Project Motor Racing Dev Says Team “Let Players Down” After Troubled Launch

Few racing games have faced a launch as difficult as Project Motor Racing.

When it launched, players encountered bugs, stability issues, online connectivity problems, and a host of technical concerns that quickly led to negative reviews and widespread criticism from the sim racing community. Months later, the game is still working to recover from that first impression.

For Aris Vasilakos, who joined the Project Motor Racing team at Straight4 Studios in May after helping build acclaimed racing simulators including Assetto Corsa and Assetto Corsa Competizione, the challenge has been understanding both where the game fell short and what it needs to become moving forward.

Speaking with Insider Gaming at the SimRacing Expo in Charlotte, Vasilakos acknowledged the impact the troubled launch had on both players and Straight4 Studios.

Morale Took A Hit Following Launch

“Morale was really at the minimum levels,” Vasilakos said. “Developers for video games are like artists. They all pretend that they don’t really care that much about the feedback, but they do. You feel it a lot because your job gets out there for people to enjoy and people do not enjoy it and get back to you and complain.”

The situation became especially difficult because developers expected the game’s release to mark the end of an intense development cycle. Instead, it immediately became the beginning of another.

“Our guys have been working like crazy before the release,” he said. “When they were kind of ready that, alright, finally we’re releasing and now we’re going to have fun, they went into a situation that they had to work even harder to first fix the game and then improve the game.”

While Vasilakos was not part of the team when Project Motor Racing launched, he said he quickly understood why players reacted the way they did.

The game’s early reviews reflected widespread frustration, and the team was forced to evaluate not only what went wrong technically but also what modern racing fans expect from a simulation title.

Still, despite the criticism, one thing never changed.

“We still want to make a hardcore simulation, and this is where we should be going,” Vasilakos said. “That hasn’t changed.”

Fixing The Foundation

According to Vasilakos, the team’s first priority was stabilizing the game. Crashes, performance issues, and inconsistent experiences across different hardware configurations all needed to be addressed before anything else.

“Number one, the game has to be stable,” he said. “If you have your game crashing, even if you have the best possible experience, nobody is going to play.”

Performance improvements followed, particularly for players using lower-end systems. Since launch, Straight4 Studios has released multiple updates designed to improve stability, boost performance, and create a more consistent experience across PC and console platforms.

Those efforts are beginning to show results.

Vasilakos pointed to the game’s improving Steam reviews as one sign that perceptions are starting to change.

“We managed to take the game from a very low Steam rating,” he said. “Right now, it’s 60%. So there has been a massive improvement on the recent reviews.”

He also noted that more players are beginning to revisit the game after initially writing it off.

“A lot of players start looking at us right now,” he said. “They tried here, and they get up and they’re like, ‘that’s much better than I thought.’”

The Work Is Far From Finished

That does not mean the team believes the game is where it needs to be.

When asked what still needs the most work, Vasilakos immediately pointed to the online experience. Features that make it easier for players to join sessions, improved networking functionality, and overall accessibility remain major priorities.

The team is also focused on improving the game’s AI systems and refining smaller details throughout the experience.

“We need to improve the online experience,” he said. “Then we need to improve the AI.”

Even seemingly minor issues are being examined. Vasilakos pointed to several areas where the underlying simulation systems are more advanced than the game’s interface communicates, creating the impression that features are incomplete even when the technology behind them is functioning correctly.

That attention to detail, he believes, will ultimately help rebuild trust with players.

For now, the team finds itself in the unusual position of being viewed as an underdog.

“We are kind of the underdog that everybody expects to underdeliver,” Vasilakos said. “But we’re actually overdelivering from what they expect.”

Whether that momentum continues will depend on the team’s ability to keep improving the game while simultaneously delivering the content updates and DLC promised to players.

As for those who bought Project Motor Racing at launch, experienced its problems, and moved on, Vasilakos is not interested in asking for forgiveness.

Instead, he believes the team must earn it.

“I cannot convince them and I respect them, and I’m very sorry about it,” he said. “The only thing we can do is work and make it worthy. If it is worthy, they will come back.”

In other news, read about PlayStation eliminating more than 1,000 shovelware games from its store. And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.