The V8 engine barks into life as I manoeuvre down pitlane and the LMDh switches from electric to internal combustion. Once dispatched, I’m tearing down the Mulsanne Straight, the Cadillac reaching over 200mph as a rival Toyota closes into view.
I’m driving virtually in Le Mans Ultimate, the official gaming simulation of the fêted 24-hour race, and it is the zenith of sim racing experiences.
With a 62-car grid dripping in former Formula 1 drivers, rising stars and exotic car manufacturers, you would think that the 24 Hours of Le Mans is ideally placed to have an official video game.
You’d be right, and this is it - but it very nearly didn’t make it.
Too much, too soon
Rewind four years, and a landmark 10-year deal was signed for Le Mans Esports Series Ltd to create games based on the FIA World Endurance Championship. The outfit is a joint venture between the then-fledgling virtual racing company Motorsport Games and real-world event custodian the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.
One of these partners would go on to formulate a formidable ruleset for its Hypercar class, also working with IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototypes, culminating in the vanguard of endurance racing.
The other would repeatedly trip over itself, find itself in legal battles, fall out with fans and licensors alike and enact wave upon wave of restructuring and redundancies.
Fuelled by the pandemic’s insatiable desire for virtual racing content and flush with Nasdaq-listing cash, at one point, the Miami-headquartered game studio had its hands on not just the Le Mans rights, but also IndyCar, NASCAR and the British Touring Car Championship.
It would also purchase existing sim platforms such as rFactor 2 and KartKraft to build a base for a deluge of planned official games.
Its first homegrown release was NASCAR 21: Ignition, and it didn’t go to plan.
Its laughable launch performance, with inept AI-controlled rivals and numerous visual bugs, not only hurt sales but also damaged the parent company’s reputation to the point of ridicule. Overnight Motorsport Games became a byword for hyperbole and lacklustre products.
In the maelstrom, former Codemasters Formula 1 game creative director and Motorsport Games president, Stephen Hood, returned to the embattled firm as CEO with one task: save the company.
That meant jettisoning any projects it realistically couldn’t handle. It sold the rights to make NASCAR games to the existing PC simulation title iRacing for a total of $6million in 2023. It arranged a new non-exclusive deal with the BTCC (following an initial termination), and when the creation of the IndyCar game was running behind schedule, that too was cancelled.
Sitting untouched was the Le Mans deal. The decision was made to focus solely on this, and for the rFactor 2 development team, Studio 397, to switch its attention to the tentpole endurance race instead of a proposed rFactor 3.
Le Mans Ultimate was the last roll of the dice. The last official licence left in the roster. Its creators – named after the 397 lap record distance set by Audi at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans – the last team remaining.
It had to succeed, or Motorsport Games would face the total annihilation of a company once valued at over $14million.
“I haven’t given it a great deal of thought because it would probably make me cry,” Hood told The Race’s sister website Traxion.
“If I do cast my mind back, the history of this company, especially over the last couple of years, has been a challenge. Not only were we trying to make an entirely new product, even if it's from the underpinnings of a very successful rFactor 2, it was no mean feat to set about trying to create that, deliver it and everything else that goes with it.
“We also had to build the [online multiplayer] Race Control platform and the funnel and the service around it, the DLC, the content, update so many different systems, plus try to change the underpinnings of what Le Mans Ultimate is so that it’s fit for the future and possible transition to [PlayStation and Xbox] consoles.
“This was all against a backdrop of trying to survive week to week, month to month, quarter to quarter.”
Little by little
Things started slowly, the platform releasing an early access programme on PC – where a game is flagged as a work-in-progress project for a lower price, with the creators openly listening to community feedback.
Back then, in February 2024, it undoubtedly drove well, sounded incredible and had a ranked multiplayer system that would place you into races with similarly skilled drivers. It was also riddled with bugs, light on content and saddled with a clunky user interface.
The chances of it succeeding seemed about as likely as Nico Hulkenberg winning at Le Mans first time out. Except, like the German Formula 1 driver, the game defied the odds.
Slowly but surely, it kept gaining momentum. The base driving experience was, and remains, among the very best. Motorsport Games was still spending money quicker than it was earning, but at times, more people were driving the unfinished Le Mans Ultimate than the long-established official SRO GT game, Assetto Corsa Competizione.
Just over a year later, and with several refinements completed, such as adding rolling start markers, a rival racer radar system and race replays, things took a noticeable step forward.
There was a contentious decision to charge extra money, while still in early access, for the 2024-seasons cars and tracks – the game may have initially launched last year, but it did so with 2023 WEC content – but enough fans went ahead and purchased it anyway, not knowing if the title would survive.
The final pieces of that initial content plan were released earlier this week, with the Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 EVO2, Lexus RC F LMGT3 and Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit added alongside the ability to swap drivers during multiplayer races and (for additional subscription tier members only) customise liveries.
The inherent driving experience is just as compelling as it always was, but now the overall experience is significantly smoother, to the point where it will exit early access for a full ‘Version 1.0’ release on July 22.
When it does, the Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 and screaming Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH will be added for no additional charge.
This is a landmark moment for a game that could have quite easily slipped into the abyss. Instead, mercifully, it flourished, taking on the hegemony of established rival titles. This allowed its parent company to post a profit in the first quarter of this year and receive a $2.5million investment from VR headset manufacturer Pimax.
“I thought the game would [always] leave early access, but I wasn’t sure under which banner or brand,” continued Hood.
“We had a lot of offers from within the games industry, other developers, other publishers, who were knocking at the door.
“I would in their shoes as well, thinking 'Well, the mothership is about to crumble, we can pick this up for a dollar, make a fortune’ and be in place with the licence.”
Staving off the sometimes hostile purchase approaches, a bullishness has returned to the studio, with confirmation that Le Mans Ultimate will hit popular console devices, although this move is “at least a year away.”
Work has also begun to expand its car and track roster even further, thanks to an agreement with the ACO to include the European Le Mans Series. This will also make up part of a single-player career mode, seeing you rise through the ranks of endurance racing, currently slated for a Q1 2026 launch.
“In my mind, it’s gone from complete disaster about to be dead, everybody wishing it and the company was dead, with all the hate that exists on the internet, to making what I think is a very good sim, not a great sim yet, but a very good sim with a very strong licence, helping to save the company and give us a path forward,” said Hood.
“We [can now] pick and choose where we go next, 24 months ago we couldn’t choose anything.”
For more on Le Mans Ultimate and the rest of the motorsport gaming and sim racing scene, visit Traxion.
