Passion, Quality and Innovation

For more than two decades Thrustmaster has brought a unique combination of know-how and innovation to the video games accessory market.  Since its founding in 1992, Thrustmaster has focused on developing precision products that enhance the gaming experience and address the needs of the gaming community worldwide.

iRacingNews recently had the opportunity to discuss the company’s past, present and future with Éric Mindjimba, International Marketing Manager of the Guillemot Corporation, parent company of Thrustmaster.

Q:    Can you talk a little about the history of Thrustmaster?  What are the company’s origins?

A:    Thrustmaster was founded in 1992 by passionate Flight Simmers. At this time the range of products under the Thrustmaster brand included high-end joysticks. The Guillemot Corporation group purchased the brand in 1999 and developed a racing wheels range in addition to the existing joysticks range, thanks to the expertise of its engineers and the technologies developed. The brand’s philosophy has remained the same over its almost quarter of century of life and perfectly reflects our core values of “passion, quality and innovation”; help gamers to dominate their playing fields, enhance their performance and better explore their virtual worlds.

Thrustmaster: Matching the needs of every racer.

Q:    How has the rapid evolution of sim racing been reflected in Thrustmaster’s products and product lines?  How does Thrustmaster keep up with or even stay ahead of the technical developments?

A:    It’s all a matter of proactivity and technological possibilities. Our target is to provide products to the market that are or will become the benchmark in their respective categories. To succeed in this everlasting challenge we have to permanently improve our products and have dedicated development teams always exploring new fields.

The analogy that might be considered would indeed be with the racing universe in which prototype cars represent the future of mass market ones. We have the same approach: develop new technologies that are today in the highest-end racing wheels and that will tomorrow be embedded into a growing number of models. This does not only consist in listening to the community but also in exchanging with it, in order to clearly identify their needs and provide them with the most accurate answers. We are there to always have the ideal product to match their experience curve. This is also reinforced by the close relationships we have already built, and continue to build with the game developers while they are “building” their new games.

“Our core values . . . help gamers to dominate their playing fields, enhance their performance and better explore their virtual worlds.” —  Éric Mindjimba

Q:    Can you talk about the range of products and services that Thrustmaster makes available to the sim racing community?

A:    Basically we have different solutions for sim racers that could match all the requirements of the most demanding ones with a key word: adaptability. Adaptability to the preferences of the sim racers regarding the type of Force Feedback (industrial-class brushed motor for the T500 RS and brushless servomotor for the T300 RS / T300 Ferrari GTE), the choice of two pedals or three pedals such as our T3PA pedal set, the availability of add-on wheels to match specific racing styles such as GT or F1, etc.

Q:    Can you talk about the range of products and services that Thrustmaster makes available to the sim racing community?

A:    Basically we have different solutions for sim racers that could match all the requirements of the most demanding ones with a key word: adaptability. Adaptability to the preferences of the sim racers regarding the type of Force Feedback (industrial-class brushed motor for the T500 RS and brushless servomotor for the T300 RS / T300 Ferrari GTE), the choice of two pedals or three pedals such as our T3PA pedal set, the availability of add-on wheels to match specific racing styles such as GT or F1, etc.

Here is the illustration of the different parameters for our high-end racing wheels: http://www.thrustmaster.com/fr_FR/societe/thrustmaster-racing-wheel-finder

We’re trying to build an ecosystem that will match the needs of every racer to allow them to explore exactly the sensations they would like to live.

iRacers who run the Thrustmaster logo in the primary sponsor location on their car and race in at least 10 official races before March 17, 2015 will automatically be entered to win a brand new Thrustmaster TX or Thrustmaster T300 Wheel and pedal set.

Q:    Thrustmaster and iRacing are currently partnering in a great promotional program: https://www.iracing.com/thrustmaster/   Can you discuss the promotion and how iRacers can take advantage of it?

A:    Yes, it’s quite simple: iRacing is the leader in online racing on PC. Your members and we do share the same passion and we want to be closer to them. The better they will know and understand us and our products, the more efficient the connection will be. Our passion is multiplied tenfold when interacting with passionate people. We want to provide them with products so that they live their passion fully and we hope to get in return their passionate inputs for the optimization of our future developments.

Q:    Can you offer any hints or “teasers” about new products/devices in the pipeline?

A:    Let’s say that we are more than ever connected with the racing community and that thanks to this specific link, the news will stick to the requests we have. We will also carry on the technical developments in order to provide the most realistic immersive approach. The respective inputs of game developers, licenses and real life pilots will also be very important in the coming products specs.

We listen deeply to the feedback of the racers who put their trust in our products in order to always improve the next products. We have a strong hotline and social network able to give us every day the feedback with respect to our different products and what the racer at each step is looking for.

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