The last few months have been pretty much unprecedented in the sim racing industry as the Cover-19 outbreak and the resulting focus on virtual racing even by professional series and drivers have been like a big stimulus package for the entire industry as demand for sim racing hardware has increased to new levels.
At the height of the pandemic, the demand for semi-pro and pro level gear was so high that even big-name race car drivers struggled to acquire the required parts for their simulators to take part in the official series.
While real racing is slowly resuming and sim racing in the coming months will return to be done mainly by enthusiasts, demand for sim racing hardware demands high and with international shipping costs increasing as well, several manufacturers are raising their prices in response.
Germany-based Fanatec is vowing to try and keep their prices at the current level, a step that is helped by a time-limited VAT 3% reduction in Germany. Instead of handing these savings over to their German customers and giving only a portion of their global user base an advantage, Fanatec will be using these savings to help and keep the prices in check for everyone, stating:
We think global and not national and hope that our international community will appreciate this step.
Official Fanatec Blog
