Game History and Its Future

A loose translation of an article from the Spintires: MudRunner group

In 2014, trees shook and everything rumbled as players drove trucks, getting stuck in the mud. That was the captivating magic of Spintires, a serious simulation of the simple attempt to drive through rough and impassable Russian terrain. But ongoing development stalled in a prolonged dispute between developer Pavel Zagrebelny and the publishers Oovee Game Studio, and Spintires seemed to remain as rust in cyber-mud.
Well! In an unexpected and tangled turn, Spintires has returned with a new edition, now released by a different studio and with a different publisher (update: with Zagrebelny, since he is the game’s creator). Focus Home Interactive today announced the release of Spintires: MudRunner, an expanded and expandable future edition of Spintires, coming in October.

Spintires: MudRunner is being developed by Saber Interactive, developers who created Will Rock and Inversion, and also worked on games including Quake Champions. Focus Home says what to expect:
“Compared to its predecessor, this huge update includes a new Sandbox Map pack combining 5 standard maps that have been completely reworked, and a new Challenge mode with 9 new unique maps, 13 new vehicles, and other comprehensive and accompanying improvements.”

But since this is an update rather than a sequel, we decided to offer people who own the original Spintires on Steam a 50% discount.

“No, I have no idea how the new Spintires is being re-released, and why by a different company, with different developers? Presumably Focus bought or licensed the rights to Spintires, but how did this happen, and how involved is Zagrebelny in all this? [strikethrough text begins] Zagrebelny discussed the new version during a Russian interview in July, so it seems he is making... the game? [editor’s note – This refers to Pavel’s Q&A about the game announcement a month ago] But Focus only mentions Saber. I asked Focus to understand what’s going on. [strikethrough text ends]”

Update: “Focus Home tells us that Zagrebelny has returned to Saber Interactive with his game Spintires: MudRunner as its official owner and lead developer. That is, he came to us with the game, and we supported him.”

The development of Spintires was complicated. During its successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013, tensions between Zagrebelny and Oovee threatened the game’s fate. For several years, Pavel accused Oovee of refusing to support the game; there were occasional temporary reconciliations, but only briefly. Rumors increasingly spoke of publisher sabotage, while the game’s massive sales suggested Oovee was receiving a very large and unjustified income. They only “supported” the game for the first two years after release, then completely stopped contacting Zagrebelny and the rest of the community—there were no official statements on the Oovee forum for over 16 months.
Whatever the new agreement with Zagrebelny is, Focus is at least a stable and predictable publisher.

It’s a shame all this is tied to such an interesting game. As Adam said in his Spintires review:
“In the world of Spintires, skills are measured in inches of control, not miles per hour, and the terrain changes and deforms as trucks pass over it. This is a game where excessive throttle won’t save the driver. There are no verbs like ‘overtake,’ ‘drift,’ or ‘vroom!’ but there are ‘muck,’ ‘press,’ and ‘think.’ The last one is probably the most important. For all this, the game is made of mess and mud; Spintires is a game of precision and care. To cross difficult and shifting terrain, every wheel turn and pedal press must be carefully calculated and measured.”

You can feel powerful playing this game on PC: a serious simulation of something so dirty it almost sounds like a joke—“mucking about in the mud”—but it’s genuinely thrilling.