Yea i meant heavy hahah.
Its definitely true and my impression as well that they are still trying to get into the esport scene but so far it is failing. If you look at vieweship its gone down by 50% compared to the 2020 E-sport season (yes, covid + lockdowns have an effect)
Also if you look at the esport players none of them is really happy with the game and also how the scene is run. F1 Esports is not really a serious competition, mainly to the nature of the game being very unrealistic but also things such as no LAN or exploits like fps glitch or cheats.
Regarding overall competitive player base F1 was on a peak when 2021 came out. We also strongly noticed this in sign ups and new members on multiple bigger leagues we have to do with.
This peak has been falling ever since the massive online issues a couple weeks into the 2021 game cycle with de sync etc going on and hit a new low couple months ago. Obviously this has nothing to do with cheats but mainly the issues of the game itself.
Of course comparisons to real sims is difficult, but right now FOM and EA as we already mentioned try to grow bigger into the esport scene. But its a failing road as there are no pyramid scheme levels of competition. Its basically a Super League. If they want to establish themselves as a proper sim racing game with strong esport support and potential, they need to completely renew the type of game.
Now pad inclusion isnt really an issue i think. Ive been on the pad until 2021 mostly and until then it was the superior device. I now since 22 vibration (which made the pad too good) is pretty much gone and gives no feedback anymore so overall both devices are pretty much the exact same in the way it gives feedback.
which is still horribly bad compared to other racing games.
Overall right now I do believe that the esport scene in the f1 game will die sooner or later as more and more drivers start to publicly criticize the game, which they havent done before. Alternative is still RF2 which has a good F1 support nowadays, especially since the F1 Arcades opened up. And you can even see most of them drivers playing different racing games as well more frequently, some have already taken part in competitive races and some have been very good actually.
@WollcottWe're mostly in accord here. The franchise needs to improve in some rudimentary ways like online infrastructure, while keeping on improving on the good progress they've made already in other aspects. If F1 23 comes in again with a strong focus on their "social" microtransactions features, that will be worrying.
As in, if their marketing is all about "look how you can have your own personal hub" instead of "look how we've improved the online experience and career modes", and we have to wait for release day to actually see if they've smoothed things out... Let's hope for the best.
When I noted pad users earlier, I did not mean to compare peripherals. Just player bases.
iRacing is PC only. ACC is mainly PC, then current gen – last gen version has ceased development and support. Both technically can be played with a controller, but realistically it's all wheel users. So if the competitive/esports scene will grow, that's the pool of potential players they've got.
Relatively speaking, Codemasters has a huge player base. And they've got the F1 brand, arguably the biggest one in motorsports. So if they find a way to leverage these assets and lay out a framework to draw in more players into esports, that's great potential for growth.
rFactor 2 has just blundered big time with their 24h Le Mans Virtual event. I wouldn't bet on that horse 😉
Edit: Regarding their recent fiasco:
F1 champ Max Verstappen ragequits virtual Le Mans race, calls it a 'clown show'
Verstappen slams Virtual Le Mans “clown show” after disconnection costs victory
