I cant help but feel their unwillingness to actually go through retailers is probably what have cause the biggest downfall, they were still effectively dealimg with individual orders when they should be shipping out 100s of units to single addresses for a lower profit margin, i really like my fanatec gear but im no fanboy of it, i just enjoy playing gran turismo and i really dislike logitech wheels
@Kireth exactly, not to mention if you miss an order, a store goes without 20~30 units for a week, that's 1 commerical complaint... D2C... that's 20~30 very loud and passionate individual complaints... I think it'll be good news with corsair, they aren't a nobody brand, but something people seem to completely forget, the 200 or so employees that still seem pretty passionate about their craft.
I offered Thomas the opportunity to open a US warehouse and maintenance service center 4-5 years ago. I had proven myself to him by doing all US repairs and warranty exchanges for nearly two years. I had secured warehouse space with a storefront . The possibilities would have been unlimited. In the end after talking directly with Thomas and his representative who came to the US they decided to not extend support to the US. Big mistake. As far as their financial troubles we don't know if Thomas purchased boats and sports cars,etc. I wouldn't assume the actual merchandise was unprofitable
So I'm thinking about doing the same thing... I just bought the dd pro and I started seeing all this stuff going on. Should I contact PayPal and get a return going immediately? I just spent 1000k
Yeah way too much on marketing. Everyone knows this. Too bad many mainstream TH-camrs fail to mention this to consumers. Or they are doing damage control since they are getting a free product to test.
Marketing is everything nowadays. Trash products/companies gain customers if they heavily focus on marketing. Fanatec couldnt handle the customer increase last BF. Thats not a marketing issue…
The reason for their losses was cost of goods was not controlled. Marketing spend was not above what you'd think. This is clear from flicking through their financial statements.
This could be a very good thing. Elgato continues to do good things under Corsair, and if they can get some better software support over to Fanatec through that connection that would be great. (Stream Deck integration, anyone?) The potential for going retail is huge, too. How nice would it be to snag a new wheel on sale with your Amazon or Newegg gift card, for example? I don't see dropping the super-high-end stuff as a big deal. Who really needs a $1500 wheel rim anyway? I already thought the Fanatec product line could do with some pruning and updating here and there. It's funny, I went with Fanatec despite the customer service stories because I figured they were too big to fail and would be around for years and years. I was getting worried that wouldn't be the case soon. With Corsair buying them I'd feel a bit more confident in their longevity again.
If Fanatec would have just started selling through retailers years ago, they would have been much better off. They could have just focused on R&D and manufacturing instead of worrying about every individual shipment. They were pulling people from everywhere just to deal with custumer service complaints near the end, which just made things worse considering they were having supply issues in the first place. This just made their manufacturing problem even worse and everything just snowballed. Had they allowed retailers to take on the stocking and sales portion of the business, they could have alleviated the issues on the production side of things. But because they were too greedy, their company started bleeding money and falling behind. Shame, their products weren't half bad. I got lucky. I bought most of my stuff pre-pandemic, before their problems started getting too bad. Hopefully Corsair will help prevent my Fanatec gear from becoming obsolete.
Good to hear that Fanatec will be sold to a competent company. I am a fan of Corsair so good news all around if this really happens... plus feel better that if any issues come up with my new DD Extreme there will be a company around to fulfill warranty claims 😅
A company who makes chips is competent to run a niche sim racing gear company with a passion as a foundation, and innovate on top of that? :) Forget about Fanatec as you know it, it's dead.
@@vladimirtalijan Corsair started out a bit like Fanatec too though... Remember more than a decade ago, they were a high price / high quality company producing mainly peripherals and ram slots and on top of everything their customer support was one of their hot advantages, exactly what Fanatec lacks... So, I think it is a relatively good fit... Better than other companies for sure and a lot better than banks.... Let's just hope that they will maintain the idea behind Fanatec and not blend it with Corsair's
As a new sim racer, thanks to some Fanetec deals last year (before fall '23 issues), I'm sad for us all. They are a good brand, still, in my humble opinion. I'm very happy with my Fanetec gear, and I'll continue to buy. Especially now cause there should be some good deals coming. Provided they can actually deliver this time....on time. Thanks for the great real time coverage K.🤞🙋🏻♂️👨🏻🏫
Fanatec are in negotiation with corsair. It is one of a few options available. This needs board approval and also needs to pass German policy makers. Everyone just needs to calm down. I'm really tired of the misinformation and spew at this stage. If corsair do acquire fanatec, it could be good for the longer term future of the company.
I already said a few videos ago, that Fanatec is too big in the branche to not get bought out by a competitor. Though I thought it would be Logitech or Thrustmaster but Corsair is also fine. They have amazing products and I'm sure they will treat the Fanatec Brand right.
@@virtualawakening2299 I hear Moza a lot, but there is no official support for consoles. Gran Turismo 7 is huge. Like really huge. I would totally believe that the GT DD Pro would be the highest selling product Fanatec has. So for now Fanatec is basically the Premium choice for console players. There is only one Logitech premium Wheel and Thrustmaster has also one high end belt Wheel. But Fanatec gives you Options upon Options. So thst is something thst still is very unique to thst Brand.
I don’t care if your a fan or not ANYONE pushing fanatec through Their affiliate links without warning their subscribers and channel members should be ashamed of themselves. I’m not going to say any names. They know who they are.
Oh dude, this might be the best thing that could've happened to this company. For the consumers and all the people who work at fanatec. Hopefully they keep all on the floor employees.
Really appreciate your work keeping us updated Kireth! It's good news as far as I'm concerned, hopefully it will be a good move buying their products in the near future..
Having been at the pointy end where Thomas is now I feel empathy. I was in a similar situation and had to called a vote of no confidence in the board and removed the board and CEO and raised the funding and restructured the business accordingly. We went on to be a unicorn. In this instance for the shareholders to be offered nothing is predatory behaviour and I would be checking what options are being offered to the board and senior management as part of this process. A fair outcome would be a fair value set and then dilution of shareholders accordling set based on capital injected.
Corsair is with no doubt gonna make fanatec products wholesale as its no economy making it exclusive products for fanatec Web page. So they are gonna compete with moza on shelfs like Walmart and such, my guess anyway
If Fanatec can continue their normal operations with the same product quality but with the support of Corsair and sell through retailers instead of D2C, that would be amazing and a good thing for the consumers.
Maybe the whole order system will be fixed i ordered the csl DDpro 5 months ago i had an email saying my shipping had been complete. Stood there scratching my head with No DD pro i emailed back and had said i hadnt actually received my Fanatec products all to be told that its not there fault they had completed there half of the purchase agreement by shipping it out, so basically its not our fault thanks for the money goodbye
I have been in this situation with a family company and believe me these things are not planned.A lot going on in the background that nobody will ever hear about.
@@jonathannix8671 Thing is that Fanatec is not a family business. Their shares were public and it's unethical and probably illegal to keep these things secret. But I agree that in a disaster everything goes superfast
Do you really think that Corsair understands sim racing or even wants to innovate? No. This will be Apple after Jobs left, I said it after the first news emerged about this. Buy your proper Fanatec gear now, everything about Fanatec will just become a business plan, like most companies in the world operate. I will follow Jackermeier and his new company, if that ever happens.
@@vladimirtalijan Why would you follow someone who ran fanatec into the ground so stock holders lost everything? I bet he even had a golden parachute, ensuring he would not change course. Like it or not, he and the board worked together on this. Stuff like this does not happen on accident. They ran the company into the ground to benefit themselves.
Or, this will be Corsair adding the Fanatec software into iCUE. So you'll need to install one of the most bloated, memory hogging programs out there to properly use your Fanatec gear. And Corsair stuff tends to be on the pricier side. So expect to pay more. They'll probably add RGB into the bases and everywhere else. Which would be a plus for some.
@@_PatrickO From what I've gathered, it was a poorly run company, with incredibly bad customer service. And they made a huge mistake by way overselling what they could deliver last Black Friday. In the racing community, they've pretty much permanently stained their name in a lot of people's eyes. I don't think they'll leave this deal with any sort of upside. They were teetering on bankruptcy and got lucky someone bought them. People have been complaining about them for a long time now, if they ran the company into the ground purposely, they're morons.
0:44 no, this is not true. You were by far not the only one who reported about this. You are just the one who made a clickbaity video from every bits if news to get clicks clicks clicks without doing proper research first so your Videos contain lots of false and misleading Information.
This is actually good news for the consumer. Fanatec has been ran into the ground, Corsair will turn it around, Starting with pulling all of the expensive sponsorships I would imagine.
Shareholders of this company should have learned how to read market data and balance sheets before they bought shares, just like any other company. Do research before investing your money.
@@storypunman true. Doesn't diminish the fact they're getting shafted. Within three quarters this company was ruined financially, surely it happened long before. Still one of the best sim racing equipment makers. Hopefully Corsair can right the shop without killing the brand
I fear their prices will go up. If that happens, the company will go down. Belly up. Guess I won't be upgrading from the GT DD Pro to the Clubsport DD+
I fear more about the products characteristics than prices tbh... Replacing Alcantara and nice metal for abs plastic and RGB would be the deal breaker for me no matter the price.
Think about what you just said O-Friendly. You are basically saying Corsair after spending millions to acquire Fanatec, will put the prices up so less people will buy the product! You could not be more wrong mate and displaying why you aren't up to being a cfo of a company. What WILL happen is Fanatec products will now finally be warehoused in the US and appear on shelves along with demo units so buyers in the biggest market in the world can try before they buy. The product will certainly become more known and used in the market. The former major shareholder and ceo Thomas, had 25 years at the helm and eventually drove the company into the ground. He's had his turn. I believe Corsair have a good name in the market and I'm really happy for Fanatec users who can now sigh in relief that their beloved wheels that they spend hard cash on will continue to be supported. It's a win - win. A win for Fanatec users and a win for sim racing generally. I'm a Logitech G Pro user so you can take my comments as unbiased as you are likely to read.
@iyadkamhiyeh527 He'll likely have a different take on the situation. This seams like a conspiracy style takeover. You wouldn't want to hear him speak? Even out of curiosity?
This is good news in my eyes, corsair know what they are doing and hopefully in the future, we can just walk into a shop and buy fanatec products like we currently do with corsair.....
"It's an open letter to the banks and the supervisory board, shared as a public press release for EVERYONE, it is not a letter to one specific person...."
What's your point? He never said it's a letter addressed AT him, he said he got it directly forwarded TO him, in the form of, quote: "a personal copy in english". Let me try and explain it more simply, so even a trained octopus can understand: If mommy dobbo writes a letter to address a few people, then pins it to a public board where everyone can see it, but then directly notifies little dobbo4596 by sending him a personal copy, then little dobbo "got a personal copy in english". I hope that makes it a bit easier for you to understand. Please let me know if that approach didn't work and we have to use things you are more used to - like animal fables or stories with marbles or something similar. Maybe you should exchange that fighter jet avatar for something more school like - or just with an avatar of a troll since that's obviously what you were being serious (let's hope not).
After waiting for a month for my csl to come in, the day before the item was supose to ship, i got an email saying my item has been delayed another month. I cancelled it and went moza. Im so glad i did. Not only is the moza gear realy high quality, but the ecosystem that has been fanatecs greatest advantage might be going away.
They should shift everything to the US and slap sail logos all over it. It would make sense to clean house because the company was ran into the ground by its current management.
Dude, don’t watch the content if you don’t like it, go and create your own TH-cam channel and create content yourself, I’m sure it will be great for you.
As someone that is thinking of getting into sim racing right now. I has decided to make Fanatec my source for peripherals. Thank good ness I saw this video. I am so glad I didn't drop a couple k dollars buying from a company that won't be here in 6 months. Dodged a literal bullet...
Same here. Last November I placed an order for a fan Tech DD and it was back ordered. I canceled the order and went up and bought the Mozza R5 from the local Micro Center and I’m happy with it.
wow. I'm also impartial as I can't afford any "super high-end stuff", and feel for anyone who has ordered one etc, but I 'sense or feel' this will all pan out for the better, just understandably extremely tense for now...
Corsair has a good range of high quality products. They can sort out the supply chain and distribution issues. Getting those licenses is big and good that a new name is coming into the Sim racing equipment line.
idiots at Logitech had a chance to acquire an elite brand for themselves. Basically for the generic equivalent with the change in their car's armrest. Logitech market cap is $14B. Corsair's market cap is $1B
@@derodge They just want to ride that G920/G29 train as long as they can while it slowly becomes completely obsolete. Honestly think its Better Corsair than Logitech.
As always top notch reporting Kireth. Hmmmm, how will it turn out? Honestly, in the short term - good. Long term I feel its a disaster and fundamentally will fall to the competition.
Why, is it a disaster in the long term? Fanatec has got a gold mine with the only real 'enthusiast' brand console DD, if Corsair build on that and capture that market, they'll be great for the long term. The 'hi end' stuff is not where the money is, it's a tiny market, like 'hi end' audio.
Corsair sounds like a good fit TBH. Might even get them into retail shops, overclockers/Scan etc. Got to be better than sending money and waiting for months. It's sad but hopefully it means Fanatec survives and customers have continuing support.
I’m actually happy that was corsair to take over, they’ve been a massive player in the gaming hardware industry and they can only help grow fanatec into something bigger.
It's a bit of a mixed bag with the prospect of Corsair taking over Fanatec. On one side I'm thinking are they really a company ideal in carrying on Fanatec's legacy. True, they do make gaming peripheral but that consists of gaming keyboards, mice and headsets. Also high end gaming controllers if you take into consideration that they own SCUF Gaming. I've used their peripheral devices in the past and it was average at best. You could tell that the designers had the typical "that will do" mentality you typically see with large corporate companies where they build their products to the functional level and go no further. That being said their primary income if from computer components and in that line they do excel. Where I work we have installed a lot of their products in our servers and work stations. I also have some of their Components on my own rig such as the RAM and CPU AIO cooler ( which happens to be over 9 years old and still hasn't formed any bubbles you normally see with ageing AIO liquid coolers). Their warranty return procedures have been top notch on a corporate level but I cannot say how it will be for an independent private customer. That being said, they really don't have much experience with actual sim related hardware. I was personally hoping a more race sim focused company would come forward, but this maybe a blessing in disguise. I don't think Corsair currently have the necessary staff under their employment who will be able to take on where fanatec has left off, which means there is a high probability that they will still hold on to the current fanatec staff at least as far a R&D and manufacturing is concerned. Also if we look into Corsair's history, they acquired SCUF Gaming in 2019, I believe, and decided to continue running it as SCUF Gaming, a sister company instead of bringing it directly under the Corsair brand name. Even after their acquisition they still continue to build high end custom gaming controllers. Seeing this, there is a possibility that Fanatec will continue under the same name and I am hoping they will still be able to produce high end products. However, this is pure speculation on my part but I'm sure you all can see my logic here. BTW thank's Kireth for keeping us update, it's been a real journey so far. Seeing Fanatec's journey over the past year thanks to your channel has left me slightly heartbroken (My first Fanatec product was the Le Mans back in 1999), disgusted and fascinated all at the same time.
It's probably the best thing that could have happened to save the company - but if you are a shareholder you will be shafted and expect the quality of the products to plummet to make them more profitable.
My comment from a month ago just materialized. So no drama just business and life goes on for Fanatec, its employees and customers. "I have an order from yesterday and I will not cancel it. Fanatec have some problems but companies like this will not die. If needed a big investor will step in or a competitor and it will buy the business. Because Fanatec besides active customers have value in technology and experts working there. So I'm not concerned that Fanatec will shut down. Maybe is just a turning point and a restart of the company which will be a positive thing for the customers. Buy with confidence!."
How can they sell so many stuff on Black Friday that it takes month to fulfill all the orders and at the same time be on the verge of bankruptcy? We all knew Fanatec was mismanaged but this has reached a whole new level!
Im glad a known and well established brand is taking over. I agree they are most likely gonna turn fanatec into entry or middle tier product offerings. It also means shipping wont be handled from Germany only and it will be easier to get their stock outside of EU.
I literally got my wheel 2 days ago, only 9 days after ordering. I hope Corsair takes good care of this brand. I will be investing more money soon to get the 8nm boost kit and a clutch pedal.
if fanatec does go under, will all there compatibility with console sims be wiped. like GT7 having strict conditions on what wheels can be used will there wheels just not work anymore
No i do t think soo we have already payed the chip that goes under, the problem is software updates.... maybe the new hames will not recognition the wheel....
I ordered my second GT DD pro about 3 months ago. It took 2 weeks to arrive. UPS had it a week, so they're partly to blame. The DD pro is epic and it seems Fanatec have changed the rubber on the wheel, as it is not flaking in the hand the way it did on the DD pro i bought in late 2022.
I hope then when Corsair comes and takes ownership that all the products stay the same and that they are just the ones managing the company to prevent future complications.
I always sayd that if Fanatec customer service department works as good as PR and developers support, it would be a different story. Now we know how important is to not ignore your customers!
This is good news. Hopefully, corsair can normalize the Fanatec wheel prices by open in more countries. in Singapore, the retailers sell them for an extra 1,000 dollars. It is nonsense.
Honestly not surprised at all probably many bigger companies considered this purchase while its price is low and Corsair is right up the gaming alley. It's good in the way that with Corsair resources should mostly fix the issues they have but not so good that big corporations absorb smaller companies.
Just absolutely wild. I almost emigrated to Germany from here in the US in 2017 to work for Fanatec. I still have my contract with Endor. Thomas seemed like a nice enough guy, but having met some of the other company officers during the hiring process, it was very clear there was something going on behind the scenes even then. They weren’t very helpful in terms of helping me acquire the proper documentation to move, so I had to walk away.
The same week I flew to Landshut to see the office, sign my contract and all that, it was the week the new Gran Turismo game came out, and there was a bunch of blowback because Fanatec’s equipment weren’t working or didn’t have Sony clearance or something IIRC. It was crazy to see their PR staff work to put out statements and the like.
It's really to bad as their stuff I feel is good especially for the price, I got lucky apparently as my bundle arrived last week, very impressed so far!
Isn’t this the risk that shareholders take ? I’m a shareholder in Boeing ; a few more crashes and I’ll rightly lose it all . I hoping they get their quality sorted .
Hey Corsair is a decent company with good customer service. Certainly their ICUE UI is very Polished. This is good news for anyone who is trying to get in to sim Racing and everyone currently owning Fanatec Gear. They also do have the resources to ramp up production in the future. At least i hope so...
@@GregoryShtevenshI mean, Ermz did say he was a Fanatec investor. So he had a vetted interest in not having the company get bought out in the way it did. I think Ermz's video was good and it certainly provided information that was needed, but he is not impartial in this.
Judging by how I hadnt even realised Corsair had even bought Elgato, I won't be surprised to see things seem at least on the surface as they are. Be behind the scenes shuffling, common roles like HR, legal, finance will likely be subject to redundancy. Seems like Corsair take a light touch. Bad news for investors, and employees who havent taken equity out as it looks like the debt they have is going to be the only money on the table I would be incredibly wary of putting any orders in with Fanatec. If they are talking about creditors restructuring deals and taking percentages then in theory they might be obliged to class any orders as a creditor too.
I bought the dd1 as part of a package with v3 and f1 v2.5 a year and a half ago. It's been back to them for repairs five times. The last time was about 45 days ago, and I received a new one, which only worked for 3 hours. Since then, I've only managed to exchange two emails with them because they respond every 20 days, sending emails that only procrastinate. I now have €1500 trapped because the wheelbase won't even turn on. What should I do?
They went wrong paying licensing fees for the wheels. They should have made replicas that were branded fanatec. They also should have no made anything past the first dd and stopped at 8nm. Made it incredibly realistic and reliable with a huge selection of wheels. They would have killed it.
They could have made anything else, however they invested terribly. Instead of leading the charge with idk, hydraulic handbrakes, dedicated sequential shifters, very-high end H-pattern shifters, hydraulic pedals etc, they just re-released the same F1 wheel over and over.
I'm happy that since my Ascher Racing Mclaren Artura Ultimate wheel is in my hands I'm not having any fanatec gear on my rig by all this confusing information around the brand Fanatec... 🙏🙏Good luck to all Fanatec users...
As someone who is new to the simracing scene, I am impartial to all this atm but had heard good things about Fanatec until recent as I was looking at upgrading my wheel and pedals later this year from my G29 stuff. Still not sure what to think about this currently but I have no ill thoughts about Corsair atm either considering I've bought Elgato products and they were still really high quality.
Fanatec is like the Volkswagen of Sim racing. Wide range and stuff that is okay. As soon as you’re hip deep into sim racing as a hobby and start to buy enthusiast gear, fanatec has the M4 GT3 Wheel but nothing that compares to other brands in the market where smaller numbers and higher profits exist.
Great vid. @kireth, you said at fanatec you saw a dedicated and passionate work force, I just hope Corsair let's the fanatec employees do their thing in developing and improving products, and not just lay them off and have Corsair folks take over.
Thanks for the update @Kireth. OK so in your opinion whay will happen with pre existing hardware and software? Will they still all be supported? I have a DD+ with f1 wheel just been picked up on Tuesday by dpd for repair after breaking on 3rd day of use. Will this all still be fixed or will there be a pause in both sales and repair? How does it work on that front? Thanks in advance.
Crazy that a majority shareholder can be diluted in such a way. EDIT: From around 8:45 it does not sound like a dilution but rather leaving with nothing. Outrageous!
While I am a fan of Corsair and like/use their products, They are totally a boutique brand for pc stuff. So it will be cool to see what they do, and they will prolly fix a lot of stuff very fast. Just be ready for the boutique price tags on the already expensive gear.
Thanks for the updates. Makes for interesting content. Before we all feel too sorry for the shareholder, remember that the situation Fanatec is in is the result of some years of actions taken by the majority shareholder as CEO. During the pandemic years demand for sim racing soared and it far outstripped supply. With the end of the pandemic measures the demand for sim racing tapered back off to “normal”. But companies like fanatec did two things encouraged by the years of unsustainable levels of demand. They ordered lots of inventory from suppliers to meet this blip in demand. And they overexpanded operations and began to spend too much. These two strategies would have chewed up their cash putting them in a position that bank debt is equal to two years of sales and their capital has been eaten up by losses and bank debt. So with a white knight coming in the shareholders cannot expect to get a return of capital. They already lost it all. Unfortunate.
Wow. Can't say u didn't see it coming, but still kinda surprised. I just got into sim racing not long ago. Guess i joined at a strange time in sim racing history.
Tbh if Corsair gets to buy it, they will keep the same products, they just push the Corsair brand on old Fanatec products. So it's a win/win for everyone. And I also hope, people get to keep their warranties. Edit: or even keep the Fanatec brand and everything will be fine.
@@mitchchapman7545 Just got it today :-) so ordered the 8 th and got the 14 th, and there was a weekend and a one day holiday in that period, so 4 buisness days. I think that is very good 🙂
They were the Sim racing company to go to. But quickly other people jumped in on the game and offered better and more affordable products. Not to mention the used Market is flooded close to new sim Racing Products at almost half the price. I bought all my stuff second hand
I hope corsair honour all outstanding orders that customers-to-be have made. Probably not a bad thing having Corsair being the owner as they are a pretty large company and considerably larger reach and better global logistics and larger manufacturing output.
It would be a bad investment if they reduce their product line up. I imagine they would keep most of them. Going retail doesn't make sense for all their products since it could reduce their profits and they have a lot of niche products - possibly just the XBOX and PS5 wheels seems more likely.
As a customer and passionate sim racer, I'm relieved that Fanatec will likely survive, but I'm also disgusted by the business practices involved. Greed meets greed in this scenario, where a top brand was undersold due to clever manipulation of German bankruptcy laws. No independent insolvency administrator should have allowed such a swift financing rejection. Now, the company is sold at a loss, benefiting a powerful corporation. I reserve judgment until all facts are reviewed independently.
If you're a fellow sim racer and would like to support me, please check out my Gran Turismo Beginner Masterclass here 🙃 www.getfasteronline.com/
Curious why you don't play PC is you are this dedicated to Sim Racing?
My latest video on the channel is me playing Le Man Ultimate on PC 🙃
@@virtualawakening2299 No disrespect just wondered as I have started to see his shorts were all GT7.
So they drove themselves to bankruptcy 🤔
So does this mean I'm still going to get the product that I bought and I'm waiting on or am I just going to lose out on the money that I spent on that
I cant help but feel their unwillingness to actually go through retailers is probably what have cause the biggest downfall, they were still effectively dealimg with individual orders when they should be shipping out 100s of units to single addresses for a lower profit margin, i really like my fanatec gear but im no fanboy of it, i just enjoy playing gran turismo and i really dislike logitech wheels
I feel you're right. Being a D2C is the golden ticket, if you can scale. If you can't it gives you a headstart but then bites horribly
@Kireth exactly, not to mention if you miss an order, a store goes without 20~30 units for a week, that's 1 commerical complaint... D2C... that's 20~30 very loud and passionate individual complaints... I think it'll be good news with corsair, they aren't a nobody brand, but something people seem to completely forget, the 200 or so employees that still seem pretty passionate about their craft.
I offered Thomas the opportunity to open a US warehouse and maintenance service center 4-5 years ago. I had proven myself to him by doing all US repairs and warranty exchanges for nearly two years. I had secured warehouse space with a storefront . The possibilities would have been unlimited. In the end after talking directly with Thomas and his representative who came to the US they decided to not extend support to the US. Big mistake. As far as their financial troubles we don't know if Thomas purchased boats and sports cars,etc. I wouldn't assume the actual merchandise was unprofitable
@@MarkNOTW When I spoke to him directly that was painfully obvious to me within a matter of seconds
It took 3 months, but I'm happy for PayPal finally forcing Fanatec to refund me. I just got my money this morning and feel like I dodged a bullet.
So I'm thinking about doing the same thing... I just bought the dd pro and I started seeing all this stuff going on. Should I contact PayPal and get a return going immediately? I just spent 1000k
I didn’t use PayPal and never got my refund…
@@downloadingbt8020 It's called extortion by Thomas . He should be in jail
@@codywright2890 i did and went with simmagic
My GT DD arrived 2 weeks ago
They were spending too much money on marketing. That should of been the first area they should made budget cuts.
Yup. They don't need as much marketing
Yeah way too much on marketing. Everyone knows this. Too bad many mainstream TH-camrs fail to mention this to consumers. Or they are doing damage control since they are getting a free product to test.
Marketing is everything nowadays. Trash products/companies gain customers if they heavily focus on marketing. Fanatec couldnt handle the customer increase last BF. Thats not a marketing issue…
The reason for their losses was cost of goods was not controlled. Marketing spend was not above what you'd think. This is clear from flicking through their financial statements.
@@filipivan5125 With good products and value for money, the power of the internet makes you go viral.
This could be a very good thing. Elgato continues to do good things under Corsair, and if they can get some better software support over to Fanatec through that connection that would be great. (Stream Deck integration, anyone?) The potential for going retail is huge, too. How nice would it be to snag a new wheel on sale with your Amazon or Newegg gift card, for example? I don't see dropping the super-high-end stuff as a big deal. Who really needs a $1500 wheel rim anyway? I already thought the Fanatec product line could do with some pruning and updating here and there.
It's funny, I went with Fanatec despite the customer service stories because I figured they were too big to fail and would be around for years and years. I was getting worried that wouldn't be the case soon. With Corsair buying them I'd feel a bit more confident in their longevity again.
Well done Kireth for speaking out. None of the other guys are talking. Guess I won’t see my £600 refund from November still not settled.
If Fanatec would have just started selling through retailers years ago, they would have been much better off. They could have just focused on R&D and manufacturing instead of worrying about every individual shipment. They were pulling people from everywhere just to deal with custumer service complaints near the end, which just made things worse considering they were having supply issues in the first place. This just made their manufacturing problem even worse and everything just snowballed.
Had they allowed retailers to take on the stocking and sales portion of the business, they could have alleviated the issues on the production side of things. But because they were too greedy, their company started bleeding money and falling behind. Shame, their products weren't half bad.
I got lucky. I bought most of my stuff pre-pandemic, before their problems started getting too bad. Hopefully Corsair will help prevent my Fanatec gear from becoming obsolete.
Good to hear that Fanatec will be sold to a competent company. I am a fan of Corsair so good news all around if this really happens... plus feel better that if any issues come up with my new DD Extreme there will be a company around to fulfill warranty claims 😅
I've had the hs380 for about a week and they're an incredible pair of headphones
A company who makes chips is competent to run a niche sim racing gear company with a passion as a foundation, and innovate on top of that? :) Forget about Fanatec as you know it, it's dead.
The way the shareholders are getting wiped out they will probably say sorry it’s not our responsibility & your warranty is void
@@vladimirtalijan Corsair started out a bit like Fanatec too though... Remember more than a decade ago, they were a high price / high quality company producing mainly peripherals and ram slots and on top of everything their customer support was one of their hot advantages, exactly what Fanatec lacks... So, I think it is a relatively good fit... Better than other companies for sure and a lot better than banks.... Let's just hope that they will maintain the idea behind Fanatec and not blend it with Corsair's
HAHAHAHAHA spreading misinformation Corsair makes THE cheapest products in the market enjoy your plastic fisher price wheel CLOWN 🤣🤣🤣
I hope this works out for the people working at Fanatec and customers past, present and future
As a new sim racer, thanks to some Fanetec deals last year (before fall '23 issues), I'm sad for us all. They are a good brand, still, in my humble opinion. I'm very happy with my Fanetec gear, and I'll continue to buy. Especially now cause there should be some good deals coming. Provided they can actually deliver this time....on time. Thanks for the great real time coverage K.🤞🙋🏻♂️👨🏻🏫
Fanatec are in negotiation with corsair. It is one of a few options available. This needs board approval and also needs to pass German policy makers. Everyone just needs to calm down. I'm really tired of the misinformation and spew at this stage. If corsair do acquire fanatec, it could be good for the longer term future of the company.
I already said a few videos ago, that Fanatec is too big in the branche to not get bought out by a competitor. Though I thought it would be Logitech or Thrustmaster but Corsair is also fine. They have amazing products and I'm sure they will treat the Fanatec Brand right.
@@virtualawakening2299 I hear Moza a lot, but there is no official support for consoles. Gran Turismo 7 is huge. Like really huge. I would totally believe that the GT DD Pro would be the highest selling product Fanatec has. So for now Fanatec is basically the Premium choice for console players. There is only one Logitech premium Wheel and Thrustmaster has also one high end belt Wheel. But Fanatec gives you Options upon Options. So thst is something thst still is very unique to thst Brand.
I don’t care if your a fan or not ANYONE pushing fanatec through Their affiliate links without warning their subscribers and channel members should be ashamed of themselves. I’m not going to say any names. They know who they are.
Oh dude, this might be the best thing that could've happened to this company. For the consumers and all the people who work at fanatec. Hopefully they keep all on the floor employees.
Really appreciate your work keeping us updated Kireth! It's good news as far as I'm concerned, hopefully it will be a good move buying their products in the near future..
Having been at the pointy end where Thomas is now I feel empathy.
I was in a similar situation and had to called a vote of no confidence in the board and removed the board and CEO and raised the funding and restructured the business accordingly.
We went on to be a unicorn.
In this instance for the shareholders to be offered nothing is predatory behaviour and I would be checking what options are being offered to the board and senior management as part of this process.
A fair outcome would be a fair value set and then dilution of shareholders accordling set based on capital injected.
Are you able to tell us more about this, it sounds very interesting?
I've heard the board are being offered extremely favourable terms should they accept
I am already stressed rn and yet this is making things a lot fucken worse, they better not fucken touch the pricing for them
Lol. They are.
hopefully it goes down because corsair will be more competent at distribution and logistics
better chance of a price decrease with Corsair in charge. time will tell.
Wouldn't worry about the price going up as much as the quality going down
Corsair is with no doubt gonna make fanatec products wholesale as its no economy making it exclusive products for fanatec Web page. So they are gonna compete with moza on shelfs like Walmart and such, my guess anyway
If Fanatec can continue their normal operations with the same product quality but with the support of Corsair and sell through retailers instead of D2C, that would be amazing and a good thing for the consumers.
Maybe the whole order system will be fixed i ordered the csl DDpro 5 months ago i had an email saying my shipping had been complete. Stood there scratching my head with No DD pro i emailed back and had said i hadnt actually received my Fanatec products all to be told that its not there fault they had completed there half of the purchase agreement by shipping it out, so basically its not our fault thanks for the money goodbye
Please Corsair! Put this thing back together. It is a good product I love my rig. Don't want to see it go away.
I can't believe all this went so quickly and wasn't pre planned. Unless the company was so deep in debt and the consumers were played so bad.
The company is massively in debt. They needed €25,000,000 to not go bankrupt.
You would be wrong. Thomas conducted a Black Friday fund raiser because he could not pay his bills. When people get desperate they do funny things
@@alecmillea4539 25M ain't much.
I have been in this situation with a family company and believe me these things are not planned.A lot going on in the background that nobody will ever hear about.
@@jonathannix8671 Thing is that Fanatec is not a family business. Their shares were public and it's unethical and probably illegal to keep these things secret. But I agree that in a disaster everything goes superfast
That's a decent acquisition and brighter news for Fanatec "fans".
Do you really think that Corsair understands sim racing or even wants to innovate? No. This will be Apple after Jobs left, I said it after the first news emerged about this. Buy your proper Fanatec gear now, everything about Fanatec will just become a business plan, like most companies in the world operate. I will follow Jackermeier and his new company, if that ever happens.
@@vladimirtalijan Why would you follow someone who ran fanatec into the ground so stock holders lost everything? I bet he even had a golden parachute, ensuring he would not change course. Like it or not, he and the board worked together on this. Stuff like this does not happen on accident. They ran the company into the ground to benefit themselves.
@@vladimirtalijan Endor is a large company with a board, you don't think the bottom line is also their main concern.
Or, this will be Corsair adding the Fanatec software into iCUE. So you'll need to install one of the most bloated, memory hogging programs out there to properly use your Fanatec gear. And Corsair stuff tends to be on the pricier side. So expect to pay more. They'll probably add RGB into the bases and everywhere else. Which would be a plus for some.
@@_PatrickO From what I've gathered, it was a poorly run company, with incredibly bad customer service. And they made a huge mistake by way overselling what they could deliver last Black Friday. In the racing community, they've pretty much permanently stained their name in a lot of people's eyes. I don't think they'll leave this deal with any sort of upside. They were teetering on bankruptcy and got lucky someone bought them.
People have been complaining about them for a long time now, if they ran the company into the ground purposely, they're morons.
0:44 no, this is not true. You were by far not the only one who reported about this. You are just the one who made a clickbaity video from every bits if news to get clicks clicks clicks without doing proper research first so your Videos contain lots of false and misleading Information.
This is actually good news for the consumer. Fanatec has been ran into the ground, Corsair will turn it around, Starting with pulling all of the expensive sponsorships I would imagine.
To be fair: I have better hope for Fanatec with this than with a months long juristic fight with lawyers and stuff.
I'm really glad i got my paypal refund back in January. Fanatec didn't even bother responding to the Paypal dispute.
Shareholders are gonna become shaftholders. Not good.
🤣🤣🤣
Shareholders of this company should have learned how to read market data and balance sheets before they bought shares, just like any other company. Do research before investing your money.
@@storypunman true. Doesn't diminish the fact they're getting shafted. Within three quarters this company was ruined financially, surely it happened long before. Still one of the best sim racing equipment makers. Hopefully Corsair can right the shop without killing the brand
I fear their prices will go up. If that happens, the company will go down. Belly up. Guess I won't be upgrading from the GT DD Pro to the Clubsport DD+
I expect prices go down as Corsair may make the products more affordable as they have a chain of resellers all over the world
I fear more about the products characteristics than prices tbh... Replacing Alcantara and nice metal for abs plastic and RGB would be the deal breaker for me no matter the price.
Think about what you just said O-Friendly. You are basically saying Corsair after spending millions to acquire Fanatec, will put the prices up so less people will buy the product! You could not be more wrong mate and displaying why you aren't up to being a cfo of a company. What WILL happen is Fanatec products will now finally be warehoused in the US and appear on shelves along with demo units so buyers in the biggest market in the world can try before they buy. The product will certainly become more known and used in the market. The former major shareholder and ceo Thomas, had 25 years at the helm and eventually drove the company into the ground. He's had his turn.
I believe Corsair have a good name in the market and I'm really happy for Fanatec users who can now sigh in relief that their beloved wheels that they spend hard cash on will continue to be supported. It's a win - win. A win for Fanatec users and a win for sim racing generally.
I'm a Logitech G Pro user so you can take my comments as unbiased as you are likely to read.
@jed2055 ok Fanatec. What ever you say.
@@jed2055 Its like the board had a meeting and one of the topics on the agenda was replying to O-Friendly on youtube
Get another interview with Thomas!
This
Why interviewing the guy who brought the company to its knees?
@iyadkamhiyeh527 He'll likely have a different take on the situation. This seams like a conspiracy style takeover. You wouldn't want to hear him speak? Even out of curiosity?
@@iyadkamhiyeh527He also brought it to the top and opened direct drive to the mainstream.
I hope we get better support of the products after Corsair fully takes over. Honestly, I have way more faith in Corsair then Fanatec!
This is good news in my eyes, corsair know what they are doing and hopefully in the future, we can just walk into a shop and buy fanatec products like we currently do with corsair.....
"It's an open letter to the banks and the supervisory board, shared as a public press release for EVERYONE, it is not a letter to one specific person...."
Don’t take that away from @Kireth. He needs this.
What's your point? He never said it's a letter addressed AT him, he said he got it directly forwarded TO him, in the form of, quote: "a personal copy in english".
Let me try and explain it more simply, so even a trained octopus can understand:
If mommy dobbo writes a letter to address a few people, then pins it to a public board where everyone can see it, but then directly notifies little dobbo4596 by sending him a personal copy, then little dobbo "got a personal copy in english".
I hope that makes it a bit easier for you to understand.
Please let me know if that approach didn't work and we have to use things you are more used to - like animal fables or stories with marbles or something similar.
Maybe you should exchange that fighter jet avatar for something more school like - or just with an avatar of a troll since that's obviously what you were being serious (let's hope not).
as long as they offer support for current products for example my csl dd etc then I am happy with this.
After waiting for a month for my csl to come in, the day before the item was supose to ship, i got an email saying my item has been delayed another month. I cancelled it and went moza. Im so glad i did. Not only is the moza gear realy high quality, but the ecosystem that has been fanatecs greatest advantage might be going away.
Hope corsair keeps the fanatec branding
They always did so far with what they aquiered.
They should shift everything to the US and slap sail logos all over it. It would make sense to clean house because the company was ran into the ground by its current management.
They probably wont because Elgato is still named elgato
They would be stupid to do so. Why pay millions to aquire a very well-known brand and then change the name they pay for? 😂
@@MegaIronica ikr🤣
Imagine being the flagship sim racing wheel maker and losing money ? Wtf
Pretty good news if this happens. Corsair never dissapointed me with their products.
Ah Kireth Clickbait returns
Dude, don’t watch the content if you don’t like it, go and create your own TH-cam channel and create content yourself, I’m sure it will be great for you.
As someone that is thinking of getting into sim racing right now. I has decided to make Fanatec my source for peripherals. Thank good ness I saw this video. I am so glad I didn't drop a couple k dollars buying from a company that won't be here in 6 months. Dodged a literal bullet...
I ordered the McLaren bundle and got it in 8 days and I’m overseas
Same here. Last November I placed an order for a fan Tech DD and it was back ordered. I canceled the order and went up and bought the Mozza R5 from the local Micro Center and I’m happy with it.
Fanatec wheels are going to be lit up like a Christmas tree!
wow. I'm also impartial as I can't afford any "super high-end stuff", and feel for anyone who has ordered one etc, but I 'sense or feel' this will all pan out for the better, just understandably extremely tense for now...
So, what do we think? Good news for Fanatec customers given the circumstances, or will Fanatec never been the same? 👇👇
It's better the company is saved then not right? I still want to buy their products.
I hope it works out for the good. But feel its very much the beginning of the end.
Corsair has a good range of high quality products. They can sort out the supply chain and distribution issues. Getting those licenses is big and good that a new name is coming into the Sim racing equipment line.
idiots at Logitech had a chance to acquire an elite brand for themselves. Basically for the generic equivalent with the change in their car's armrest.
Logitech market cap is $14B.
Corsair's market cap is $1B
@@derodge They just want to ride that G920/G29 train as long as they can while it slowly becomes completely obsolete. Honestly think its Better Corsair than Logitech.
As always top notch reporting Kireth. Hmmmm, how will it turn out? Honestly, in the short term - good. Long term I feel its a disaster and fundamentally will fall to the competition.
Why, is it a disaster in the long term?
Fanatec has got a gold mine with the only real 'enthusiast' brand console DD, if Corsair build on that and capture that market, they'll be great for the long term.
The 'hi end' stuff is not where the money is, it's a tiny market, like 'hi end' audio.
This is great news. Same products . Better management
He said don't expect same quality of product
Corsair sounds like a good fit TBH. Might even get them into retail shops, overclockers/Scan etc. Got to be better than sending money and waiting for months. It's sad but hopefully it means Fanatec survives and customers have continuing support.
I’m actually happy that was corsair to take over, they’ve been a massive player in the gaming hardware industry and they can only help grow fanatec into something bigger.
It's a bit of a mixed bag with the prospect of Corsair taking over Fanatec. On one side I'm thinking are they really a company ideal in carrying on Fanatec's legacy. True, they do make gaming peripheral but that consists of gaming keyboards, mice and headsets. Also high end gaming controllers if you take into consideration that they own SCUF Gaming. I've used their peripheral devices in the past and it was average at best. You could tell that the designers had the typical "that will do" mentality you typically see with large corporate companies where they build their products to the functional level and go no further. That being said their primary income if from computer components and in that line they do excel. Where I work we have installed a lot of their products in our servers and work stations. I also have some of their Components on my own rig such as the RAM and CPU AIO cooler ( which happens to be over 9 years old and still hasn't formed any bubbles you normally see with ageing AIO liquid coolers). Their warranty return procedures have been top notch on a corporate level but I cannot say how it will be for an independent private customer. That being said, they really don't have much experience with actual sim related hardware. I was personally hoping a more race sim focused company would come forward, but this maybe a blessing in disguise. I don't think Corsair currently have the necessary staff under their employment who will be able to take on where fanatec has left off, which means there is a high probability that they will still hold on to the current fanatec staff at least as far a R&D and manufacturing is concerned. Also if we look into Corsair's history, they acquired SCUF Gaming in 2019, I believe, and decided to continue running it as SCUF Gaming, a sister company instead of bringing it directly under the Corsair brand name. Even after their acquisition they still continue to build high end custom gaming controllers. Seeing this, there is a possibility that Fanatec will continue under the same name and I am hoping they will still be able to produce high end products. However, this is pure speculation on my part but I'm sure you all can see my logic here. BTW thank's Kireth for keeping us update, it's been a real journey so far. Seeing Fanatec's journey over the past year thanks to your channel has left me slightly heartbroken (My first Fanatec product was the Le Mans back in 1999), disgusted and fascinated all at the same time.
It's probably the best thing that could have happened to save the company - but if you are a shareholder you will be shafted and expect the quality of the products to plummet to make them more profitable.
They DO need to utilize retailers.
Man.... I don't know what to think about all this. I have a lot of Fanatec Gear. Might be time to look at other stuff. This is getting weird.
My comment from a month ago just materialized. So no drama just business and life goes on for Fanatec, its employees and customers.
"I have an order from yesterday and I will not cancel it. Fanatec have some problems but companies like this will not die. If needed a big investor will step in or a competitor and it will buy the business. Because Fanatec besides active customers have value in technology and experts working there.
So I'm not concerned that Fanatec will shut down. Maybe is just a turning point and a restart of the company which will be a positive thing for the customers.
Buy with confidence!."
How can they sell so many stuff on Black Friday that it takes month to fulfill all the orders and at the same time be on the verge of bankruptcy? We all knew Fanatec was mismanaged but this has reached a whole new level!
The BF sale were their “fund” raiser to avoid bankruptcy, they knew what they were doing.
They did not have the product ready, but needed cash.
Amazing coverage Kireth! Cheers!
Im glad a known and well established brand is taking over. I agree they are most likely gonna turn fanatec into entry or middle tier product offerings. It also means shipping wont be handled from Germany only and it will be easier to get their stock outside of EU.
I literally got my wheel 2 days ago, only 9 days after ordering. I hope Corsair takes good care of this brand. I will be investing more money soon to get the 8nm boost kit and a clutch pedal.
if fanatec does go under, will all there compatibility with console sims be wiped. like GT7 having strict conditions on what wheels can be used will there wheels just not work anymore
With acquisitions they usually purchase all IP / licensing agmts / etc. So I don’t foresee it being an issue with compatibility.
No i do t think soo we have already payed the chip that goes under, the problem is software updates.... maybe the new hames will not recognition the wheel....
@Gage-bz6gr...wouldn't be no problem for PS,since the chip is built in it's base,not in it's steering wheel like Xbox has.
WTF, fanatec is the nr 1 brand in a step up in quality sim racing products for the masses. Fanatec can not bankrupt. There is something else going on.
I ordered my second GT DD pro about 3 months ago. It took 2 weeks to arrive. UPS had it a week, so they're partly to blame. The DD pro is epic and it seems Fanatec have changed the rubber on the wheel, as it is not flaking in the hand the way it did on the DD pro i bought in late 2022.
I hope then when Corsair comes and takes ownership that all the products stay the same and that they are just the ones managing the company to prevent future complications.
I always sayd that if Fanatec customer service department works as good as PR and developers support, it would be a different story. Now we know how important is to not ignore your customers!
This is good news. Hopefully, corsair can normalize the Fanatec wheel prices by open in more countries. in Singapore, the retailers sell them for an extra 1,000 dollars. It is nonsense.
Honestly not surprised at all probably many bigger companies considered this purchase while its price is low and Corsair is right up the gaming alley. It's good in the way that with Corsair resources should mostly fix the issues they have but not so good that big corporations absorb smaller companies.
Just absolutely wild. I almost emigrated to Germany from here in the US in 2017 to work for Fanatec. I still have my contract with Endor. Thomas seemed like a nice enough guy, but having met some of the other company officers during the hiring process, it was very clear there was something going on behind the scenes even then. They weren’t very helpful in terms of helping me acquire the proper documentation to move, so I had to walk away.
The same week I flew to Landshut to see the office, sign my contract and all that, it was the week the new Gran Turismo game came out, and there was a bunch of blowback because Fanatec’s equipment weren’t working or didn’t have Sony clearance or something IIRC. It was crazy to see their PR staff work to put out statements and the like.
The law should make it so that the shareholders are made whole.
It's really to bad as their stuff I feel is good especially for the price, I got lucky apparently as my bundle arrived last week, very impressed so far!
I'm happy, wanted to order a Porsche racing wheel last week. luckily not done
The fact that I just got a fanatic ad before watching this is crazy
Isn’t this the risk that shareholders take ? I’m a shareholder in Boeing ; a few more crashes and I’ll rightly lose it all . I hoping they get their quality sorted .
Not the go to company. Sold my Fanatec gear years ago when I got tired of dealing with RMA nightmares. Best decision ever.
Your coverage of this has been really good Kireth. Thanks mate.
Thanks I really appreciate it!!
It finally came (28th May)... !!! Is it true that half the buttons can't be mapped on XBOX...?
What I want to know is why and how they ran out of money. I also would like to know if the customers pre orders will be fulfilled or get a refund
Holy Moly. What's goeing on there. Absolutly crazy news. Haven't ever expected this to happen to Fanatec. 😮
Hey Corsair is a decent company with good customer service. Certainly their ICUE UI is very Polished. This is good news for anyone who is trying to get in to sim Racing and everyone currently owning Fanatec Gear. They also do have the resources to ramp up production in the future. At least i hope so...
Great coverage Kireth!
You are not the only person reporting on this. Ermz put out a great video 3 days ago
The best video on the topic, in fact
@@GregoryShtevenshbecause he has conflict of interest 👏
@@kylesmith881 please explain
@@kylesmith881 come on, don't make baseless claims. Either back it up or it's BS.
Again, please explain how he has a conflict of interest
@@GregoryShtevenshI mean, Ermz did say he was a Fanatec investor.
So he had a vetted interest in not having the company get bought out in the way it did.
I think Ermz's video was good and it certainly provided information that was needed, but he is not impartial in this.
Judging by how I hadnt even realised Corsair had even bought Elgato, I won't be surprised to see things seem at least on the surface as they are. Be behind the scenes shuffling, common roles like HR, legal, finance will likely be subject to redundancy.
Seems like Corsair take a light touch. Bad news for investors, and employees who havent taken equity out as it looks like the debt they have is going to be the only money on the table
I would be incredibly wary of putting any orders in with Fanatec. If they are talking about creditors restructuring deals and taking percentages then in theory they might be obliged to class any orders as a creditor too.
How long do you think it will take before we see Fanatec equipment in retail stores?
I bought the dd1 as part of a package with v3 and f1 v2.5 a year and a half ago. It's been back to them for repairs five times. The last time was about 45 days ago, and I received a new one, which only worked for 3 hours. Since then, I've only managed to exchange two emails with them because they respond every 20 days, sending emails that only procrastinate. I now have €1500 trapped because the wheelbase won't even turn on. What should I do?
They went wrong paying licensing fees for the wheels. They should have made replicas that were branded fanatec. They also should have no made anything past the first dd and stopped at 8nm. Made it incredibly realistic and reliable with a huge selection of wheels. They would have killed it.
They could have made anything else, however they invested terribly. Instead of leading the charge with idk, hydraulic handbrakes, dedicated sequential shifters, very-high end H-pattern shifters, hydraulic pedals etc, they just re-released the same F1 wheel over and over.
I'm happy that since my Ascher Racing Mclaren Artura Ultimate wheel is in my hands I'm not having any fanatec gear on my rig by all this confusing information around the brand Fanatec... 🙏🙏Good luck to all Fanatec users...
I'm using that wheel at the moment and it's great. I'm using it with Fanatec pedals 🙃
they still owe me my DD bundle set. and customer support is nowhere to be seen.
When did you order
@@mitchchapman7545 Black Friday
As someone who is new to the simracing scene, I am impartial to all this atm but had heard good things about Fanatec until recent as I was looking at upgrading my wheel and pedals later this year from my G29 stuff. Still not sure what to think about this currently but I have no ill thoughts about Corsair atm either considering I've bought Elgato products and they were still really high quality.
Fanatec is like the Volkswagen of Sim racing. Wide range and stuff that is okay. As soon as you’re hip deep into sim racing as a hobby and start to buy enthusiast gear, fanatec has the M4 GT3 Wheel but nothing that compares to other brands in the market where smaller numbers and higher profits exist.
Great vid. @kireth, you said at fanatec you saw a dedicated and passionate work force, I just hope Corsair let's the fanatec employees do their thing in developing and improving products, and not just lay them off and have Corsair folks take over.
Should I still buy fanatec?
Thanks for the update @Kireth. OK so in your opinion whay will happen with pre existing hardware and software? Will they still all be supported? I have a DD+ with f1 wheel just been picked up on Tuesday by dpd for repair after breaking on 3rd day of use. Will this all still be fixed or will there be a pause in both sales and repair? How does it work on that front?
Thanks in advance.
On software, yes I imagine so. On hardware, at some point I imagine Corsair will want to slim the portfolio down (I could be wrong)
Crazy that a majority shareholder can be diluted in such a way. EDIT: From around 8:45 it does not sound like a dilution but rather leaving with nothing. Outrageous!
I suggest to Corsair to work on lowering the price and keep the quality of the product, beacuse the key is to sell volume.
While I am a fan of Corsair and like/use their products, They are totally a boutique brand for pc stuff. So it will be cool to see what they do, and they will prolly fix a lot of stuff very fast. Just be ready for the boutique price tags on the already expensive gear.
Thanks for the updates. Makes for interesting content. Before we all feel too sorry for the shareholder, remember that the situation Fanatec is in is the result of some years of actions taken by the majority shareholder as CEO. During the pandemic years demand for sim racing soared and it far outstripped supply. With the end of the pandemic measures the demand for sim racing tapered back off to “normal”. But companies like fanatec did two things encouraged by the years of unsustainable levels of demand. They ordered lots of inventory from suppliers to meet this blip in demand. And they overexpanded operations and began to spend too much. These two strategies would have chewed up their cash putting them in a position that bank debt is equal to two years of sales and their capital has been eaten up by losses and bank debt. So with a white knight coming in the shareholders cannot expect to get a return of capital. They already lost it all. Unfortunate.
Wow. Can't say u didn't see it coming, but still kinda surprised. I just got into sim racing not long ago. Guess i joined at a strange time in sim racing history.
Hope you've found it interesting to follow through the videos!
Tbh if Corsair gets to buy it, they will keep the same products, they just push the Corsair brand on old Fanatec products.
So it's a win/win for everyone. And I also hope, people get to keep their warranties.
Edit: or even keep the Fanatec brand and everything will be fine.
Does this mean we should start buying CRSR stocks?
Just placed an order from Fanatec yesterday....must admit i'm sweating a bit. Fingers crossed i will get my things 🤔
I'm ordering my stuff Friday. I'm in the UK. Let me know ow how you get on please?? I'd greatly appreciate it.
I ordered my set on April 26 for Poland and so far no response. I hope that I will receive my set soon.
I ordered Clubsport DD and wheel side adapter on Sunday it came yesterday and is on my rig now. So 3 business days to my house. USA buyer
@@mitchchapman7545 i will give an update when/if i get it 🙂
@@mitchchapman7545 Just got it today :-) so ordered the 8 th and got the 14 th, and there was a weekend and a one day holiday in that period, so 4 buisness days. I think that is very good 🙂
They were the Sim racing company to go to. But quickly other people jumped in on the game and offered better and more affordable products. Not to mention the used Market is flooded close to new sim Racing Products at almost half the price. I bought all my stuff second hand
I hope corsair honour all outstanding orders that customers-to-be have made. Probably not a bad thing having Corsair being the owner as they are a pretty large company and considerably larger reach and better global logistics and larger manufacturing output.
I've always had good experiences with corsair, even RMA. I actually think this will work out rly well.
It would be a bad investment if they reduce their product line up. I imagine they would keep most of them. Going retail doesn't make sense for all their products since it could reduce their profits and they have a lot of niche products - possibly just the XBOX and PS5 wheels seems more likely.
As a customer and passionate sim racer, I'm relieved that Fanatec will likely survive, but I'm also disgusted by the business practices involved. Greed meets greed in this scenario, where a top brand was undersold due to clever manipulation of German bankruptcy laws. No independent insolvency administrator should have allowed such a swift financing rejection. Now, the company is sold at a loss, benefiting a powerful corporation. I reserve judgment until all facts are reviewed independently.