Back in 2020, touring car fans rejoiced when rights holder TOCA announced an officially licensed British Touring Car Championship game was in development by Motorsport Games.
Three years later, TOCA has terminated the exclusive BTCC game license with Motorsport Games, citing “fundamental breaches of the agreement by Motorsport Games.”
TOCA terminates BTCC game license with Motorsport Games
Initially, the official BTCC game was set for a 2022 release. But with no screenshots or gameplay footage released, the project seemed to be in trouble behind the scenes.
In June 2022, Motorsport Games announced the BTCC game was delayed until 2024. After failing to deliver the project, TOCA has terminated its license with Motorsport Games.
“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 said in a strongly worded statement.
“In order to protect the reputation and intellectual property of the BTCC, including those of its participants and partners, TOCA had been left with no option but to terminate the agreement and immediately withdraw all licensed BTCC rights that were provided to Motorsport Games under that agreement.
“TOCA is aware that this news will come as a huge disappointment to our hundreds of thousands of fans, many of whom were eagerly anticipating the release of a new BTCC game… and we very much share that frustration, due to Motorsport Games being unable to fulfil its contractual commitments.”
TOCA hasn’t announced future plans yet, so it remains to be seen if the official BTCC game gets picked up by another developer. Official 2023 BTCC cars and tracks were released as DLC for rFactor 2 including the entire 2023 grid. Several circuits are still missing in rFactor 2. Since Motorsport Games owns Studio 397, these tracks will likely never get added to rFactor 2.
Will the IndyCar game be next?
The news comes after Motorsport Games announced layoffs affecting 40% of its staff. With the official BTCC game cancelled, Le Mans Ultimate and the official IndyCar game are now the only titles still in development under Motorsport Games after the NASCAR license was sold to iRacing.
With most of these layoffs affecting staff at Motorsport Games Australia, the IndyCar game’s future seems uncertain. Sadly, it won't be surprising if this is the next game that gets cancelled. As a result, a lot will be riding on Le Mans Ultimate, which is currently set for a December 2023 release on Steam.
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