Has The End Arrived For KartKraft?

After more than 15 years, has the end arrived for KartKraft? For the past two days anyone trying to play the karting sim racing game has either encountered a failed authentication on login, or if you’re able to get around that problem, it will then fail to connect to the backend platform.

It’s possible that it’s a temporary server issue that may be fixed at some point, but this seems highly unlikely given the fate of KartKraft since the title and developers were acquired by Motorsport Games.

After originally being teased as KartSim back in 2008 as an indie development project, it wasn’t until 2016 that the game now known as KartKraft was available as a closed beta, and launched to the public via Steam Early Access in 2018. For more details on the history, there’s an excellent timeline compiled by djfil007 on Reddit. (Also thanks to djfil007 for prompting us on Bluesky to check out the server issues – why not follow us on Bluesky?) We’ve also written about KartKraft a lot when development was active back in 2020-2022 having followed the game since the first closed beta.

In April 2021 the Black Delta team and KartKraft were acquired by Motorsport Games, and in January 2022 the title left Early Access despite missing lots of previously planned features. Aside from an emergency transition from a previous cloud server provider, updates and information dried up as the developers were mainly working on a planned official IndyCar title until it was cancelled and the team laid off by Motorsport Games. CEO Stephen Hood has previously stated in interviews that there’s no more intention to update the game, and the plan was never to build it into something huge. The acquisition was more to hire two of the Black Delta team.

Given the ongoing financial issues still facing Motorsport Games with the company open to a sale or merger following more redundancies in 2024, it’s probably highly unlikely anyone there will have the time or knowledge to do anything more than make a missed server payment or restart a box to see if that solves the current issue with KartKraft. Anything more than that will probably never happen.

Is there any future for KartKraft?

The simple answer is not while it’s owned by Motorsport Games, especially with CEO Stephen Hood stating it has a limited audience as it’s less aspirational and more obtainable in the real world. Which is true to some extent depending where you’re located – in the UK a single 15 minute session will set you back more than the cost of KartKraft at most tracks, which is one of the reasons I actually bought it in Early Access.

So that only leaves two options. Either Motorsport Games (or any new owners of the parent company) sell the IP, or they give it away.

Realistically, there probably aren’t a huge number of potential buyers queueing up to purchase a karting sim which has been left to detoriate for a couple of years, and has lost player numbers as a result, although CEO Stephen Hood recently claimed people were enquiring about the game. So unless it’s bought back by the original developers at a relatively low price, it seems unlikely any larger company will jump in with a significant offer. Especially when other titles do include karts (e.g. Automobilista 2, Gran Turismo 7, the Kartsim DLC for rFactor 2 (also owned by Motorsport Games), or Kart Racing Pro.

The other option, which I recommended when Motorsport Games originally laid off the Australian team, would be to just let the KartKraft IP go free to the original developers or to open source it all. Given that the company still faces an uncertain future, needs to continue cutting costs and focusing on Le Mans Ultimate, and has a load of well-earned negative feelings from sim racers for a number of reasons (blocking other sims using the IndyCar name, cancelling proposed IndyCar and BTCC titles, redundancies and unpaid wages to staff etc), releasing KartKraft and the associated IP to other developers would at least build some much needed goodwill, along with removing any associated maintenance and server costs.

It would also mean that KartKraft could be opened up for modders, which would allow people to develop their own versions of local tracks. Which is incredibly useful if you’re planning on visiting any of them and want to do some practice.

At the very least, KartKraft needs to be removed from sale at the moment. Both the Reddit and Discord have a number of people posting that they’ve bought the game through Steam and other retailers in the past few days, only to find it doesn’t work at all. And if you’ve spent more than 2 hours in-game before giving up on the issue, you’re unable to get a refund for your £20.99.

Personally, if this is the end for KartKraft, I’ll be sad to see it vanish. While I haven’t spent as much time playing it as I’d have liked due to the lack of competitive multiplayer, it was a great way to remember how to drive a kart before taking my son karting for the first time. And if it had included more UK circuits, I would have definitely spent a lot more time learning each one. Especially Buckmore Park, or my current local venues like Hunts Racing Club, Stretton, PF International and Ancaster.

And most importantly, Motorsport Games either need to state whether they’re intending to fix the current issue or not, and the end has arrive for KartKraft, act to stop anyone else paying money for a game which won’t work.