GamingonPhone had the chance to talk with Playsport Games’ Design Director, Mr. Rob Pearson to know more about Motorsport Manager Online. We tried asking questions from various perspectives of the game, be it the development or what is waiting for the gamers in the pipeline. And gladly, we have got some nice responses. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the Motorsport Manager Online developer interview.
The core concept and the business model
GamingonPhone: The previous Motosport Manager Mobile games were premium. But with Motosport Manager Online, Playsport Games decided to go with the freemium model which was a big decision. So what was the concept/thought/model behind this? From offline to going online and competing with the world! What was the initial idea behind bringing the motorsport mobile manager series to online?
Mr Pearson: When we began talking about the next Motorsport Manager game, we thought that multiplayer would be a great area to explore. In fact, we built an internal prototype and had an awesome time testing out 10 player races in the office, so we knew that they were brilliant fun! After that, we knew that our next game would be multiplayer-focused.
Multiplayer games live or die on the size and activity of their community, so we wanted to make sure that MM Online would reach as many people as possible. With that in mind, free to play was the only real option that made sense – reaching more players simply makes the game a better experience for everybody. We’ve had 2.6 million users since launch – already the biggest Motorsport Manager game ever – so I think it was the right decision!
Social Elements
GamingonPhone: Although the game is an online game right now, but there are still many content ideas to improve the overall experience of the players. For example, we still can not just race with friends. Or maybe, an option to practice with AI / friends will really add value. Are there any plans on this?
Mr Pearson: We always try to keep a close eye on what the community is saying, whether it’s on Discord, Facebook, Twitter or over email. We can’t reveal anything about our roadmap just yet, but I agree that the ability to play with friends would be an amazing feature – it’s definitely something that we want to add to the game.
GamingonPhone: Are there any future plans to add some kind of clubs / franchise / clan system in the game where players can interact? Because that would make a great social experience.
Mr Pearson: We have some really exciting new features planned for the next few months (and years!). Socially-focused features can really enrich the game, and that’s something we’re keeping firmly in mind when coming up with new ideas. There are also plenty of systems within the game which we’d like to expand on and improve. Watch this space.
Game issues
GamingonPhone: There are plenty of connection issues and minor bugs which are hampering the gaming experience. Are they very hard to be fixed? If not, when can we expect them to be clean? Especially the connection issues.
Mr Pearson: We’ve experienced really high demand for the game since launch, and – with the world being online at the moment – at times we have simply run out of servers in the major server centres in Europe and the US. We’re still seeing huge numbers every day, but we’re working on a patch that will help the problem. It should be getting better!
Future updates
GamingonPhone: We would love to get a sneak peek of the update roadmap for Motorsport Manager Online.
Mr Pearson: I can’t share the roadmap with you right now, but what I can say is that we’ll have some very exciting stuff to talk about towards the end of June.
We recently released Patch 1.05, which hands out a special Ice livery for the best player in the world each week! This is just the first step in giving our top players exciting rewards to get their hands on. Also, we’ve handed out special mottos to some of our real world drivers who are playing the game, so keep an eye out – you might find yourself in a race with a top driver!
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