NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition, The Future & More With DM Racing
Beyond The Flag recently had the pleasure of chatting with Matt Dusenberry of Dusenberry Martin Racing. Dusenberry is the Director of NASCAR Industry Relations for DM Racing as well as an avid NASCAR fan and avid NASCAR gamer. Aside from Dusenberry getting us excited about the future of the NASCAR franchise under the DM Racing banner, he also took the time to answer numerous fan questions about the current game, NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition.
Dusenberry also provided some information on what is next in the series and when that will be available to NASCAR fans. Below is the full interview. If you don’t own NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition (you’re missing out) and you should probably head out this weekend an pick yourself up a copy.
BTF: What is DM Racing?
Dusenberry: Dusenberry Martin Racing is NASCAR’s exclusive video game and interactive entertainment licensee. We opened our doors on January 1st, 2015. We bought the NASCAR license from Eutechnyx. We are 100 percent focused on NASCAR games, we are not interested in other racing series or other sports franchises. We want to take NASCAR and provide quality entertainment to every fan. We have traditional games on your consoles as well as games online at NASCAR.com and we are working on developing several mobile racing apps.
BTF: Tell us a little more about NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition.
Dusenberry: we are extremely excited about launching NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition. The game is available for $19.99 at all major retail outlets and we are really excited about that price point. Included in the Victory Edition update, everyone that originally purchased NASCAR 15 gets a free upgrade to the Victory Edition. Victory Edition comes with new paint schemes and we add Bubba Wallace to the game. We also have the Miller Lite cars in the game for the first time. That’s the first time in NASCAR history that alcohol sponsors were able to be in video games.
In 2016 we are going to launch a season update for next season. All of the team changes and driver changes will be updated for everyone who has NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition.
BTF: What went into getting the alcohol paint schemes in a NASCAR game for the first time ever?
Dusenberry: NASCAR fans for years (including myself) have always wanted the game experience to be as authentic as possible. For the past few years we have had to put a non-alcohol related paint job on Brad Keselowski’s car. There has kind of been a shift in the mindset of marketing with the major breweries, they want more exposure while still protecting their responsibility. We went about it in a very responsible way. They had us use their best practice of using age-verification. Our fans 21 and up can have a more authentic NASCAR experience while our younger fans can race without having to look at those logos.
BTF: Joey Logano is on NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition and Jeff Gordon was on NASCAR ’15. What goes into deciding who is going to be on the cover and why Logano and Gordon?
Dusenberry: Jeff Gordon with NASCAR ’15 was a no-brainer decision. It’s the year of Jeff and we wanted to pay homage to him. For Victory Edition, Joey Logano is a great friend of the company and he has a relationship with us from a business stance where he is contributing his feedback on how to make our NASCAR games as real as possible. Joey is an all-star, he won the Daytona 500, he literally won the race last week, so that’s how the Victory Edition cover was decided.
Moving forward we are always brainstorming new ways to pick the cover driver. There are some early discussion about a fan vote and stuff like that moving forward.
BTF: Is there anything more coming with NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition?
Dusenberry: The NASCAR ’16 update which will have all of the correct team numbers, drivers, sponsors and on-track deliveries for the 2016 NASCAR season. That is going to be really exciting and that is going to come out around the time of the Daytona 500 next year.
BTF: What are the chances of seeing other series (Modified, Truck, Xfinity) in future titles?
Dusenberry: For sure, I grew up playing NASCAR games and one of my favorite of all time was Dirt to Daytona. That game really hit the nail on the head from a career point of view. I think a lot of fans still play that game and still have passion for that game. While we are focused on enhancing the quality of the current series now, down the road we would all love to see expanded series for sure.
BTF: Are there plans to expand the paint booth and the options it offers?
Dusenberry: Yes. With paint booth that’s a big feature in the game. There is a huge following with the custom setups and the custom paint schemes. There are so many great custom paint schemes out there, it’s really art. Paint booth will always continue to be enhanced down the road because it’s an important part of the experience for NASCAR fans.
BTF: Will there be the option to share and download paint schemes?
Dusenberry: The NASCAR gaming community is very communal and fans like sharing and competing. I am not sure what we have in store for that yet but we are taking it into consideration.
BTF: Legends, past tracks, Jeff Gordon … will we see them in future titles?
Dusenberry: That question is a great one. Growing up Bobby Labonte was my favorite driver and I would love to race the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac machine that he won the championship in. However, from a business perspective and a licensing perspective it’s really difficult to pull that off. Pontiac is a manufacturer that is no longer in the sport, the No. 18 is currently driven by Kyle Busch and Interstate Batteries now has a relationship with Busch and his team. In order to tie all of that together, that one paint scheme could take up to 50 licenses just to put that one paint scheme on the track.
We are always looking for ways to tie in NASCAR’s history though while keeping it current and modern. So I say stay tuned on that.
BTF: Is there a future for controlling your pit stops on pit road?
Dusenberry: Yeah, we are looking at all aspects of the game and what we can enhance across the board. Pit road is on the radar of something that we can enhance to make the overall experience more authentic.
BTF: Is weather something that is on the radar when it comes to adding new wrinkles to the game?
Dusenberry: Dymanic track changes like clouds coming over the track and changing things might come into play as future technologies allow for that. I don’t think it would be very much fun though if I want to race and I have to sit for two hours in front of my console in a rain delay. I don’t think rain delays will be in the games though.
BTF: Where does DM racing want to take the NASCAR franchise after previous have failed NASCAR fans to a certain extent.
Dusenberry: When we took the NASCAR license in January we hit the reset button so to speak. We really want to take the NASCAR franchise and change the perception that the NASCAR gaming community has for us. We are here and we are passionate NASCAR fans and gamers. We love hearing the fans feedback for what we can improve.
In the past companies have had the NASCAR titles as one of many in their portfolios but here at DM Racing, NASCAR is all that we do.
Our entire company is focused on delivering quality NASCAR products. We have some really exciting stuff coming up in the future. More NASCAR paint schemes for NASCAR ’15 Victory Edition are coming down the road and we hope this feels the void as we work on the exciting stuff in our future. Also, don’t forget that the free 2016 update will come out sometime around the Daytona 500 next year.