Reiza Studios has announced its latest title, Automobilista Motorsports Simulator, is coming in early 2016. While it is Reiza’s latest title, I don’t know if it can be classified as new.
The title, at this point, appears to be Game Stock Car Extreme (GSCE) – or Game Stock Car 2013, or Stock Car Extreme…more on that in a moment – plus the goals that were successfully reached in this past summer’s Reiza Simracing Bonanza! This includes not only new content like the Supertrucks, Rallycross Evo X and V-10 F1 cars but features such as dynamic tracks, tire flat spotting and other Image Space Incorporated’s rFactor 2 engine features (GSCE had previously been rF1 based only).
Automobilista will arrive on Steam only in Q1 2016 for $39.99, but will be free for existing owners of GSCE. If you don’t own GSCE, you can purchase – and activate – it by January 5th for $22.49 and qualify for a free copy of Automobilista.
Now that we have a better understanding of what the new title is, let’s talk about what’s going on here.
First, I think it’s a good idea to re-brand GSCE. The name was clumsy to begin with and has only become more so since Rieza has added more and more vehicles to the title. Vehicles that aren’t Brazilian Stock Cars.
To combat this issue, the name has morphed from GSC2012 to GSC2013 to GSCE to most recently, SCE. What does all that equal up to? Confusion.
On the other hand, Automobilista doesn’t sound much better. While I can understand the Brazilian team wanting to stick to their roots, Automobilista isn’t the easiest title to say for most people…as in the rest of the world.
As other sims simplify their titles – RaceRoom dropping “Racing Experience” and iRacing shedding “.com” – this is a step in the wrong direction.
With that said, Reiza has never been about great marketing (clearly), but rather a good product, and that is on display thanks to the announcement. Alongside the press release is a handful of images showing off upcoming content. This includes all the before mentioned vehicles, giving us our first official look at them.
The big takeaway? The new cars are well into development.
But it’s not only the cars. One image shows track build-up, indicating that dynamic track development is also well along. Reiza has also released these images below, showing off the graphical improvement from GSCE to AMS. I’d say that’s a pretty good step forward.
So it appears like it won’t be long before Darin and I will be stumbling over pronouncing Automobilista in our first review of it.
I have to say the Super Trucks or Stadium Trucks or whatever they call them look like a lot of fun…
About the new name: just take some portuguese classes and everything will be fine… 🙂
Nothing tricky with the name automobilista. I really don’t think we need to dumb down a name for the sake of some people that won’t take the time to pronounce it correctly. After all, we don’t have an issue with Assetto Corsa or Forza Motorsport. It’s a cool name and keeps it’s feet in Reizas background and heritage which is Brazilian through and through. Good for them.
Au-to-mo-bi-lis-ta. Six syllables in one word. It’s clumsy.
A-ssett-o Cor-sa. Five syllables across two words. Easy to say.
I’m all for showing off heritage, but there’s a right way (AC) and a wrong way (AMS).
are you freaking serious?!
Really? One syllable? That’s your argument? C’mon John, you’re better than that.
It’s not one syllable, it’s an average of 6 syllables versus 2.5 per word.
And it’s still a poorly thought out name.
How is it not one syllable? You’re comparing a sim with 6 syllables in the title to a sim with 5 syllables in the title. I don’t see how the fact that one is one word and the other is two words is a big deal. I agree that it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue of English-speaking folk like you and I but, really, I don’t see it being an issue.
Besides, few names were as bad as Game Stock Car. LOL
I think the space between the word is gives a natural pause, a pause not present in AMS.
The annoying thing about all of this is exactly what you said. GSC was never a great name and got more and more confusing over time.
So they create a new game to essentially re-brand it. Perfect, start fresh. But with all the options in the world, they go with something that really isn’t any better.
Not easy to say, not easy to spell, which hurts search engine optimization, which hurts attracting new customers. Heck, Reiza and everyone else is already calling it AMS instead of the real name, just like GSC. So did we fix the problem?
If you’re new to sim racing and you hear about “AMS” and google it, you’re going to get the American Mathematical Society (at least here in the states) and a million other things other than the AMS you’re looking for.
It weakens the sim. It holds it back. It’s just frustrating to see. It’s a very solid sim that everyone should be playing but when someone looks into sim racing, I think it’s going to be very difficult to find.
Well, again, I think you’re looking at this too much from an American point of view. To the Brazilians, this is probably a perfectly reasonable name. Honestly, I don’t care one way or the other.
But, if I said Assetto Corsa to the average person, they wouldn’t have any idea that it was two words. I don’t think there’s much of a pause between the two words at all. Most people I’ve heard pronounce it, sort of say it all at once, as if it was one word.
Nonetheless, I’ll concede. This clearly bothers you more than it bothers me. And, regardless, I find myself playing GSCE less and less as time goes by so I really don’t care what Reiza does with this title moving forward.
I’m Portuguese and i see your point John; maybe the guys at Reiza should’ve come up with a more simple and intuitive title like “Reiza’s Racer Spirits” for instance.
I like that more.
I think they should just call it “Sim Racing”. It’s a no-frills sim racing title, so just call it that. Plus, when people search sim racing, it’ll probably be the first thing to pop up, instead of us…oh wait, never mind!
Maybe because I my italian descent but I love the title name and i find very appropriate to the contest, the new logo look amazing and at time i find the critique you bring on the table are very irrelevant. Great Job Reiza Studio
“Automobilista isn’t the easiest title to say for most people…as in the rest of the world.”
To what world are you refering?… in my world there is a 3:1 ratio between spanish/portuguese speaking and english. It isn’t a valid argument although I agree with you it isn’t the most appealing or easy to remember name.
Automobilista…must be portuguese for texture update.