Farming Simulator Is Way Bigger, More Fun Than You Think

After a few hours of playing Farming Simulator 15, I was excited to talk to Thomas Frey, co-owner of the game's developer, Giants Software. But Frey had to postpone last minute. He has more important calls to take these days.

He was on the phone with one of the biggest game publishers in the world—a company that advertises its games with bus ads, prime time TV spots, and is currently turning one of its action-packed franchises into a major motion picture starring a major movie star.

"We're in negotiations with a lot of publishers about the next version, Farming Simulator 2017," Frey said when I finally got him on the phone. "Because of the success a lot of publishers are coming to us."

I doubt that publishers want to adapt a game about driving tractors, harvesting fields, and managing a farm into a summer movie blockbuster. But the business potential is obvious, especially if Giants Software and its publishers can convince the North American audience to embrace what Europe already knows: It sounds ridiculous on paper, but Farming Simulator is actually a lot of fun.

The first Farming Simulator, released in 2008, sold 520,000 copies—mainly in Switzerland, where Giants' team of 15 developers is located. Each biannual instalment that's followed has seen increased sales in neighboring countries, and since 2011, Farming Simulator has been a best-selling game in Germany and most Europeans countries.

Farming Simulator 15 has sold more than a million copies since it was released in October 2014, and Frey sounds confident that they can sell even more copies to their American audience too. Sales could receive a significant bump in May when Farming Simulator 15 is released on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, where most Americans play hugely popular games like Grand Theft Auto V, which has shipped 45 million copies since it was released in September 2013.

"I think in the US it gets bigger with every version, and I believe that with Farming Simulator 15 on the consoles it will get even better," Frey said. "I think that most people just don't know the game in the US. It only takes time. In North America, Canada included, farming is such a big topic."

Part of the problem, Frey explained, is convincing people to give Farming Simulator a chance. When I browse through the new and popular releases on Steam's digital games storefront, a picture of a tractor on a green field sandwiched between images of spaceships, dragons, and grizzly dudes with assault rifles feels out of place.

How Farming Simulator fits in the gaming landscape—which increasingly caters to short attention spans, fantastical setting, and immediate gratification—is best summarized by this parody trailer for the game.

"We had to convince so many people outside Germany to believe in this title, to believe that it will work outside Germany," he said. "That was really a struggle for us."

Farming Simulator 15's appeal was harder to deny once I started playing it too.

I launched the game, and was quickly put in charge of a combine designed to harvest a wheat field. I lowered my cultivator, turned it on, and began harvesting the field in neat rows, driving from one end to another, turning around, and doing it again. When my combine was full, I dumped the grain in a trailer, attached it to a tractor, and drove it to the silo where I could sell it.

It's a complex game on a long-term, strategic level, with an incredible amount of farming equipment that serves specific functions, and multi-stage workflows that you could obsesses over and optimize. It was obvious I didn't know the first thing about farming when I planted a field of sugar beets without realizing that I couldn't afford the specialized cultivator I needed to harvest them. Even a $200,000 loan from the bank couldn't save me from that mistake.

In terms of what you do in the game from moment to moment, it mostly involves driving realistic tractors and other vehicles carefully over fields, back and forth, for hours on end. It doesn't give you the same rush you get when you blow up hundreds of Russians from the comfort of an AC-130 gunship in Call of Duty, say, but somehow it's still incredibly entertaining. And calming.

"If you compare it to Microsoft Flight Simulator for example, it's far less complex," he said. "You can easily push one button, drive around, and the controls are intuitive." It might not seem like it in North America, but in Frey's mind, this has already helped make Farming Simulator go mainstream.

"What is also important to understand is that our game is loved by a lot of kids," he said, who still think excavators and tractors are cool. "At the beginning people thought our game is only for 30-50 year olds, really hardcore simulation fans, maybe the guys that have toy railway models in their basement, but they're not."

And much like top tier racing games such as Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport, which have to negotiate difficult deals with car companies such as Porsche and Ferrari, a lot of what Frey's job entails these days is negotiating the same kind of deals with agricultural machinery manufactures like New Holland and Case. Every tractor, combine, chainsaw, and other pieces of farming equipment in the game is based on real, branded machines.

It's a lot of work, but Frey told me that the real machines are part of the appeal. It's a modest power fantasy compared to being a war hero or fighter pilot, but most people won't get to drive a $260,000 Case IH Axial-Flow 7130 harvester. Farming Simulator lets them do that.

John Deere, a brand that's familiar to Americans who don't know the first thing about farming, could help Farming Simulator reach more people, but so far it hasn't signed on to let its machines appear in the game, even after Giants did some contract work for the company.

"Some companies are quite easy to deal with and get interested in this game," Frey said. "Others, Case for example, I think they're number two behind John Deere in the US…the big companies are more intense to negotiate with."

But branding alone won't mean success with US gamers.Giants is also trying to cut better trailers and improve the graphics so to better appeal to an American audience used to the latest and shiniest technology. Whatever it takes, the key is to get players in the tractor's driving seat for a minute.

"It was the same in Europe in the beginning," Frey said. "It just needed some time. In the US, I can imagine them starting up Steam and then they see Farming Simulator and they would never think about buying this game. Once we get them to play the game, they really enjoy it."