The History of Direct Drive in the Sim Racing World (3/3)

Other parts:

• The History of Direct Drive in the Sim Racing World (1/3)

• The History of Direct Drive in the Sim Racing World (2/3)

While Fanatec postponed again and again the launch of the Podium series since it was shown at the 2017 SimRacing Expo, GD did not stand still and kept working. Those months without a clear rival gave enough oxygen to the Finns to prepare a very important coup. Fanatec was going to have a whole complete ecosystem around the Podium series, so the least they could do at GD was to concentrate all the hardware within the engine base, just as FeelVR had tried but with much more style and grace. By April 2019 they quietly presented the second version of Simucube, which included the controller in the back of the engine and came in three versions for all budgets; budget, high class and millionaires. The battle was beginning to be served.

Fanatec Podium and Simucube 2 had arrived on the market practically at the same time, and both had problems of various kinds and different depths in their first shipments. It was especially hard for Fanatec because it was the first time they were dealing with this type of technology, and because they had to adapt many of their peripherals due to the stress they were subjected to in the new Podium bases, which were much stronger than the previous ones. Fanatec was plagued by rumors of failures in several places, from reliability to finishing. There were even episodes of which we know little, as when Barry (simRacing Garage) showed that there were clearances in the shaft of the Podium base and it is said that the CEO of Fanatec did not take it too well.

Be that as it may, these problems were solved as the months went by and a scenario was established in which Fanatec began to establish itself as the rival to beat. Meanwhile Simucube continued to investigate new options to expand its catalog with peripherals, as Fanatec did with limited series of wheels or with exclusive partnerships with Codemasters. The main difference and advantage that Fanatec had was that it had the first Direct Drive base for consoles, something that Simucube could not compete with as it lacked such contacts and licenses. Fanatec’s role was strengthened by gaining a closer relationship with PlayStation and different eSports teams.

2020 started with rumors of a pandemic, and while in normal life we know what happened, in the digital world it was an absolute boon for entertainment and peripheral companies who put their boots on. SimRacing skyrocketed and so did sales of everything related. All the real competitions were transferred to the virtual world and we could live stellar moments with virtual grids full of real drivers sharing the track with each other and many times with us, simple suckers. All the companies ran out of stock, and due to the supply chain crisis they could not supply the demand. Absolutely everything was sold out with waiting lists of up to 2 and 3 months to get some of them. As the year progressed, Fanatec closed deals for 2021 with GT Open, Gran Turismo and several others. But that wasn’t all, as they had several projects up their sleeves that they had been working on for months and were going to present in 2021. They had learned a lot from the Podium series and were going to put it into practice. They were ready to break the market.

Before moving on to 2021 it is worth taking a digression from the leading manufacturers and look at other interesting projects that had emerged under the umbrella of GD and OSW. The controller and engine concept had left it in the hands of experienced engineers to seek to make it all even cheaper with even cheaper hardware not dependent on the Finns. In the UK, Ollie Aina created a small company called Sim-pli.city that sold motors and controllers of varying strength with software created by him. From models with 10Nm to 30Nm and since 2018 offering a different approach to the mostly adopted ecosystem.

He was not the only one, as Ken Wong (or the name we know) created in China what we know today as Simagic to do something similar and evolve it towards the all-in-one concept. From the first posts in the iRacing forums to the products that some of you use today and are already sold in Spain. It is undoubtedly a new player present since last year.

The Americans of VRS also chose to use the external controller and motor duo, using the small 20Nm MiGe with a controller of their own manufacture.

Returning to Fanatec, at the end of 2020 is made public its collaboration with BMW in what turns out to be a real bombshell. With a real steering wheel for use in simRacing, something that had not been seen until now. The highlight of 2021 comes on April 1 (April Fool’s Day in the English-speaking world) where the CEO of Fanatec jokes about the announcement of a Podium 0.5 at a low price. The joke is not made unintentionally and results in the announcement that we all already know about the CSL DD, being the first entry level Direct Drive base with 5Nm and an RRP of 349,99 euros. The first docks would ship in the fall, to great acclaim, but in the meantime, the carousel of announcements goes on and on.

The release of Gran Turismo 7 is a major selling point in the console landscape, and in 2020 Fanatec had confirmed that their PS4 compatible steering wheels would be PS5 compatible as well, so Podium is compatible with Gran Turismo 7 when it launches, but what to do with all those gamers who couldn’t afford to invest thousands of euros? Obviously CSL DD would have its version for PlayStation 5, licensed by Sony and with clear guidelines to follow. It would be called GT DD Pro and would start to be sold in November with several options of packs and prices.

At the same time as the announcement of the CSL DD, shortly before the confirmation for PlayStation, Thrustmaster announced its proposal; to rescue the T-GT of 4 years ago and improve it slightly to call it T-GT II. Criticism was not long in coming and Thrustmaster understood that the launch was out of place and that it had no choice but to develop a DD at full speed. It would announce it at the end of 2021, or that was its intention, because in the end the announcement was postponed confirming only a development of which we know little. The base is still unveiled and there are many unknowns around the product and its availability this year.

While Fanatec worries (or not) about what Thurstmaster can do, Simucube continues its slow and inexorable plan to create its own ecosystem and already has its first Simucube 2 compatible hoop. The Tahko GT-21 is the first hoop of the Finns and like everything they do, it looks very good. It seems that it will not be the only thing to come out and soon we will see more peripherals. Fanatec is not standing still either and already has its new real hoops ready, each time closer to having finished Bentley and Ford. Surely this is not the only thing they are going to show us this year.

Each of the protagonists of this story (starting with those pioneers with first and last names) have been attracting stronger and stronger companies to a market that is opening up and showing growth potential. Simucube, Fanatec, Thrustmaster and maybe in the future Logitech are necessary actors for the evolution and adoption of this technology that has made a leap in the perception and recreation that we can have at home. Small revolutions like this have been emerging in parallel to bring us closer to the immersion of motorsport and that allow us to feel the best of the competition in the comfort of home.

I don’t want to finish this series of articles without remembering names (I’m sure I’m leaving some out) especially relevant in this revolution, international and national:

• Tero Kontkanen and Granite Devices
• Bernhard Berger
• Phillip Jansen van Rensburg
• Martin Ascher
• Michael Moszkowics
• Thomas Jackermeier and Fanatec
• David Moncho, Jon Elgezabal
• Jesus Perez and Augury Simulations
• Ben Darley, Phil Berry, Brett Stiles
• Tomo Meglic and SimRacingBay
• Jason Jodarski, Brian Sohn
• Ollie Aina

Thanks also to Hector S. who worked on these commercial projects and has explained in other articles the difficulties of designing a Direct Drive base.

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