American Truck Simulator

[Ryzza5]

SCS have announced their release date for ACS ahead of CES... Feb 3 2016.

 

Unfortunately this initial release will not be the full game. Rather, players will be given access to California and just a few trucks, with the rest of NA being added in future updates. It's unknown if these updates will be free.

 

 

SCS Software's blog

American Truck Simulator

[CLR-GTR]

Even if they won't be free, I'll pay without doubting. SCS deserves that, we know the games they started with and what they managed to accomplish over the years, especially also in terms of post-release support, cooperation with modders and attention to everything since ETS and ETS2.

 

There will also be enough to do in ETS2, if you've completed this first 'stage' of ATS2, to keep you busy until they release the next states

[2CV SUPER GT]

We'll have some news on the following blog posts about new vehicles project, the game is slow to progress but it's the only one I see from TDU1 going on the right way, and I am already getting more fun with the actual ETS2 in multiplayer mod.

 

Can't wait to know more about coming features :)

[Paladin Skylark]

Excite. Even California itself is fairly large enough to hold attention until more updates come out, free or not.

[CLR-GTR]

Yes, free. FREE! They managed to get Nevada done on time before game release, so it will be available from day 1 for all versions of the game as free DLC.

 

American Truck Simulator Map DLC Clarifications

 

It's time to respond to the avalanche of questions coming our way concerning our plans for the initial edition of American Truck Simulator and its post-release future.

 

The day one release will contain the state of California. That was always the plan.

 

We are happy to confirm that on February 3rd, we will also have the state of Nevada fully ready for release. We were still not sure about Nevada's finish-line when the game box packaging design was being finalized, so the boxes sitting on retail shelves will put the spotlight on California, but there is actually more coming your way right out of the gate. In short, DLC Nevada will be a free game update for everyone, no matter where or when you will have bought the game, available immediately on official release date.

 

 

It is also public knowledge by now that we are hard at work on the state of Arizona. On the packaging of the retail box, there is actually an explicit statement that DLC Arizona will unlock for owners of this game edition when it's eventually finished. We are delighted to confirm that Arizona DLC will also be a free game update for everybody. You will just have to wait for it a little bit longer, this part of the world is still under development.

 

You do not really have to worry about the particular channel where to purchase the game, whether it's on Steam, in any other digital store, or in a bricks-and-mortar shop, the playable content will be the same for everybody.

 

Actually, we should also mention that next to this base release, several retail publishers have decided to also offer a richer (and more expensive) edition of the game on release, calling it Collector's Edition. These bigger cardboard boxes are surely nicer, they contain a cool selection of additional merchandise items, so it would be for example a very cool birthday gift with extra value. But when it comes to the game itself, the installation media is the same, and the same set of DLCs will be unlocked for those buying this special edition of the game as will for people with the regular edition of the game.

 

Recommended price of the game is going to be $20/€20, though it is to be expected that for alternate currencies, some local market specifics and the need to display a nice round figure may cause slight variations.

 

 

We surely do not plan to stop working on American Truck Simulator world with Arizona. However, please be aware that the road ahead of us is long, and it will take us years to cover the continent. We will continue to add features to the game with regular free updates, but most further map expansion DLCs, if not all, will be paid. We have had to pick a business model allowing us to build more than ten times the amount of content compared to what we are launching with. If you are looking forward to drive coast to coast, you will not be able to do that now, and it will cost you more eventually than the price of the initial purchase.

 

It would be great to get the chance to reach the East Coast, it would be fabulous to be able to push north towards at least 60 degs latitude and south towards the Equatorial. But ultimately, it is up to you, our fans, if this happen - you will vote with your wallets. We expect to get the right guidance from you on future growth of our team to handle the new opportunities and challenges.

 

Thank you for your patience and support!

 

:rockon:

[Paladin Skylark]

Nice, now the rest of it can be free too kthx

[TIMELESS]

SCS are just an excellent company, and it's great to see how far they've come and they're still treating their customers fairly. More than fairly in fact, they're incredibly generous, and for that reason I'll definitely support them.

 

Have some lovely press images :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Paladin Skylark]

'merica - truck yeah

[2CV SUPER GT]

and Arizona will come later as free DLC too :)

 

I never been dispointed by SCS developpement team and I am pretty sure that this ATS will be great, it looks already much better than ETS2 wich is also a quite good game!

[CLR-GTR]

Licensing issues strike once again, SCS has to basically redo what they did for ETS in terms of effort to get some licensed trucks.

 

We still owe you clarification on the initial set of trucks shipping as part of the first release of American Truck Simulator. We have been postponing this post until the last minute, as the situation could - and still can - always change (and for the better only now), but we need to be clear at last on where we are.

 

Over the past year, we have been publishing quite a lot of screenshots and videos showing several in-development truck models. Our fans have quite sharp eyes and take note of all the details, so people are naturally speculating on what's coming based on those shots.

 

Until recently, we were planning to include at least four trucks at launch, and our screenshots shown over time reflected this optimism. Unfortunately, finalizing the licensing talks and getting all the vehicles past the approval clearance is taking longer than anticipated, and you may have noticed some of those trucks no longer showing in the most recent batches of pictures from the game.

 

The result is that out of the gate, the game will ship with just two trucks.

 

Thanks to kind support of PACCAR group, we are happy to confirm the presence of Kenworth T 680 and Peterbilt 579 as part of the launch line-up.

 

Kenworth T680

 

Peterbilt 579

 

After the game is released and gets into media spotlight, we will have a very important tool in our licensing talks arsenal - a successful game (fingers crossed) aimed at the relevant market. Licensing talks are often resembling the "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" problem. To obtain a license in a highly specialized field, you just don't walk into a store and get it over the counter. Unlike car manufacturers who have extensive experience with being featured in racing games, for most truck manufacturers this is all unexplored territory. We always need to find a way inside the company to reach the decision makers at marketing/licensing department, and getting our voice noticed is not easy. Just getting the chance to get out point across is often all it takes, and with American Truck Simulator out in playable form and in the hands of customers, it gives us a crucial talking point.

 

When the game is out on the market already at last, when we can prove its impact on trucking fans at large, we hope for more of the truck manufacturers to pay attention, to realize that it's beneficial for them to participate, and perhaps even push us to hurry so that they are not left behind the pack. We have been through this experience with the launch of Euro Truck Simulator 2, when vocal support of our fans managed to bring the game to the attention to European truck manufacturers missing in the initial version of the game.

 

We have progressed very well on several additional vehicles, and in the weeks after release, we are confident that will get the clearance to start adding them to the game. We will be adding them for free of course as part of regular game updates, just as is the case with the ETS2.

 

Kenworth W900

 

Peterbilt 389

 

Now comes the time for an explicit disclaimer - any vehicles and truck brands you will see pictured below this point in text are here only for illustrative purposes, and do not constitute any guarantee that they will be appearing in the game in any particular timeframe. We have implemented them as an experiment when trying to get the door opened. As you can see some of them are already in advanced enough stage to be technically prepared for integration into the game world, yet more are semi-finished and not yet ready for integration with the game engine.

 

Freightliner Cascadia

 

Volvo 'Valiant' VNL780

 

International Lonestar, rendered in Maya

 

Meanwhile, we are still hard at work improving Euro Truck Simulator 2. As we are showing a ton of North American vehicles today, we did not want our European fans to feel betrayed. So we thought that a teaser image of a new truck being readied for introduction to ETS2 will cheer them up today.

 

Renault T-series high end model

 

Source: SCS Software's blog: Truck Licensing Situation Update

[carlos_69]

International and Freigthliner (even this give their license to Rig n Roll and look how successfull that game was) I would understand that they are nervous about it but Volvo they already know the success of ETS2 so i think it would be a no brainer to give SCS the license but that is my opinion.

[CLR-GTR]

That's what I would think, plus the American brands should have heard at least once of the whole 18 Wheels of Steel series.

 

Ah well, with ETS2 they also started out with just a few. They'll pull it off. If they don't want to be included in ATS, they can only be dreaming of becoming a Driveclub Hauler DLC or something :lol:

[TIMELESS]

Yep ^

 

With this game patience really is key. I'm okay with that though.

[2CV SUPER GT]

W900 & 389 are the most awesome looking but anyway, as we have to run from interior view, the most important thing in this game is travel + cabin feeling alive (switch animation & sound + every gauge working as it is the case for ETS2) .

So, accurate environnement with nice choice of various roadq, wide map is something I feel more important than having lot of trucks..., except when online mod will be released, but we have also customization.

ETS2 got a nice evolution from release day and it is far to be finished, I guess we can trust on SCS for the future of both games. They also plan to hire more people if ATS got the success they hope, so more contents might come from 2017.

 

Still one week to wait :)

[2CV SUPER GT]

[CLR-GTR]

Reviews are coming in :D

 

8.5/10 - Gamepressure.com - Minuspoints: rather high fines for traffic violations, similarities to ETS2 are too obvious (but they see this game as a successor instead of a parallel title) and only 2 trucks available at launch (SCS got this, I'm not worried one bit).

 

Featured article - Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Minuspoints: can't walk around (he so badly wanted to), ETS2 thing again also for graphics (he mentions lack of AA, but the scaling option works nice for me).

 

8.5/10 - Destructoid - Minuspoints: it's not 'hardcore' simulation, it's not for those who want vastly different mechanics or improved designs compared to ETS2.

 

8/10 - PC-Gamer.com - Minuspoints: for some too similar to ETS2, trucks don't feel much different from the European ones.

[carlos_69]

i just hope thee 389 can have the 379 headlights to make the Peterbilt used in Black Dog

[2CV SUPER GT]

I feel this game as big DLC / ADD-ON for ETS2 but sold as standalone game, so people can choose to get a part only of World of Truck if they're only interested by 1 continent. I think that ETS2 got so many evolution from devs that some people forgot that the 1.0 version was so far to the quality of the actual ATS.

ATS's sales will be used from SCS to hire more people in their company and accelerate update and add-ons developpement, so ATS (ETS2 also) will probably have a better future than ETS2 got until now, and this last was quite nicely updated, something rare in game industrie.

[CLR-GTR]

True. I haven't seen support and especially release of new content and improving game mechanics in the way SCS did. Remember for example the bigger integration with World of Trucks and the updated weather and sky system.

 

They definitely deserve and need more people. ETS, ATS expansion and the bus thing as well.... my my my :D

[2CV SUPER GT]

Sky was a bit weird before update but the new sky is really nice, simple and nice for eyes, better than useless post process effects. They always update with nice and usefull things as custom GPS root, sound for cabine switchs, sun orientation variation from north to south, tire sound, new truck, new licence, some new roads and city, always for free! It's slow for some people but the game is going on the right way and the amount of players are still growing every month, unlike triple A game wich are forgotten 3 months after their release.

 

ETS2 is always on the top 20 of steam statistics with a peak of 20 000 players every days.

 

I was more surprised looking about youtube video popularity.

 

The most viewed video for Pcars (PS4 trailer) got 800 000 views and 5500 likes, uploaded from Playstation channel at june 2014.

 

Assetto Corsa is far from that, only few video are going beyond 200 000 views, recent PS4 trailer from 12 days ago, is still under 100 000 views and only 300 likes.

 

The ATS trailer I linked yesterday wich was released 3 days ago got 130 000 views and soon 6000 likes.

 

A 1 year old ATS video gameplay got 1 500 000 views and 15 000 likes !!

 

The point is not against Pcars or Asseto corsa wich are great game indeed, but I really thought that these racing games was more popular than a simple trucking game from east of Europe wich have still no plan to go on consoles to enlarge its popularity.

 

Maybe the fact that the game is alone in its own category, and still nice for its customers might be a reason.

 

Then, Multiplayer mod wich is great mod as the game, with every days more than 6000 people playing at the same time at critics hours is another reason too, as it is the reason I am still playing myself.

[calster17]

I just wish I had a good enough computer to run ETS2 at a good rate, and this of course!

And a controler, as I can tell you first hand it's much MUCh easyer hooking up a truck/trailer and driving in a tight space in real life than with a keyboard! :lol:

 

I'll be getting put threw my HGV license as of this year (Finally), so will be fun to play about with the simulators again! :D

[CLR-GTR]

People are surprised it's such a good game despite having ''simulator'' in the title, considering all other ''simulators'' out there :lol:

 

And I do think it definitely is because ETS and ATS are the only ones in their league (and the only ones remembered), combined with SCS's experience in these games. 18WoS is way too old (most of those reviewing parties forgot about them), Rig'n'Roll was a spiritual failure successor to Big Rig racing, and it's such a welcome difference to drive carefully, discover roads and companies and deliver loads of types of cargo. And it has a sort of business tycoon part as well.

[2CV SUPER GT]

Game is already released on Steam ;)

[CLR-GTR]

 

More and more reviews coming in, from various game websites but also the likes of Forbes Game department, enforcing the game's position at 8/10 scores. It's among Steam's Top Sellers and it's a Rock Paper Shotgun and Eurogamer "Recommended" title.

 

And I finally bought my first truck :D

 

[CLR-GTR]

:thumbsup:

 

The iconic Kenworth W900 truck model should be added to the American Truck Simulator line-up in a few short days; it will be a part of the first small game update that we are finishing now.

 

This is actually the very first truck we have started creating for the game over two years ago, it has been in an almost-finished state for a long time. We were sure that this classic vehicle would be received very positively by our fans. However, unbeknown to us, it did not turn out to be the best choice for the first vehicle to approach Kenworth with during initial licensing discussions. Truck manufacturers tend to be very careful about their image, and Kenworth, as the pioneer in aerodynamics in cabin design with their T680, had a rather different idea of the ideal truck to have in our game at the moment of release. So it was back to work for us to finish the other truck first before we could hope for the licensing deal to be successfully signed.

 

 

Meanwhile, we also owe you news concerning the state of Steampunk DLC. We are gifting it now to loyal Steam followers of American Truck Simulator as promised. Our "robot" code has been processing the gifts for a few days already actually, we are however throttled by some technical issues. So far, we have managed to add the DLC to the Steam library of 53,000 players, there is still some 110,000 more DLCs to issue currently. Please have patience with us, the DLC content will automatically appear in your game shortly. As the execution on our side was not as swift as we had hoped, we are not yet limiting your chances to earn the DLC for free. Anybody following the game on Steam until and as of today will still qualify to receive it. You don't have to worry also if your game was a store pre-order and the box is yet to arrive; so long as you follow the game in time, the DLC will be added to it even if you activate the game a week or two from now.

 

Source: SCS Software's blog: Kenworth W900 is almost here

 

 

Seriously, Kenworth? :oook: