Are racing games going to die out

[Jordan howard]

Hi there new to these forums just wandering if racing games will die out and will no longer be made

 

[JohnBM01]

???

What makes you believe racing games are a dying breed? People still love and play racing games, streaming them, being part of online leagues, and stuff like that. Racing games aren't going anywhere negative unless people entirely give up on them. Even if racing games may not be as popular and regarded among the crowd of Fortnite or PUBG or Call of Duty crowds, racing games are here to stay and not going to die out any time soon.

 

[Snorevette]

Probably not.

That's not to say that the market's gonna permanently stay the same and reach the same sales figures it's seen in the past - it's entirely possible that the AAA industry could crash with Turn10 and Polyphony getting wiped out in the process, or all auto manufacturers will suddenly decide to stop giving licenses to studios, or anything like that. But for racing games to die out completely, it would take nothing less than a total and utter collapse of the entire games industry with no hope of recovery...

 

[FT-1]

You didn't specify whether "Racing Games" in the future had to feature cars, so here is my take...

Assuming there are no massive legislation changes in the foreseeable future, I cannot see why any genre of racing game in existence today would cease to exist in the next 20 to 30 years. The real world may have moved more into autonomous vehicles for daily commutes, but a desire to race vehicles, whether they are cars or not, will always be present as long as gaming in general is still a thing.

 

[TheNuvolari]

I do think they are on a downhill.

I said it on this forum 10000 times, but let me repeat it: 10 years ago everyone was into racing games. We always talked about the MW M3 GTR and its sound. Nowadays in our high school there is TWO people who are actually care about racing games. I tried to recommend Assetto Corsa to my friends, but their response was: "THE GRAPHICS IS SOOOO BAD OH MY GOD."

Same case with the car culture. My friends are laughing on me and saying "this **** doesn't even worth 1000$" when I show them an M3 E30. They only know some hyper 10000000hp thingies called cars.

The truth sooo hurts.

 

[Jordan howard]

So i take it as long as gamings still a thing than racing games will still exist

 

[imported_rik19]

They keep getting better and better all the time, imagine in 20 years time what they`ll be like...wow

 

[ImaRobot]

I said it on this forum 10000 times, but let me repeat it: 10 years ago everyone was into racing games. We always talked about the MW M3 GTR and its sound. Nowadays in our high school there is TWO people who are actually care about racing games. I tried to recommend Assetto Corsa to my friends, but their response was: "THE GRAPHICS IS SOOOO BAD OH MY GOD."

10 years ago games like Assetto Corsa wouldn't have been anymore widely accepted than it is now. Arcade games had a firm lock, even with the presence of games like GT. I would say that right now, I don't feel they're at a decline. We have a good bit of major developers in the genre, 3 of which have a major backing from the consoles they're tied to. We have a good amount of games to choose from whether you prefer circuit-based racers, Rally/offroad, or even open-world arcade type games which all came out in relatively similar time frames.

 

[AudiMan2011]

Racing games will continue to exist as long as the market exists. However, pure arcade racing games are getting more and more rare to the point of complete obscurity. Sims will continue existing but are on a course to get even more niche, with more complex physics engines and more concentration on wheel development, pushing out casual controller players.

Sims being developed around eSports too may turn off more casual players than bring in, so I'd definitely say the genre is in decline before flatlining as an even more niche market than ever before.

 

[kikie]

Oh god, I hope not.

It's the only game genre, besides Portal 2, that I'm interested in.

Rally, Rallycross, DTM, Formula 1, 3 Ford etc. , IndyCars, Nascar, GT3 cars, LMP1, 24 hours of whatever track will never go away. So game developers, such as Kunos, will keep making racing sims.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I think licensing and and a lack of mutual respect between people who play for fun and serious sim racer types are the two biggest threats to the genre, but I don't see any reason why they'd die out any time in the foreseeable future.

 

[Darla Starch]

I think licensing and and a lack of mutual respect between people who play for fun and serious sim racer types are the two biggest threats to the genre, but I don't see any reason why they'd die out any time in the foreseeable future.

People race in games....FOR FUN? REEEEEEEEEEEE

 

[Joey D]

For me, the racing genre is stronger than it's been in years. The big name games are high quality and offer a ton of different things depending on what you're into. I think games like Forza Horizon will continue to dominate though since it's not a hardcore sim, but is still fairly realistic with a ton to do and a great car list.

Thankfully, if we ever do reach a point where high profile studios are no longer turning out racing games, the indie community will keep it alive. Look at all the really weird, niche games out there thanks to indie developers. The same would happen with racing games if they fell out of popularity.

 

[JC_Dude]

I feel like racing games are dying because of the sim racing community's elitism. Anything that doesn't simulate everything perfectly is labelled as garbage and the sort of enjoyment they get out of racing games just doesn't resonate with the general public. People don't want to spend 5 hours to shave 0.5s off their best time at the Nurburgring. They want an engaging career mode with short-ish races, tangible progression, unlocks, good rivals and a varied car list, mostly consisting of road cars, with accessible modification being a big bonus.

Just think of how many arcade racing games are out there. Need for Speed seems to be on its last legs, Ridge Racer, Midnight Club, Motorstorm, Driver, Burnout, PGR, Wipeout are all but dead, the likes of DriveClub, Split/Second or Blur never took off, despite being great and franchises like Dirt turned more towards simulation. I really can't think of any truly great arcade racing game released in the past couple of years, whereas in the last generation there was plenty of choice.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

It's not going to die out in the near future. But long term when all manufacturers have switched to autonomous electric cars, will there even be a point to racing anymore? I'd think motorsport will be viewed as an oddity, like horse racing. There will still be people who like racing but when all the big names have moved on (and refuse to license out their old dino juice powered cars), what will be left of our hobby? It'll just be small indie developers making games with look alike non licensed cars. That will be a dark future indeed

 

[zzz_pt]

Racing games have more competition today than they had 10 or 15 years ago. The gaming industry is growing fast and everyone is fighting for our money and attention.

I think racing games will always have a market, just like football games. As long as motorsports are engaging and exciting in real life, kids will want to be racing drivers or even eSports professional drivers. The fact that eSports is also growing can help racing games keep their target audience engaged and buying new games.

I'm a hardcore GT player but look at what Forza did. The Forza Horizon series, although not a typical racing game, has pulled massive amounts of people who just want to enjoy great games where you drive and race cars around.

But in a world with massive studios making massive games, it's only normal for very focused games to lose a bit of their players. Just look at 2018 and the number of masterpieces that came out. Even indi developers are doing amazing stuff.

Short answer, no. I don't think racing games will die anytime soon. I could even see an argument for people buying more this type of game once AV are common place in the real world.

Also, racing games are some of the best for VR. When VR gets to a place where you don't have cables coming out of your VR headset, the latency is cut down to virtually nothing and prices go down, more people will at least try to play racing games with it, because it's so much more intuitive.

 

[Liquid]

I do think they are on a downhill.

I said it on this forum 10000 times, but let me repeat it: 10 years ago everyone was into racing games. We always talked about the MW M3 GTR and its sound. Nowadays in our high school there is TWO people who are actually care about racing games. I tried to recommend Assetto Corsa to my friends, but their response was: "THE GRAPHICS IS SOOOO BAD OH MY GOD."

Same case with the car culture. My friends are laughing on me and saying "this **** doesn't even worth 1000$" when I show them an M3 E30. They only know some hyper 10000000hp thingies called cars.

The truth sooo hurts.

It's important to not confuse car fans with racing game fans though. I know people who love cars and don't play video games.

Also, and I don't mean any offence, if you are only 16 how can you be so sure that things are on a downward spiral compared to 10 years ago?

 

[Snorevette]

It's important to not confuse car fans with racing game fans though. I know people who love cars and don't play video games.

Also, and I don't mean any offence, if you are only 16 how can you be so sure that things are on a downward spiral compared to 10 years ago?

I'm inclined to agree with that last point, perspectives change just as much as the industry itself. 10 years ago I thought Spore was GOTY, because I was 12 at the time and my knowledge of the industry (and the broken promises of that game in particular) was limited.

 

[Roger the Horse]

I think the real issue is simple. Video games are bad. Video games were a terrible mistake. Okay, actually that's not true, but in the current context where video games are increasingly both produced and treated by a large portion of their playerbase as consumable commodities rather than as art the quality of large budget games has taken a nosedive, and unfortunately racing games generally require larger budgets. Meanwhile in other genders indie developers are putting out far more interesting, compelling, and enjoyable games in genres which require less time, money, and resources to develop for; while in racing games they can only settle for relatively bare bones experiences. Ultimately racing games peaked in the late 90s through to the early 2000s, and they're unlikely to reach those heights again until I start being a child who has more time, less stuff to worry about, and less mental health problems resulting from the eldtrich horror of being an adult in a dystopian hellworld getting in the way of me enjoying the games I play again

 

[TheNuvolari]

It's important to not confuse car fans with racing game fans though. I know people who love cars and don't play video games.

Also, and I don't mean any offence, if you are only 16 how can you be so sure that things are on a downward spiral compared to 10 years ago?

You know, when I was in the primary school, every kid talked about racing games, how we tuned the cars, draw (whatever is the past form of draw, don't know how to say it) a lot of cars from games. Now everyone talks about the same action games which I don't even need to say. And my classmates say that I'm a 'noob' because I mainly play racing games.

 

[ImaRobot]

I feel like racing games are dying because of the sim racing community's elitism. Anything that doesn't simulate everything perfectly is labelled as garbage and the sort of enjoyment they get out of racing games just doesn't resonate with the general public. People don't want to spend 5 hours to shave 0.5s off their best time at the Nurburgring. They want an engaging career mode with short-ish races, tangible progression, unlocks, good rivals and a varied car list, mostly consisting of road cars, with accessible modification being a big bonus.

And yet, even though they're the most vocal, they're still a very minuscule part of the fanbase. Hell, even this forum as a whole barely amounts a tiny percentage of actual fans of GT. I doubt it's such a high issue that it's completely swaying the genre as a whole, or at all even.

 

[inCloud]

I feel like racing games are dying because of the sim racing community's elitism.

Simracing dying because of lack of novelty. Arcade racers dying because of budgets and general complexity.

eSports professional drivers

Simracing eSport is a stupidest thing in the world. eSport should be accessible, fastpaced and exciting. Back in the days there was big competitive need for speed community, but now its buried with all our hopes about getting really popular eSport league. Even simracers doesnt interested in eSport translations, why would general public watch it?

 

[zzz_pt]

Simracing dying because of lack of novelty. Arcade racers dying because of budgets and general complexity.


Simracing eSport is a stupidest thing in the world. eSport should be accessible, fastpaced and exciting. Back in the days there was big competitive need for speed community, but now its buried with all our hopes about getting really popular eSport league. Even simracers doesnt interested in eSport translations, why would general public watch it?

Didn't get your point. Can you clarify?

 

[queleuleu]

I do think they are on a downhill.

I said it on this forum 10000 times, but let me repeat it: 10 years ago everyone was into racing games. We always talked about the MW M3 GTR and its sound. Nowadays in our high school there is TWO people who are actually care about racing games. I tried to recommend Assetto Corsa to my friends, but their response was: "THE GRAPHICS IS SOOOO BAD OH MY GOD."

Same case with the car culture. My friends are laughing on me and saying "this **** doesn't even worth 1000$" when I show them an M3 E30. They only know some hyper 10000000hp thingies called cars.

The truth sooo hurts.

15-20 years ago, all my friends, even their brothers and fathers, they all played racing games. It's not the case anymore. Today, it's all about FIFA, Fortnite, GTA... Forza Horizon could have been a huge success like GT in the past, wrong decade unfortunately. IMO, FH is the only racing game seen like cool by the casual players.

 

[MatskiMonk]

(whatever is the past form of draw, don't know how to say it)

Drew

👍

 

[Joey D]

Simracing eSport is a stupidest thing in the world. eSport should be accessible, fastpaced and exciting. Back in the days there was big competitive need for speed community, but now its buried with all our hopes about getting really popular eSport league. Even simracers doesnt interested in eSport translations, why would general public watch it?

Sim Racing eSports on TV isn't terribly exciting, but in person it is. When I was at the GT Americas championship in Vegas a few weeks back, it was pretty cool to be there and experience it. Even people in the club who had no idea what Gran Turismo even was seemed to be intrigued by it and looked to be really getting into it. Like any event, there's a certain excitement in the room during competition. Quality commentators also help that too.

Sim racing eSports is just as accessible as other forms of eSports too. You just need the game and a system to play it on. Past that, like any form of sport, you just need to practice and get better if you want to compete at a high level. One of the Americas competitors even qualified using a controller so, in theory, you don't even need a wheel to be good.

 

[Veinz]

3 or 4 years ago I felt like the racing genre was dying, but now we are spoiled with choices so it doesn't look like it's dying at all, quite the opposite. Although I wish the big developers would stop trying to cater to the people who play the game for a month then go onto the next big release, and focus on the core fans that stick with it and take it more seriously. The result of this are scatterbrained racing games like GT6 and the latest Forza Motorsport games. That being said though, it has always been and always will be a niche genre.

Car culture itself is dying, less and less people are interested in cars and driving these days. With fully automated cars on the horizon, it's just going to get progressively worse. This also has an effect on the motorsport side of it whether it's real or virtual.

 

[inCloud]

Sim racing eSports is just as accessible as other forms of eSports too.

Both GT and Forza, while being much more noob friendly than AC or iR, still too hardcore to be popular. Back in the days hardcore Starcraft and Quake were leaders of eSport, but now games should be much more "easy to learn". Another thing is cost(and console exclusivity).

 

[ImaRobot]

3 or 4 years ago I felt like the racing genre was dying, but now we are spoiled with choices so it doesn't look like it's dying at all, quite the opposite. Although I wish the big developers would stop trying to cater to the people who play the game for a month then go onto the next big release, and focus on the core fans that stick with it and take it more seriously. The result of this are scatterbrained racing games like GT6 and the latest Forza Motorsport games. That being said though, it has always been and always will be a niche genre.

I don't really feel that they've been scatterbrained, at least not completely. More so that it's just been more about car collecting and not exactly about any specific form of motorsports, but more so track day experiences. That people get upset because it's not following any strict form of motorsports in some way like the other completely focused games, always perplexed me. There's games dedicated to that and there's games that aren't, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I also don't think it's necessarily correct for people to take the mentality of one specific game, and apply it to a similar, but all together different game. They have different purposes, and while some features can and should be borrowed, the mindset when going into said games shouldn't always be exactly the same as the other, especially when it's fairly obvious that they don't have the same focal point at all.

Variety, and games being different from each other, is only a good thing. I doubt that these games are offering months on months on months of extra content just for those people that "play only for a month." GTS and Forza are a testament to that, with the changes and updates they've made, and continue to make, in order to fill in the neglected spaces.

 

[Tired Tyres]

3 or 4 years ago I felt like the racing genre was dying, but now we are spoiled with choices so it doesn't look like it's dying at all, quite the opposite. Although I wish the big developers would stop trying to cater to the people who play the game for a month then go onto the next big release, and focus on the core fans that stick with it and take it more seriously. The result of this are scatterbrained racing games like GT6 and the latest Forza Motorsport games. That being said though, it has always been and always will be a niche genre.

Car culture itself is dying, less and less people are interested in cars and driving these days. With fully automated cars on the horizon, it's just going to get progressively worse. This also has an effect on the motorsport side of it whether it's real or virtual.

More and more motor sport you used to be able to watch for free is now behind a paywall. That doesn't exactly help either.