What you need to know
- TOCA, organisers of the UK's premier saloon car racer series, has announced it has cancelled its agreement with Motorsport Games.
- The beleaguered publisher was supposed to be making a spiritual successor to TOCA Touring Cars, originally due to release in 2022 before being delayed.
- This comes after Motorsport Games already lost the NASCAR license to iRacing and has reportedly laid off up to 40% of its workforce.
Well this Monday morning sucks. Back in 2020 I was ecstatic that a spiritual successor to the old TOCA Touring Cars games based on the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) had been announced.
Over three years later, having already been delayed, that jubilation turns to despair with the announcement that TOCA has cancelled its agreement with Motorsport Games.
In May 2020, TOCA entered into an agreement with Motorsport Gaming US LLC – an entity more widely known as ‘Motorsport Games’. That agreement exclusively licensed Motorsport Games to produce interactive video gaming products relating to the British Touring Car Championship. It is with regret that TOCA now advise that it has been forced to terminate that agreement forthwith, due to ongoing fundamental breaches of the agreement by Motorsport Games. Having been given sufficient latitude to rectify those contractual breaches, unfortunately Motorsport Games has failed to do so.
TOCA statement
Motorsport Games is in turmoil
As a British motorsport enthusiast, the BTCC is close to my heart. I have friends that have raced in the series that could very well have been in this game. I also grew up playing the old Codemasters TOCA games on the PlayStation. A new BTCC game was very much in my wheelhouse. It was disappointing enough to hear of a delay from 2022 to 2024 to get it out, but this one cuts even worse. This game is dead. Without the license, it can't come out.
Even more important, though, is that Motorsport Games appears to be in real trouble. It was recently reported the company had let up to 40% of its staff go, its share price is in turmoil, and one of its golden geese, the NASCAR license, has now been sold to competitor, iRacing.
Motorsport Games also acquired the rights to make a new Indycar game, which, for now, appears to still exist. But given the troubles the company seems to be having delivering, who knows if that's going to continue.
There's also a question about how far the TOCA license withdrawal extends within Motorsport Games. Studio-397, makers of rFactor 2, is a Motorsport Games-owned developer. BTCC fans have been getting content drops in rFactor 2, but the statement so far doesn't suggest either way whether this will be continuing or not.
Does anyone have a spare PSOne? I need to play some TOCA Touring Cars again today...
