Why GIANTS Software Coming To Sim Racing Is A BIG Deal

September 06, 2024

Josie Koonen on a giant franchise born out of coincidence, seized opportunities, and pure creativity... and what this all means for the sim racing world...

Finding Farmers

The story starts way back in the early 2000s—to a time when 3D open-world games were becoming all the rage. That’s when Swiss co-founders Stefan Geiger and Christian Ammann, attending the GDC in San Francisco, came up with the idea of coding their own game engine.

Only problem? Their engine was adaptable to a few genres, and they were unsure which direction to take until a casual chat with a mutual friend—“Why don’t you guys make something with a tractor in it?”—sparked the initial idea of creating a farm simulator.

The next step was to decide exactly what kind of simulation to develop. At that time, this niche within gaming was not really occupied, and during development, the devs were getting a great response (and ideas) from their online community on their forum. The eventual direction of the very first game was to create an interactive, first-person experience which included an explorable game world that deftly simulated the realities of farming and where players could drive and work with different machines.

That first game was released in German-speaking countries on PC only as Landwirtschafts-Simulator 2008 and featured exactly one licensed brand—a tractor and machinery by Fendt. It also started what is now one of the most adored and successful franchises in gaming history, with sales in the millions, mods in the billions of downloads, and supporting over 150 brands and over 400 authentic machines in their upcoming Farming Simulator 25.

The Farming Simulator franchise went on to become a benchmark in simulation games, having expanded from PC-only to multiple platforms (iOS, iPadOS, Android, Kindle, Mac OS, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo and more), and boasting a hugely popular esports series, a magazine, a real-life annual convention (FarmCon), and a legion of loyal fans and content creators.

The Not-So-Secret Secret Sauce: Modding & Community First

So what’s behind the success of the franchise? Martin Rabl, Head of Marketing & PR at GIANTS Software, explains it as follows: “It starts with product quality. Today, we feature hundreds of authentic machines from over 150 brands in our game, offer multiple crops, animals, forestry, production chains—it’s all there to create an agricultural empire.”

To put the success of the franchise in perspective, here’s some numbers of Farming Simulator 22 for you: Modders have created over 6,000 different mods—80% of which are available on both consoles and PC. And those mods have been downloaded an astonishing 1.6 billion times—that’s a mind-blowing 18.6 downloads per second!

Martin Rabl explains that, “The introduction of mods brought a whole new level to the game and the community—and still does today. But it’s not about quantity for us: providing our players with quality mods is fundamental. Dedicated members of our QA team check and assess every mod upload to our official ModHub. This way, our QA team ensures that each and every mod upload is safe, rated E for everyone, and compatible with the game. In return, we share part of our profits with the modders, incentivising them to strive for the highest possible quality.”

Josie Koonen, Social Media & Brand Content Specialist at GIANTS Software, notes that, “Our international content creators are big multipliers, too, and dedicated creators can partner with us to become affiliates. In return for their support in reaching millions of players across several platforms, they get game-related information ahead of time, and can directly communicate with our community team. They are the true mediators between their local player base and us. Through them we get feedback from all over the world, and this allows us to continue listening to our fans and creating the content they want us to deliver.”

“We believe that having strong ties to the community is the most important success factor,” says Martin Rabl. “Every year we hold our own event—FarmCon—where we showcase the latest developments and have special sessions for modders and content creators.”

GIANTS Software As Publishers

GIANTS Software became publishers in 2020. The first title published was Farming Simulator 22, released in November 2021, that has now surpassed 7 million copies sold. Project Motor Racing will be the first game apart from Farming Simulator products GIANTS will publish that has been developed by an outside studio.

“From development to publishing, we now have all the important people in-house—where ‘in-house’ means in one of our four offices,” says Josie Koonen. “Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, the company has grown over time, recruiting specialists for vehicle integration and marketing for the Erlangen (Germany) office, branching out to Chicago (USA) to strengthen our overseas presence, and a dedicated team of mainly 3D artists at our office in Brno (Czech Republic).”

“Employing over a hundred people, we believe that handpicking the best fit for our team is more important than exponential growth,” explains Martin Rabl. “We believe in a flat hierarchy and that everyone is responsible enough to make their own decisions. We celebrate creativity, collaboration, and our inclusive culture.

“In Straight4, we have found a studio that shares our values: putting community first alongside a passion for simulation. The future of Project Motor Racing is an exciting one. Our game engine with bespoke racing physics will doubtlessly be of significant benefit both for our community of virtual farmers and their community of virtual racers. We’re excited to transfer the lessons learned in our genre to the exciting genre of sim racing.”