Fanatec Announcements: CSW V2 Reviews Out

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G25 was released in 2006 - 6 years ago, and is still used by tons of sim-racers. If Fanatec manages to release a product as solid as G25 then 10 year target could be met.

Computer related stuff indeed have a much less life cycle, 2-4 years, but a wheel does not compute anything so if the hardware is reliable enough then there should be no problem as the ffb has reached a very realistic level by now.

I also agree with lemansfanatic and think that the CSR Elite should also not be left behind, we hope to see a decent wheel for our base and have continuous support both having new wheels and firmware for it.
 
ilonioum
G25 was released in 2006 - 6 years ago, and is still used by tons of sim-racers. If Fanatec manages to release a product as solid as G25 then 10 year target could be met.

Computer related stuff indeed have a much less life cycle, 2-4 years, but a wheel does not compute anything so if the hardware is reliable enough then there should be no problem as the ffb has reached a very realistic level by now.

I also agree with lemansfanatic and think that the CSR Elite should also not be left behind, we hope to see a decent wheel for our base and have continuous support both having new wheels and firmware for it.
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Well baring in mind the two wheels have similar bases... And csr e will have run updates etc I dont think that will happen.

At least I hope it's not going to happen!
 
amf7
Well baring in mind the two wheels have similar bases... And csr e will have run updates etc I dont think that will happen.

At least I hope it's not going to happen!
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GT2 has the same base with CSR wheel but I do not think that the enclosure alone will be a good reason since the internals of CSR E and CSW are going to be significantly different (according to Fanatec) apart from the motors.
 
tribolik
It happens... when costumers demand the best you get rid of the beast...:dunce:
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You've gone all mysterious on me, I no understandy.

Sucks that the GT2 wheel is forgotten when the CSR is getting an update (ACL apparently).

When I mentioned this a member here kindly pointed out that it is old tech and that it makes sense for Fanatec to concentrate in the new model.
Following that logic the Elite will end up the same also.

As for fanatec making the CSW a flagship wheel for ten years, bah. Thomas can't resist making new stuff.

What happened to the Club sport shifter? Did the Thrustmaster one trump it so bad a complete redesign is on the cards. Being able to make new wheels each year shows that making a shifter would be easy.
 
With no M$ getting in the way of CSW development / production I imagine they can put even higher quality parts into it too. CSW is going to kill it I am sure

quick edit: ^ Oh yeah what happened to the CSS? Thomas how can you be so cruel and not share the knowledge? You going to make us wait til E3 won't you.... [weep]
 
LogiForce
That's quite a bold claim, 5 to 10 years. I will be curious to see how this will be achieved with the preparation for the extra features. 10 years is a long time when it comes to anything computer related, hence i'll look at that claim a bit more skeptical
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Well said friend.

Edit. 5 year warranty Thomas?
 
Successful companies do not provide too many years of warranty as this is not the many reason people buy their products. For example Peugeot offers 5 years warranty for their cars but not many Peugeots survive by then lol

Not sure how successful is Fanatec but if I was a CEO of Fanatec there is no way I would provide a 5 year warranty otherwise the company would go bankrupt in 5 years.
 
Spagetti69
^ So a wheel with a ten year life span is useless then?
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Did Logitech provide a 5 year warranty? They did not but they have supplied the wheel with good components that last. My father still drives his VW Golf 4 that he bought in 1999 even though the warranty was for 3 years.

So... if Fanatec makes a ****** wheel with 10 years warranty I would not buy it no matter what, but if they make a decent wheel with 1 or 2 years warranty I will definitely buy it (as I did buy the CSR Elite).
 
Ok. If Thomas wants to through out Buzz words like 10 year life cycle or whatever how about a warranty you can extend ? Like those useless dyson hoovers.
 
Spagetti69
Ok. If Thomas wants to through out Buzz words like 10 year life cycle or whatever how about a warranty you can extend ? Like those useless dyson hoovers.
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Totally agree with you on this, a piece of equipment as expensive as CSW is going to be should have an option to extend the warranty for some extra cost.
 
Well, he could do what Sony does with the and offer an extended warranty for a price. I would be ok with paying an extra bit of money after the standard warranty runs out (1 year IIRC).
 
This is an interesting thought. Ten yrs? Surely consoles might change before then. Perhaps even the HID & XID specifications may even change

Plus Fanatec will surely make a new wheel a little later after it releases....

I dunno guys I rather just see some new wheel rims come out. Was driving around in my Formula star mazda last night wishing I had a rim like the one ingame. I am thinking we need better support for our existing wheels, etc


Spagetti69
Ok. If Thomas wants to through out Buzz words like 10 year life cycle or whatever how about a warranty you can extend ? Like those useless dyson hoovers.
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LOL!
 
I expect some excellent mods to come out for the CSW! I. Sure thomas wouldn't encourage it but I do actually hope we see some modded rims!

Maybe Thomas/fanatec could go as far as selling the QR units to moddeds etc! Maybe for say €40. This would be great and could hopefully get around the whole liscensing issues! I would genuinely love to buy a rim that is an exact replica of the mclaren f1 steering wheel and I'm sure others would love to see replica wheels of there favourite teams!
 
I thought Sony trademarked the 10 year life cycle term? Lol.

What would be cool is if the internals of the CSW were swappable like a PC. If protocols change, just swap out the parts. Since the majority of CSWs will be purchased by PC sim racers, this should not be a problem.
 
paskowitz
I thought Sony trademarked the 10 year life cycle term? Lol.

What would be cool is if the internals of the CSW were swappable like a PC. If protocols change, just swap out the parts. Since the majority of CSWs will be purchased by PC sim racers, this should not be a problem.
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The belt system would not make it easy to swap the internals, 95% of people that would disassemble the wheel/base to swap some parts would never assemble it back :)

10 years, 20 years... people tend to buy/want new things as new things are usually better technologically. The current marketing system encourages to make the tech increments in small portions to have the consumers on a hook and make them buy every year a slightly better product. This is the strategy that Apple is following and this is the reason it is so rich now.

But eventually the current mentality will change and people will be more careful with resources.
 
ilonioum
The belt system would not make it easy to swap the internals, 95% of people that would disassemble the wheel/base to swap some parts would never assemble it back :)

10 years, 20 years... people tend to buy/want new things as new things are usually better technologically. The current marketing system encourages to make the tech increments in small portions to have the consumers on a hook and make them buy every year a slightly better product. This is the strategy that Apple is following and this is the reason it is so rich now.

But eventually the current mentality will change and people will be more careful with resources.
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Who said the CSW has to made exactly the same way the CSRE is? As long as no soldering is needed, I do not think it would be a huge impasse.
 
paskowitz
Who said the CSW has to made exactly the same way the CSRE is? As long as no soldering is needed, I do not think it would be a huge impasse.
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Ask Thomas about this, he can provide a better answer regarding swapping and soldering.
 
Spagetti69
You've gone all mysterious on me, I no understandy.

Sucks that the GT2 wheel is forgotten when the CSR is getting an update (ACL apparently).
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Bad joke... nevermind.

But on the other hand I though the GT2 also got the update (later on)
 
I was talking about how long we will probably manufacture this wheel and not about the warranty period. The wheel is pretty much future proof at least for PC. You never know what happens on consoles.
The innovations will come with the rims we will make in future and we alsmost have no technical limitation there.
 
Fanatec...
It was a good thing to concentrate on the CSR E first and then move to CSW. Now we are producing the pre-production units at the moment and they will be carefully tested by beta testers and all the regular QC tests including a 24/7 gaming life test.

The CSW is our flagship and we want to make it perfect. We also added a few more features to be prepared for the next 5 to 10 years. That is the target life cycle of this product.
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I would certainly advise your company does not rush the CSW through. Additionally the CSW should indeed have more stringent "QC" at the factory.

By going into the realms of the "Specialist Pro Wheel" type market while those companies do not manufacture large numbers the quality and reliability has to be given particular attention. It would be great if you had wheels shipped to the warehouses and then each unit being dispatched is further checked at the warehouse prior to customer shipping. If this added an extra month to customers getting them I still think it would be worthwhile and avoid any problems of units coming from the factory that have slipped through the "QC".

Ideally the fewer units that ship to customers arriving DOA or with problems the better.

Interesting you mention 5-10 years with "new features" which is great to read. Fanatec have always offered really cool features/functionality. Just typical though that some people side track the interesting part in what you said regarding "new features for future proofing" and they question the lifespan or warranty.

PS3 was designed to offer approx 10 year lifespan but doesn't come with a 10 year warranty neither. Some people on these forums just need to ease off a little. Let's wait for the reviews before criticising guys eh?

On a personal note, I hope the recent troubles you have endured only motivate you further Thomas.
You bring us exciting times in the near future with the upcoming products, no other brand I know of is doing so much for the sim/racing community so by all means credit indeed for the work being done.
 
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I see Latte. So you're saying I read it the wrong way and instead of long term compatibility with the host hardware, the PC. I should have read long term up to date full compatibility with games through new additions (features if you will) to the wheel. I can see 10 years easily in that respect, as I could still crack out my old FFGP from Logitech and play a game or two. However due to no changes in the wheel it doesn't seem to like modern games anymore. Maybe due to FFB calls its unfamiliar with, I dunno.
 
Well I wasn't relating to you or a single individual.
I'm more interested in the news of "new features" and the wheels ability to offer some degree of future proofing. My point is for some they seem to concentrate on making a point over the other lifespan/warranty stuff than the "New features" not yet mentioned/released.

Illonioum is right also that as technology advances many people will move to the "next best thing". Thomas stating the 10 year plan means the product and it's features should be good for that lifespan. That by no means isn't the same as saying something better won't come along. Or consumers all will just stick with that purchase for that length of time.

Having the baseline, main chassis/components of the CSR-E and CSW is likely to spawn new products in the future just like the old Porsche chassis seen improvements and moved from the original Turbo - GT3 - Turbo S - GT3V2 - GT2 - CSR and even the a semi chassis build used in the Carrera.

What is good is that Fanatec create and build a stable chassis platform. Their experience now is much greater than it was several years ago. Logitech who they often get compared with do not update their wheel products often so really if anything Fanatec could follow that idea with the CSW / CSR E and continue just releasing new rims for the next several years yet refining the product also.

The modular selling approach is also good, while perhaps needing more attention to pricing differences (CSR-E Pedals Vs CSP) is also very attractive particularly to PC gamers. Fanatec have kept product compatibility across their range. The G27 / G25 gear-stick wasn't compatible and I doubt whatever their next wheel will be may work fully with their past products neither. So if anything I hope Fanatec maintain that trend where possible.
 
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I linked to that post Darin made and wrote something like "no more Fanatec wheels for Darin?" and guess what? My comment have been removed :lol:

Commented the video: VRC 1000 Carriage Works Sim Racing Rig Review

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Mr Latte
Well I wasn't relating to you or a single individual.
I'm more interested in the news of "new features" and the wheels ability to offer some degree of future proofing. My point is for some they seem to concentrate on making a point over the other lifespan/warranty stuff than the "New features" not yet mentioned/released.

Illonioum is right also that as technology advances many people will move to the "next best thing". Thomas stating the 10 year plan means the product and it's features should be good for that lifespan. That by no means isn't the same as saying something better won't come along. Or consumers all will just stick with that purchase for that length of time.

Having the baseline, main chassis/components of the CSR-E and CSW is likely to spawn new products in the future just like the old Porsche chassis seen improvements and moved from the original Turbo - GT3 - Turbo S - GT3V2 - GT2 - CSR and even the a semi chassis build used in the Carrera.

What is good is that Fanatec create and build a stable chassis platform. Their experience now is much greater than it was several years ago. Logitech who they often get compared with do not update their wheel products often so really if anything Fanatec could follow that idea with the CSW / CSR E and continue just releasing new rims for the next several years yet refining the product also.

The modular selling approach is also good, while perhaps needing more attention to pricing differences (CSR-E Pedals Vs CSP) is also very attractive particularly to PC gamers. Fanatec have kept product compatibility across their range. The G27 / G25 gear-stick wasn't compatible and I doubt whatever their next wheel will be may work fully with their past products neither. So if anything I hope Fanatec maintain that trend where possible.
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I agree with you. It will be very interesting to see how Fanatec can keep this wheel interesting for buyers over time as well as owners that is.


@Simmpa: I think that in fact answered your question already. Fanatec is taboo for ISR.
 

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