The term U-turn in politics has a deeply negative connotation.

Commentators will scream “U-turn” from the rafters whilst simultaneously crying out that politicians don’t listen to the electorate, that they’re too stubborn and pig-headed to think that they alone know the answers to the world’s challenges.

If a politician announces a policy, hears negative feedback and then changes their mind, that’s a good thing right?

Winston Churchill (for all his flaws), once said, “A man who does not change his mind, does not change anything”. And I’ve been rolling out that excuse every time I change lanes in traffic, ever since.

I’m not talking about the electorate today, those who vote for their political party of choice, I’m talking about those who vote with their wallet for racing games that they love.

To catch you up (briefly): Le Mans Ultimate released an update that included a Joker system whereby subscribers to their premium tiers had the option, every 10 races, to erase a negative bump to their safety or performance rating.

This news went down like a turd in a swimming pool.

And for all the obvious reasons. You can’t put an advantage behind a paywall - simple as that. The nuance of this particular advantage is to be debated (and we did debate it - on last week’s Traxion Control podcast).

LMU needs to drive revenue and improving the appeal of their premium subscription can only help. This was, as far as I can tell, the only motivation for the Joker system; it feels like an odd feature to prioritise amongst a busy development roadmap otherwise.

And honestly, that’s okay.

If you listened to Stephen Hood’s recent interview with Traxion he noted several times that Motorsport Games is a business, not a charity.

Now here’s the kicker. I really admire Motorsport Games for its U-turn.

For those who cry “Listen to the community!”, “Don’t lose touch with us sim racers!”, “We want to feel heard!”: well you have been listened to, you were heard and Motorsport Games rowed back to the right side of history.

Was it an obvious mistake? Perhaps. Was it worth a try? I think so.

It has no doubt left a sour taste in the mouths of many who think that LMU was only trying to push the limits of what they could get away with. And they might be right, but that’s called “testing”.

I am well aware that I will be in the minority here for expressing support for both decisions: the decision to try the strategy and the decision to rescind the strategy.

I am expecting, once again, an inbox full of people who disagree with me (I respond to every one!).

I expect that the number of players they actually lose to this decision (vs the number of players who say they’ll never play again, just to fire it up the next day) will be insignificant vs the additional revenue that an enhanced premium subscription could have brought to the table to fund more licenses, more development and more… titles?

Anyway, long story short: they tried something, it didn’t work, they changed it. Sounds like good sense to me.

This one really caused an upset. The economy-based progression system, XP and other prominent career-features were dropped by a resource-drained Kunos in February 2026.

Featuring one of the best quotes we’ve ever penned on the Traxion.gg website, this story of the Rennsport NFT debacle was so contentious, so debated and so heavily lambasted, that the story is now woven into the very fabric of sim racing history.

Gran Turismo 7 experienced one of the most brutal review-bombing campaigns of our time when the venerated studio slashed the credit payout system in the single-player career mode. At the time, their Metacritic user score dropped to as low as 1.8 out of 10. To this day, it still languishes at an incomprehensible 2.7 out of 10.

The studio heard the outcry, fixed the system and splashed the cash to players.

Know of any more that I’ve missed? Let me know and if I get enough, I’ll do another mini-segment in next week’s newsletter.

Moza has just been announced as an Official Partner of the Gran Turismo World Series - halfway through the current iteration.

AN official partner. Meaning there’s more than one.

Fanatec remains an official partner and will be providing the hardware for the competitors to race with throughout the remainder of the series.

It feels odd to me to have two official hardware partners for the same esports competition - especially given that the competitors will all race on only one ecosystem.

Perhaps in the future we’ll have our very own Michelin vs Bridgestone scenario where competitors will have a choice of hardware to use.

Alternatively, this is simply a dull contractual quirk, and Fanatec are seemingly on its way out but have reserved the right to be the exclusive provider of hardware for the drivers.

Moza has certainly muscled-in on the sim racing industry in general over the last few years, stealing the sandwiches of Fanatec, Logitech and Thrustmaster with their mammoth range of wheels, pedals and peripherals.

This latest move is gutsy and dare I say it - very Moza.

You've got the pace for one perfect lap. Can you do it ten times in a row?

Most sim racers can't, and it's rarely a skill problem.

It's not knowing which corners you get away with, and which ones quietly cost you a tenth every single lap.

After the session, trophi.ai breaks it down lap by lap: "Turn 6, you're half a second off your best three laps in a row. Turn 2 hasn't moved." Now you know which one's actually worth fixing.

Stop fixing corners that were never the problem.

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If you’ve ever read a Traxion.gg article, you’ll know that the writers over here all have very distinct voices and opinions. It’s this character and sound that I think makes Traxion special.

Human creation is becoming a rare commodity with which the media seem to trade less and less. But not at Traxion. We don’t use AI to write our articles on the website, and I pledge to you, that I will never use AI to write this newsletter.