to school and get a good job. Geez I just do masonry work and can easily afford this wheel if I want, there are so many expensive ass hobbies out there that cost thousands, mine being my cars. This wheel is twice as heavy and powerful as the G27 and isn’t produced by a large ass company, so naturally the price isn’t going to be in that range. All you babies want one so bad you’re looking for someone to blame that you can’t buy one. Blame yourselves, I hope Thrustmaster rebounds with their once reputable name in the high-end market. I’m happy about this wheel hitting the market.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 11:34 pm - #
      RTSolvalou

      I think Yamauchi and GT5 are victims of Product Placement, first we had my chemical scumbags, and now this.

    • December 28th, 2010 at 7:36 pm - #
      BWX

      occasionalracer ….. You are full of crap. I can afford one if I wanted. It’s not a question of whether or not I can afford it, it’s a question of if I think it’s worth 600 bucks it or not. Unless it’s way better than the Fanatec wheel, which I doubt, it probably won’t be. My G25 is still working flawlessly, and I have a reserve G25 in a box, so I won’t need to upgrade any time soon anyway.

    • December 28th, 2010 at 11:19 pm - #
      occasionalracer

      Good for you BWX. I’ve been using the G25 since it was released and was lately thinking about the GT3 RS, but now that this wheel is being released I will wait for reviews. I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that this thing costs more to produce, plus they won’t be pumping them out like Logitechs, so like many things in the world more exclusive items are more expensive. We don’t know what the major improvement will be over the competition but they state that the motor used is twice as powerful as what’s currently on the market, so obviously it’s going to be more solid and fluid feel, and that worth a lot to me. The Logitechs do have this weird mechanical feel to them that’s not strong enough sometimes. I’d rather see them doing something bigger and better rather than equivilent or affordable since we already have those options. They will sell enough units in the next year and they’re not trying to compete with anybody, they’re just going the next step and effectively releasing the most expensive gaming wheel to date. Cool I say.

  5. December 27th, 2010 at 1:13 pm - #
    AGNT009

    Wow. Let me stop laughing first….

    Ok, I loved the Knight Rider part of the commercial where the wheel is intelligent enough to drive a real car without human control. Nice. Always wanted KITT.

    The part where “Slick Rick is offline” was a nice touch, because I DID feel like I was being had by a smooth talking car salesman. (Yeah, I know that wasnt on purpose)

    Looks like Thrustmaster let PD design that commercial. Every day PD does stuff to prove they are no longer in touch with the rest of the world. Its like Kim Jong ILL is running PD now. They are becoming a bigger joke with each passing week. Its looking like GT5 will be the last GT I buy if they dont wake up to reality.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 1:16 pm - #
      AGNT009

      GT5 isnt even worth the $60 I paid for it in its current state. You want me to pay $600 effing dollars for a wheel WITHOUT a mother effing shifter? They’ve completely lost their marbles.

      I want everyone who goes into their local electronics section to start bursting out with audible laughter. When the employees and managers start walking over to the aisle your laughing from, and they ask you “Whats so funny?” You just point at that price tag.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 3:44 pm - #
      Skiddy

      Ill Jong Kim..good one..LOL!

  6. December 27th, 2010 at 12:42 pm - #
    pyru420

    It looks like a wack! and cheap steering wheel. Also the ad is wack… Stupidly expensive no matter what it does or how many buttons it has… and it doesn’t look better than the Logitec or Fantec ones. So people don’t buy that crappy steering wheel. Don’t be s*ckas.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 8:09 pm - #
      Blacbul67

      I love it when people tell others how to spend their money. There are 2 official wheels; one mass market, this is clearly something else entirely. Kaz clearly has a vision for GT and that is for it to be as realistic as possible unfortunately such ambitions do not necessarily lie in the economic reach of most. We live in democracies and enjoy free markets. There is absolutely no obligation to buy the wheel so lets all stop bleating like a bunch of effing idiots about being ripped off.

  7. December 27th, 2010 at 11:31 am - #
    Marsekay

    I’m not paying £450, especially not with the shifter!

    even if it had the shifter i wouldnt pay £450..

    crazy pricing.

  8. December 27th, 2010 at 11:20 am - #
    Magic Ayrton

    £450 LOL!

  9. December 27th, 2010 at 11:06 am - #
    Sim

    I hope this sells well, the price might come down after a while. This wheel seems to address many of the things I dislike about my g25. One thing is the speed of the wheel self centering on g25 is not fast enough for me, but it looks promising on this and it might be less noisey too. I always wanted fixed paddle shifters and pedals that go the right way up, only thing that is not clear is wether the brake pedal is pressure sensitive or not. H shifter is no big deal as GT5 doesn’t support the H shifter realistically anyway, but maybe they’ll fix that in a latter update. All it needs now is a handbrake lever built onto the shifter and it might be impossible for me to resist!

    • December 27th, 2010 at 11:26 am - #
      Magic Ayrton

      Yep Handbrake lever a great idea! Also, let’s have ABS simulation on the brake pedal for when it is switched on (vibration) and all pedals weighted as in a real car.

      Clutch pedal should be stiff at the top and then gradually get softer as the clutch pressure plate releases its tension.

  10. December 27th, 2010 at 11:01 am - #
    Dme

    One thing Like about this wheel is how the flappy Paddles are stationary on the steering column. It can get a bit annoying at times with the G27 when i lose track of where the paddles are

  11. December 27th, 2010 at 10:07 am - #
    Jack

    LOL, I hope they don’t expect total sales to reach much more than 1,000 units. Without even a shifter, good grief. I could buy a real car and park it in front of my TV for that money.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 11:24 am - #
      luskiiimj

      My concern is the pedals. We don’t know anything about them, do we? And when the shifter comes, will it come with a dead pedal-to-clutch conversion kit? Because Thrustmaster’s site says that the third pedal is a dead pedal, not a clutch. Also, how much is the shifter? Add that to the $600 for the wheel plus presumably clutch conversion kit, and we’ve got somewhere around $800 in this setup.

  12. December 27th, 2010 at 9:50 am - #
    Praggia

    So someone said Thrustmaster wants to re establish itself in the market.
    Sure go ahead price the wheel WAYYYY above the price of anything else out there thats a sure way to get your foot in the door
    LAME!!!!!
    and no matter how good it is these wheels do not simulate the real thing not even close when it comes to drifting

  13. December 27th, 2010 at 9:33 am - #
    speedthrill

    i think this needs to be thrustmaster saviour? Are they going bankrupt?

    Way to much overpriced… Plus the look of logitech wheels is better… Less is more!

  14. December 27th, 2010 at 8:53 am - #
    Brandon

    Uh, I hope this barely sells. That price is way too high for most people. Maybe the price will come down in a year if it doesnt do well.

  15. December 27th, 2010 at 7:26 am - #
    Mr latte

    Looking at it from an adult perspective I don’t see this being too badly priced compared to the Fanatec series. Lets remember those do not get discounted and these certainly could.

    These invert, seem to be of heavier construction and look to have a much stronger FFB motor. It should offer both PS3 & PC support if not at the start, perhaps via later driver.

    It will also be interesting to see if GT5 offers more user control options for this wheel than others. Regardless of price what some forget is these are to be the best for GT5. So it’s going to be interesting seeing how reviews and owner opinions fair.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 9:22 am - #
      lol

      Sort of funny that the adult opinion would be that it’s ok to spend $500 on a controller for a $60 video game, but i’ll agree with the rest of your comment. We will see.

    • December 27th, 2010 at 10:38 am - #
      occasionalracer

      I do think this “controller” is a bit pricey, but certainly see a market for them. I can see them selling very slowly within these next few months, but once the shifter comes out(mind boggling) and reviews are positive, there will be increased sales. For them to release this thing at that price, they gotta be pretty confident this wheel outshines the competition. The sheer weight of this box shows this is aimed at those who love racing and want to get even closer to reality. Plus this will be the new wheel for GT’s competitions and Academy’s, so it will just take a while to gain respect. It’d be nice if it eventually drops in price by a $100, but it’ll never as cheap as the “others”.

  16. December 27th, 2010 at 6:34 am - #
    honchie

    Holy crap that was cheesy, no shifter & high price point kills it for me.

  17. December 27th, 2010 at 6:23 am - #
    Big Ron

    I’ll get this wheel in any case, if I slip in the snow, falling on my head and am no longer master of my senses.

  18. December 27th, 2010 at 5:46 am - #
    Skiddy

    I’ll forget i’ve even seen the video. This is a high quality wheel. But way too expensive. And it came out too late. Hardcore gamers already have their G27/G25 or Fantecs. sell your trustmaster stocks if you have any..

  19. December 27th, 2010 at 5:14 am - #
    11GTR11

    Well it better be twice as good given the twice price from G27 otherwise i won’t be seeing thrustmaster going too far with this..

  20. December 27th, 2010 at 4:45 am - #
    Damian

    To all who are put off by the quality of the advert, give your heads a shake and explain to me why it has anything to do with the quality of the product?

    If the vid was the best add you’d ever seen, would you rush out and buy it?

    • December 31st, 2010 at 10:18 pm - #
      Eztgr

      Ditto mate.