- The low price of the Thrustmaster T98 is designed with youngsters and entry-level gamers in thoughts, in keeping with product advertising and marketing supervisor Xavier Pieuchot
- Pieuchot says the T98 is “all the things it is advisable make your first step right into a racing sport”
- He additionally says the low price meant Thrustmaster could not implement power suggestions, however that it is extra appropriate for kids
Thrustmaster’s new, Ferrari-licensed T98 is a low-cost racing wheel designed for teenagers and wheel newcomers, however this meant the producer could not add one key characteristic.
Talking in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom 2025, following the T98’s announcement, Thrustmaster product advertising and marketing supervisor Xavier Pieuchot defined that the wheel’s $100 / £89.99 / €100 price ticket permits first-time wheel customers to get began cheaply, significantly youngsters.
“It isn’t aimed toward sim racers, it is aimed toward youngsters, for first-time steering wheel customers,” Pieuchot mentioned, “however there’s a large market right here as a result of all the fellows now enjoying sim racing [games] with professional stuff ought to begin with one thing low cost initially, in order that’s why we have now launched this one [the T98].
“Beneath €100, more often than not you get very low cost design, very low cost plastic as effectively. Right here we deliver [the] Ferrari license, so we won’t say that it is a duplicate as a result of it isn’t 1:1 scale. However it’s very impressed by the GTB.
“Mainly, you will have a sort of duplicate, handsome steering wheel and all the things it is advisable make your first step right into a racing sport.”
Nevertheless, due to T98’s low price, this meant the corporate could not afford to implement power suggestions, a typical part present in most of the greatest racing wheels that makes use of an electrical motor to generate life like resistance.
Pieuchot defined that since it is a extra budget-friendly product, it could not supply the identical expertise as a wheel with power suggestions energy, including that it might be extra appropriate for young children anyway.
“You have got a product which seems to be like a steering wheel, so you will have a greater immersion of driving a automotive, however we all know that on the finish it isn’t the way in which you begin and get severe with sim racing, in order that’s why,” he mentioned. “And, as I mentioned, [the] motor is the costliest a part of the steering wheel.
“So if we wish to obtain the under €100 goal, we simply cannot afford the suggestions,” he mentioned. “It is manner simpler and safer for a household to place a steering wheel like this in a youngsters’ palms.”
The Thrustmaster T98 is out there now and is appropriate with PC, PS4, and PS5.
