Where's Euro Truck Simulator 3?

[Aziz]

After 1.99 we could have 1.420.69_42.B as it's all up to the developer to come up with version numbers. Example from elsewhere

[Prince]

The numbers isn't that relevant to me (people who are interested in it, can read more about version numbering on Wikipedia). I was merely wondering if there ever was a public discussion about "we went from ETS1 to ETS2 because of [insert reason], but we will not go for ETS3 because of [insert other reason].

[gaillard]

Because the trucks/trailers Brand names were allowed for ETS2?

[Some newbie driver]

I don't remember a single explanation about this they had shared in any moment; but it's essentially what I explained taken fragments from here and there on comments and interviews they had done through the years plus a bit of common sense and general knowledge..

The code of ETS wasn't well prepared to be evolved with time. It take SCS too much work to keep adding improvements or features. So they decided to stop ETS development and start ETS2 code, what was later shared by ATS and could be shared by whatever else they could want to release in the future that could share the basic "theme". With that work done, there's no point to make an ETS3 in the future if they could keep evolving ETS2 to reach the same level they could reach doing an ETS3 from scratch.

Of course, one can say it would be faster to code an evolved ETS3 from scratch than keep evolving ETS2 while keeping a flow of new features on updates to keep players involved. And that's true. But then there's another details you need to consider: history, licenses and content.

History of SCS as a company says they were very near to bankruptcy at the end of ETS2 development. Basically, they were a small developer (way smaller than they are now) and they had to stop releasing anything (that can fund them) in order to accelerate ETS2 development. Would ETS2 not succeeded, most probably SCS wouldn't had been anymore. And even if SCS is bigger now, they still being independent. So, there's nobody backing them up with the funds necessary to stop any release so they could focus on ETS3 (those things take YEARS, the stakes involved aren't a joke). So, if they are going to go the slow path to create an hypothetical ETS3 (coding in the background while still releasing things for ETS2), then we return to the point ETS2 code could evolve anyway to the same level that ETS3 could reach, there's no point to take the risk.

Licenses is about all the branded things we have in the game now. ETS had only fake brands (that almost get them sued, at least by Mercedes, as it seems, not 100% sure). For ETS2 and ATS they had worked the license agreements, and that's a tough work. It's pretty probable those licenses are tied to the specific names of SCS products; so creating an ETS3 or ATS2 would force them to re-license everything again. No such a hassle is worth if we consider the point about ETS2 being able to technically reach that hypothetical ETS3.

And finally, content: Plain and simple, what would happen with all the content people has payed for? Backwards compatibility? That's a HUGE mess from the developer point of view. To the dumpster and start again? That's the fastest way to angry millions of customers. And how could you sell the new game if the old one has a decade of content backing it up?

Regards

EDIT: Typos

[xXCARL1992Xx]

not really, ETS wasnt really a success because after it came German Truck Simulator (plus Austria addon some time later) and after that UK Truck Simulator, also both more mediocre success, and all these games were also published not entirely by SCS iirc, so SCS always made new games instead of evolving them, that changed with ETS2, it was the first, self published game from them and based off of GTS and UKTS, it has nothing in common with the ETS map except some prefabs they have taken over from ETS to GTS to UKTS, when development started on ETS2 the Prism3D engine was, more or less, made a blank slate and they started anew, the success of ETS2 came unexpected for them and then they started to keep developing it instead of developing a new game, so a year after release came the first addon in form of Going East, 2 years later Scandinavia, a year after then France etc. etc. with smaller DLCs in between

also, will al the work in regards to licensing that is in it, and all the branded content we got, it would be a stupid decision to start ETS3 now because we would lose 50% or more of the truck we have already, maybe even a few of the newer ones

[Prince]

Interesting

Regardless of ETS2 or ETS3, it's going to be interesting too see what they pull out from the hat once they are done with West Balcans, Greece (+ Turkey?), rework on UK, and finishing the Nordic region. We might have 3-4 years of development just there

[JD6]

ETS3 would alienate a lot of old ETS2 fans and the modding community because they invested years in the game.

In a way you're already playing "ETS3" as the game is significantly changed from the launch ETS2. The last 2 major DLCs and the reworked areas are a big change from the map style used at launch. The lighting is so much better and the one thing I'd want is an official optional new 4K texture pack (like other companies do) to cover the ugly old textures without ruining the performance for people that are OK with the lower quality textures.

Also... some interior textures for the old launch trucks would be lovely. I'm only using the new DAF and Renault T and the difference in quality between new trucks and old is insane.

[Some newbie driver]

The high-res textures "DLC" (or whatever the way it could be packed) is a very demanded addition. What I don't know is the space that would be required for it. In the past I would had expected that not so much, but I recently noticed that only the Chinese skins DLC actually weights almost 2GB in their current form. So, a higher resolution pack for all the skins for vehicles could take a really big chunk of disk space in the order of several tens of GB (napkin maths). Maybe that's one reason thagt holds SCS to do it, even if not rare today to see games occupy such amounts of disk space.

Regards

PS: @xXCARL1992Xx you are right, I always forget they released GTS UKTS and such after ETS. But that's precisely the main problem, even if they share all the underlying code and are independent, any improvement they want to do there was too costly in man/hours. So, at the end, those games weren't really an evolution at all. They found better to stop losing time that way and create a new code way more modular and upgradeable that's the foundation of what we have today. They could had used that new code on several independent games or, as they finally decided, into a few games expanded through DLC. I forget also to mention they released the Scania one and the truck and trailers, but those were small candies that were almost a beta testing of upcoming ETS2.

[Davina]

If they are going to do that then the version numbers should have had a preceeding zero. Thus, contrary to what i was going to post, a v3.00 would make sense from a version numbering perspective (& would also shut these endless questions up from 2013). The constant evolution of the depth & quality of the product anyway should be enough to tip it over the edge of a major version number.

[gaillard]

We are still at 1.44.x.x
We first need an ETS2 2.0.1.1s no?