Fanatec has announced a new licensing partnership with Nissan, adding one of Japan’s most storied performance brands to its growing roster of officially licensed hardware collaborations.
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What Was Announced
A Nissan steering wheel is coming, but that’s about all we know.
According to the announcement, the two companies will develop officially licensed sim racing steering wheels “inspired by the brand’s performance driving heritage,” with an emphasis on “craftsmanship, ergonomics, and visual authenticity”. Product specifications, pricing, availability, and launch timing will all be revealed later this year.
Yukika Sato, Senior Manager at Nissan, said the company was “excited to collaborate with them on this new, exciting, licensed category extension,” pointing to Nissan’s long-standing gaming partners and its global base of sim racers. Corsair CEO Thi La called the deal “a natural fit for Fanatec and the sim racing community.”
That leaves plenty of open questions. Nissan’s performance catalog spans everything from the R32 Skyline GT-R to the current Z, and the announcement doesn’t hint at which car (if any specific car at all) the wheel will be modeled on.
Notably, Nismo, Nissan’s motorsport arm, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the release…
Familiar Territory for Fanatec
Licensed manufacturer wheels are nothing new for Fanatec. The company has built officially licensed hardware with Porsche (most recently the Porsche Vision GT wheel we reviewed last year), BMW (whose M4 GT3 Podium wheel is used in the real race car), McLaren, and Ford’s World Rally Championship program, alongside series-level partnerships with Formula 1, WRC, and Red Bull.
Nissan, though, is a different story. Despite decades of association with racing games, the brand has never really had a presence in sim racing hardware, making this partnership its first serious step into the category.
The Gran Turismo Question
Of course, there’s one connection GTPlanet readers will spot immediately: Nissan’s uniquely close relationship with Polyphony Digital.
The two companies have worked together for nearly three decades, from the Skyline’s starring role in the original Gran Turismo, to GT Academy turning players into professional Nissan racing drivers, to Kazunori Yamauchi’s own input on the R35 GT-R. As Yamauchi himself described back in 2017, the studio and the automaker meet several times a year.
Fanatec, meanwhile, is Gran Turismo’s official wheel partner, with the GT DD Pro and GT DD Extreme carrying the series license.
Nothing in the announcement mentions Gran Turismo, so this is speculation, but with Nissan, Fanatec, and Polyphony Digital already so closely intertwined, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a Gran Turismo angle emerge when the product is fully revealed.
What’s Next
Fanatec says full details on specifications, availability, and launch timing will arrive later this year. We’ll be watching for the reveal.
