The world of sim-racing revolves around several platforms, mainly two for quality equipment. We have home consoles with Xbox and Playstation, and Windows PCs.

For the first platform, only a few players offer products capable of immersing you in realistic racing. We have brands like Logitech and Thrustmaster, as well as Fanatec. Logitech took some time before offering a Direct Drive ecosystem, as did Thrusmtaser to be honest. Both manufacturers have long offered belt- or gear-driven peripherals, making them much more accessible to lambdas riders. Except that console racers began to demand more, and only Fanatec could offer them quality products.

On the PC, the story is totally different, as the platform is known for being accessible in terms of software support and customization. Brands on this platform are numerous, with players with many years of experience, such as Fanatec, or just a few years of existence, as in the case of Simagic.

Simagic is a major player in the sim-racing industry, but only on PC. These products are renowned for being high-performance, immersive and, above all, highly customizable, something that’s easy to achieve on the PC. However, sim-racing is becoming increasingly popular on home consoles, and the range of quality peripherals on offer is very limited.

Is it possible to use Simagic equipment on a PS5? The answer is both yes and no. Technically speaking, the Chinese manufacturer of sim-racing peripherals does not support Sony consoles, due to the Japanese firm’s non-approval of its products. In order to make a DD base compatible on a PS5, Sony must be involved so that the brand can grant you a controller for the console to recognize the equipment.

There are solutions on the market to get around this, notably the Ras1ution 2 and Sigma Cortex boxes. These products act as intermediaries between the base station and the console, so that the two can communicate with each other. The principle is quite simple: the box, like the Ras1ution 2, applies the parameters of a base that already works on a console (the Logitech G923, for example) to camouflage the signal from the Simagic base, making it “compatible” with the PS5.

In real life, the experience is severely impacted: noticeable reduction in power, sluggish force feedback from the base, diluted sensations and greatly reduced immersion. The best way to do sim-racing on a console is to use equipment compatible with the platform in question, such as those from Fanatec. The German firm offers a complete catalog of sim-racing peripherals, with bases ranging from 5 to 15 nm, depending on your preferences, all in bundles or as stand-alone equipment.