Bye Bye Simbin

Simbin Studios To Shut Down *Updated*

Troubling news are coming in from Sweden as Simbin Studios AB, long-time producer of sim racing titles, is apparently bankrupt and going out of business.

The sad news has been confirmed by former Simbin employee AnneSofie W. Madsen on Facebook.

As confirmed by AnneSofie, RaceRoom Racing Experience is planned to “continue in another setting”, the fact that staff has been laid off indicates that the new outfit will undergo some serious restructuring.

Simbin’s long history goes back to the F1 2001 days when the Simbin Development Team started producing professional-grade mods for Image Space Incorporated’s Formula One title. Led by Ian Bell, the group went the professional route shortly after, producing the first GTR title as well as the still-popular GT Legends.

When Bell and most of the core team split to form Blimey Games and, a few years later, Slightly Mad Studios, Simbin continued from their base in Sweden, producing the RACE series and other touring-car themed titles such as the STCC series.

The company seemed to have been in financial troubles several times during the past years according to various news reports, Simbin still seemed to be in good spirits, announcing a ADAC GT Masters title run alongside their RaceRoom Racing Experience and DTM Experience titles.

The studio also employed plenty of household community names such as 6e66o, Com8 and feels3, always giving talented modders the chance to turn their passion into a profession. Hopefully all of Simbin’s employees that have lost their jobs will find a new position within the industry soon!

Update: Simbin’s Jay Ekkel has shared some additional info right here on VirtualR:

The actual story in short is this:

“New studio, new location, new name, (almost) the same team. Be ensured that all development on the project will continue.

More interesting news to follow soon!”

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you all know nelson? ha ha!

They are just restructuring. This market is small, wouldn't surprise me if they had to end

Ironically they would've been in better shape if they stayed with gMotor to the end.

Seems they are trying to be another version of iracing , but are only appealing to a smaller market.

Like it or not, the Nascar part of iracing has big appeal especially in the US, while their road cars & series
would be more popular elsewhere.

The cars and series in RRE are less known to the casual racer in the North America, so it's not going to do nearly as well.

They may have been better off sticking to their old model.

khan1670 wrote:Seems they are trying to be another version of iracing , but are only appealing to a smaller market.

If that's true, good riddance... Simracing doesn't need another iRacing.

difficult one to judge - I really hope they're not gone for good, as R3E was on the verge of becoming a good game and a genuine sequel to the Race series, if they complete their ADAC GT Masters, DTM 2014 and WTCC packs on that engine. Going for the business model they did was clearly a mistake, but they presumably felt it was necessary to fund their work on the actual games in the series, but have narrowly failed. Personally, I think the catalogue of R3E DLC would be ideal as optional add-ons for each of those packs, but it's not enough for a standalone - the other main thing is multiplayer has only just been introduced and there is still no option to run an offline race or championship.

This should be a bit of a warning for us as the community though - with the number of WIP projects that are now being sold as pre-v1.0, including AC, there is a risk of this fate befalling others; their potential market having invested their money in the game before its completion and there being no-one left to back it up when the 'final' product is ready.

bad news   

A stunner.
That is very very sad.
Big thank you to all the employees developing the GTR's and making it as it is today   

I wonder if anyone has read the last sentence..

They closed Simbin to create a new studio with 90%/95% of the same team and keep working there..

How is that sad? It's not a bad news, it's beautiful actually. Cause they finally realized that they did a big mistake with R3R and now they're willing to change.

These are bad news