Happy New Year!

Extreme Trucker 2 on YouTube

We have been neglecting our YouTube channel in recent months, but in the next few weeks we hope to be able to show off a few nice things there again. We are starting slowly for now, with a slideshow of yet another set of cool screenshots from 18 Wheels of Steel Extreme Trucker 2.

Christmas is coming

One of the features planned for Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the return of a long-lost ability in our sims to choose custom paintjobs for trucks. Players were used to picking from a variety of paint looks in our older 18 Wheels of Steel series games, but currently moders have to work around limitations in our games that don't quite make using of custom paintjobs a comfortable experience.

The situation with paintjobs should improve a lot - both the "out of the box" experience with a solid selection of paintjobs, and hopefully also with mods for the game offering additional content; making this content a natural part of the customization options

We still cannot guarantee that Scania will appear in ETS2 in full glory as an officially licensed brand. Getting the attention from truck manufacturing companies, even just starting the discussions and then taking them to satisfactory conclusion for both sides, is quite tough. In the end, we may have to take the painful measures and strip some of the truck models of any relation with real brands. (So keep your fingers crossed that we don't have to do it too often!) But we thought that these in-game screen shots would be a nice example, a nice teaser if you allow, of our paintjob plans...

Magazine Interview with SCS Software

Our fans in Germany may find interest in a special issue of PC Games magazine, focusing solely on driving simulators. The issue should appear on news stands across Germany starting today.

The magazine contains an extensive interview with SCS Software (and a total of 23 pages devoted to our games in total), covering our history from the very start of the company, our most challenging projects, our opinion on state of the simulation games market, and also some hints about future matters. It also includes a pack-in DVD with demo versions of our simulators released in Germany through rondomedia so far, so it may be a chance to try something that you haven't tried before. The interview is has been translated into German for the magazine of course, but the demos are actually the time-limited demo multi-language digitally distributed editions of our games, so for example German Truck Simulator demo is the latest 1.32 version "Edition Austria."

As a teaser, here is a small excerpt from the interview:

Can you imagine developing an online version of your games (are you even already planning one)? And if you do, what would that game look like? What kind of challenge would it offer the players?

Of course we can imagine transforming our games from purely single-player experience into collaborative gameplay concept. The trouble is that to make it right, the game should ideally be closer to a MMO game – with persistent player data and ability to keep track of the player's progress so far in the virtual world. Actually we have had the concept document for such a game already sketched for several years, waiting “in the drawer” to be used when the time is right. But it's a big task to build something like that - with money to put into development and infrastructure, even a light-weight version of an MMO could represent a multimillion investment. We need to approach this ambition very carefully.  One day we hope to be able to push for online component for our games, we are looking forward to being in position to do so in fact. But as I frequently remind our fans, it all depends on our ability to sell enough copies of our games to be able to afford thinking of the more ambitious plans. There is a simple way to motivate us to accelerate our effort – vote with your wallet for the survival and evolution of the simulation genre.

Driving in Bangladesh

Beta testing of Extreme Trucker 2 is well under way. In a previous post we have showed you a few scenes from Montana. Now let's focus on the other all-new map to appear in 18 Wheels of Steel Extreme Trucker 2. Here are several pictures from Bangladesh, you can find even more in our Extreme Trucker 2 beta testing facebook gallery.

We have received a few complaints that we put too much attention to this game, not giving you enough news about Euro Truck Simulator 2. Please be patient - right now, pretty much the entire SCS team concentrates on wrapping up this project. Yes, Extreme Trucker is a simpler, specific concept, aimed at a younger player, perhaps not deep enough for fans of the more complex Simulator line. But it's a very important project for keeping SCS Software in the business, and being able to continue working on the more serious simulation projects.

Soon we will shift our full attention to Euro Truck Simulator 2 finally, and we'll be happy to give you more news about what is happening with it. One little hint of good news coming soon is that we'll soon be starting on 3D models for dashboards and cabin interiors of Magnum, Premium and Actros - and we are pretty confident that the names and logos will be there in the final game!

Last but not least - don't forget to vote for your favorite fansite on the right side poll bar. We would like to get a feeling about the popularity of the various fans sites out there!