At the Ready to Play B2B conference, Players Editor-In-Chief Alex Kharchenko talked to Filip Stefanovic, who is responsible for the development of Lorgar's sim racing products. We discussed the new product range, sim racing boom, potential sim racing tournaments and availability of products in Ukraine.
Please tell me briefly about your sim racing experience. Did you get it from go-karts?
No, unfortunately, I didn't have the special path that racers usually do. I used to race like an amateur in real life with slalom races and hill races where you drive, but it was basically on the lower level because, you know, I come from a modest family.
Later I started with sim racing, switched to real racing and then I came back to the sim racing again. I have a Porsche driving certificate for advanced driving and I'm currently doing the master's one for my own will because it's like driving a real Porsche and you have a certificate for special models.
In sim racing I was a part of a professional team called SMD, that doesn't exist anymore, but it was a UK team based and we were driving endurance races within the GT3 and GTA.
When you started the sim racing, what game specifically did you start with?
Well, iRacing is the most advanced in a sense because it has the appropriate level based on your skill. You have licenses that you need to pass as well. It's a subscription model based game. You pay per month, you pay per track, per car.
So if you pick a car in the track and let's say a track series that you want to do it, you need to invest a bit of money. It's not expensive, it's like 10 euros, 9 euros, 8 euros, 7 euros, but it's worth of it because the lobby and everything else is quite nice.
But if I'm advising anyone to start, you should start with maybe F1. F1 is more half arcade, half real, but the content is amazing. If you love F1, it's crazy. But Assetto Corsa, iRacing, Assetto Corsa Competizione and R-Factor are the most realistic games out there.
What can you say about Gran Turismo franchise? This game boosted the love for sim racing.
Gran Turismo raised the popularity together with iRacing. These two games really shaped the whole environment. Next to that we had Pole Position, which was in the 90s. It was one of the good games with good physics and this raised the bar for the game from arcade to real life.
Talking about the Lorgar, how did you get to work with the company? Did they approach you for the sim racing project?
First of all, I come from a different background. I was in automotive, I'm an entrepreneur.
But this team really found me. They found me and when I heard about the project, I was really happy to join. I think for the first time, at least from my experience, the brand is asking racers to build the racing equipment.
Before I thought it was more of a business oriented model from some other companies. But here I had an understanding from the team that they're looking for somebody who likes to race, who are passionate about it. So this is good because when they approached me, I said yes, I want to work on it.
I was glad and happy to join in. We built a really excellent team and I think through our products you can actually see that. We put an effort in it and only the good things.
Honestly, from the top of my heart, I can say that.
When did the project start? I'm talking about the timescale from the MVP to the product.
It was a really fast pace. I think you would be surprised. We started this year.
Oh, seriously?
Yes, I joined them in February. What we did, we put a lot of effort to understand what we need to do. We started building and designing. We have our own designing team which is doing that also from the racing background.
We started building and basically sim racing products came to being in a few months. We cut down the R&D time because of the knowledge we got from the racing environment. We cut down all of the long path where you need to explore the market and everything else. We have the experts within.
I heard that you spent months in China to test all sim racing products in factories.
Yes, of course. And we still do. It never ends because we want to make sure we have the right product for the market. And we will continue to test. These products will be soon released to sell, but we need to always work on it and test it even further.
Talking about the whole range of sim racing solutions, can you just briefly tell me, Lorgar presented Advanced and Pro models and is expecting to present Elite in the beginning of next year?
Well, it's planned for next year. It's in scope because Elite should be quite unique and we want to build it right. We don't want to rush things. That's the first number, the first priority.
And then, of course, we're going to expand the range. We have to start with something. I think our Advanced solution, which is the flexible, is the core to the product because our goal is not to only target the niche.
We want to expand the market. We want to target even casual gamers, to introduce them to racing, make it more popular. And then if they want to advance even further to Pro and Elite, they can do it. But we want to attract more people, expand the market and create something new, which nobody else did.
So is the Advanced model range for casual gamers?
Well, yes, as an entry level. We call it advanced because it is advanced, essentially. You can do advanced things on it. You can even race some serious races.
If you want to stay on that platform, it's still good. That platform is giving you a flexible solution, which you can try. It's like an entry level, but it's not completely entry level, where it's just some basic concept of the product. It can be used even for advanced racing. I would race in that one. I think I would have similar results like in this one.
What I noticed from your presentation is a compatibility with other accessories and brands. Can you please give more details on that?
Yes. First of all, we signed a partnership with Simagic. We always recommend Simagic because I believe they are on top of the scale from all of the other brands. I call them the Apple of sim racing, with the innovation they did. Regarding the quality of the materials, the brand is amazing and outstanding in real racing.
The key concept here is that, especially for the pro rigs, you can mount even different things. You can buy lower gear accessories and mount it even on other products. Our core is compatibility.
It means when you buy a cockpit from us, you can have a situation where you can tweak your settings. You can find another product, find the perfect racing setup for you and you can still use it on our cockpits no matter what.
Lorgar launched Lorgar Platform. Will sim racing products be added to it?
It’s in the process. We want to make sure that our equipment is synchronized from start to finish. We want to offer a full solution. That means if you have a gaming mouse, keyboard and everything else that you can use when you plug in even the simulators.
It will all be in one platform where you can tweak everything. In phase one, we are working towards that because software takes time. We will get there, we are really close.
Of course, in the future, that's the ultimate goal. Next year, I believe. I cannot give you a timeline right now.
What’s the price for the Advanced model?
I think it will cost no more than 350 EUR. I think it's quite affordable and it's a basic way to enter the market without any issues. And of course, we would like to bundle it. Because we as an ASBIS, we are distributing Logitech equipment. We don't have an official confirmation from Logitech that this is going to be done but we are working on it. But since we are distributing equipment, you can buy together these two things.
Will Advanced model be available in Ukraine?
Yes, in all countries where ASBIS works. That's the goal. Of course, maybe there will be a phased approach. It's quite difficult to immediately go to all countries, you know. There will be a phased approach, but yes, definitely we want to serve all of the countries that we currently have in our portfolio of the company.
I also noticed the sim racing dashboard and button box for cockpits presented by Lorgar. Initially, when you started the big sim racing project, were you thinking to add these accessories simultaneously?
Well... Within time. As a racer, you always want to have a unique equipment. You always want to have something unique, which tweaks your settings. With accessories, what we wanted to do is to create a moment where you can create your perfect environment that you can race in.
If you want to use the dashboard box, because sometimes in racing, especially in complex racing, you need several buttons during the endurance when you need to set up your pit. You need to set up your fuel level. You need to set up your lights. When the dark comes, you need to flash somebody if he's on the way. And all of this kind of stuff. Fuel moment, tire pressures and everything else. The button box needs to be there to actually give you the flexibility.
On the equipment side, you usually have some buttons on the wheels, but that’s not enough. And here you have a flexibility that you can mark exactly the buttons, what they want to do. You can assign it. It's like a normal control button. Imagine it like having an additional joystick next to it. That's one of the reasons.
We also want to replicate something real in the racing car. Because each racing car in the middle, they have some kind of a button box. And we try to replicate the racing moment where we have the ignition of electricity, the ignition of the engine. We have rotatable knobs which you can use to adjust traction control or some kind of engine maps, depending on the setup you want to drive. Or ABS and so on and so on. It gives you flexibility.
Regarding the dashboard, it's nice to have a real-time feedback of how you're driving. You want to see the speedometer, the RPMs, the tire temperatures, the fastest lap. How quick is the guy in front of you? How slow is the guy behind you? What's the gap between the leader?
Sometimes racers don't want to see the HUD on the screen. They want a clean screen, real immersion. Then they want to have an actual physical device, like a small tablet which reads all of the telemetry.
Will it possible to add dashboard or button box to the Advanced model?
Yes, they will be available. We will create something to be intercompatible between the models. But sometimes it's just a matter of rationality and logic. If the guys who are racing on advanced models, is this the right equipment for them? They want to focus on honing their skills, becoming better and better. And if they really like racing, most probably they're going to advance to more pro stuff. But yes, we will make that happen to be cross-platform.
What are the future plans for Lorgar in the sim racing market? Maybe you will do a Lorgar Cup, but for the sim racing?
I can tell you only that something is coming next year. We are cooking something. Something is definitely coming. What we want to do is build the story, create something. Since we are a new brand, from this perspective, we want to build the story right.
You know how they say, measure three times, cut once. So that's what we want to do. And when we build the story, there will definitely be something like that.
What about additional accessories or even new products?
Accessories will keep coming up. As for categories, currenly, as you saw, we have two and a half. Why I say two and a half? We have an advanced version, we have pro.
But there are two different pros. One is with a thinner profile, one is with a thicker profile. And currently the market, how it was structured, usually the racers build it by themselves.
There are some companies which are doing it, but a bit different than us. They don't have the full racing, let's say, solution where you can group everything within one brand. There were usually smaller companies, in a sense, where they were focusing only on that.
We want to build it right. So there will be more categories, I would say, coming the same as this too. There will be more like that, just to target even different people and higher scales or lower scales. And then we want to build more components, more accessories, so the user actually can choose what they like and what they don't like to put in a cockpit to make their racing immersive and, you know, right.
In terms of the compatibility list, right now you have, I think, six or seven brands that are compatible with Lorgar.
We want to cover the majority of the market. Why? For example, from the pedal tray or the steering wheel, how you mount other equipment.
We have actually like a legend written down. So if you want to buy a product, usually it's really tricky because you have so many holes and then you need to center. We actually drawn out all of the components. If you want to mount Simagic, you point it in hole A. If you want, let's say, some other brand, you can point in point B and C and D and all of that.
You signed an agreement with Simagic for 40+ countries. Will see Simagic products in Ukraine?
Yes, we will be the official distributor for these countries, including Ukraine. There are many countries on the list. This is a fresh agreement. We just made it. I'm really proud of it. These guys are amazing. Only compliments for Simagic.
They are all coming from the racing background. They really love what they do and that's one of the reasons why we picked them up. As a partner they really put their effort in it and create amazing products.
The second thing is, of course, a country like Ukraine, which we are covering, we are going to be the one distributing directly from Simagic to the market. So our partners who have these kind of chains where they can sell, we will be supporting them to push this product as well as Lorgar, of course. We are coming into sim racing seriously and we want to give the best product to the users so they can circle the whole chain.
One phrase I want point out. You said that you are coming into racing seriously. It means a long-term commitment for Lorgar?
We are here to stay. Our idea is to build the story, as I mentioned, and then to see how it goes and develop it nicely, groom it, and then to make sure that we make things right. And when we do that, we are planning to stay, of course.
It's not one-off. We want to stay here for many years, release new products, new versions, and as we go by, even further to advance and become one of the top racing brands. Not only brands, but gaming, because we have such a wonderful product across the range.
