Written by Introduction: A Company Born from Sim Racers
Simucube is marking ten years in business this March, and the Finnish direct drive wheelbase maker is using the milestone to tell the origin story behind its own Simucube sim racing platform. According to a post on the company’s official blog, Simucube didn’t start as a corporate product line — it started as a conversation between a hardware engineering team and a member of the sim racing community who wanted something better than what was on the market.
That conversation, between Granite Devices co-founder Tero Kontkanen and a community member known as Phillip “Beano,” set the direction for what would become one of the most recognized names in high-end sim racing hardware. Ten years later, Simucube is still leaning on that same relationship with its user base to shape new products across the Simucube sim racing platform.
From Granite Devices to Simucube: Key Milestones
Simucube’s roots trace back to Granite Devices, a company founded in Finland that built its reputation on industrial servo motor controllers long before anyone there thought about sim racing wheels. That background in motion control engineering turned out to be exactly the expertise needed to solve a problem the DIY sim racing community had already been chipping away at for years, long before “sim racing platform” meant anything beyond a home-built rig in someone’s garage.
Early Community-Driven Roots
Before Simucube existed as a brand, there was OSW — Open Sim Wheel. OSW was a grassroots, open source project run by enthusiasts who wanted direct drive force feedback without paying industrial-grade prices or waiting for a big manufacturer to notice the niche. Sim racers were soldering, wiring, and configuring servo motors themselves, sharing designs and troubleshooting tips on forums scattered across the early sim racing community.
It was this DIY movement that caught the attention of Granite Devices. The company already had the servo motor controller technology that OSW builders were adapting for their own rigs, which made the crossover almost inevitable once the two sides started talking about what a production-ready version might look like.
The Direct Drive Breakthrough
The result of that early collaboration was Simucube 1, launched in March 2016 through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The campaign reached its funding goal in just three hours, a clear signal that the OSW community and the wider sim racing crowd were ready to pay for a polished, supported version of what they had been building by hand for years.
Simucube 1 hasn’t been abandoned as the company moved on to newer hardware — it’s still supported today, a decade after launch, a detail that says as much about the brand’s approach to its customers as any marketing line could. That kind of long-tail support is rare in a hardware category that moves as quickly as sim racing gear does.
Building a Global Sim Racing Platform
What began as a niche crowdfunded product for DIY enthusiasts has grown into a full hardware ecosystem used across the sim racing world, and the Simucube sim racing platform is now the name the company puts on that whole system rather than a single wheelbase. The shift from a single product to a platform didn’t happen by accident — Simucube kept building on the industrial-grade motor control expertise from Granite Devices while continuing to listen to the same kind of community feedback that started the whole project. That combination of serious engineering credentials paired with a community-first mindset is what Simucube points to as the reason it was able to scale from a single Indiegogo campaign to a recognized global brand in the direct drive wheelbase category.
The company has continued to expand its lineup well beyond that first product, moving into pedals and software as well as multiple tiers of wheelbases. Below is a quick look at how the brand’s core milestones line up over the decade.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Pre-2016 | OSW (Open Sim Wheel) community project lays the groundwork for accessible direct drive force feedback |
| March 2016 | Simucube 1 launches via Indiegogo; funding goal reached in three hours |
| Post-2016 | Simucube 2 lineup introduced, including Sport, Pro, and Ultimate tiers |
| Ongoing | Simucube Tuner and True Drive software developed to support the wheelbase ecosystem |
| 2026 | Simucube marks its 10th anniversary; current lineup includes Simucube 3, ActivePedals, and the Simucube Link Platform |
Simucube Today: Product Ecosystem
A decade on from that first Indiegogo campaign, Simucube’s catalog looks very different from a single crowdfunded wheelbase. The company now offers Simucube 3 as its current direct drive wheelbase generation, alongside ActivePedals and the Simucube Link Platform, which ties the hardware together into a broader system rather than a collection of standalone parts. Readers can browse Simracing.Fan’s direct drive wheelbase coverage for more context on how this category has evolved industry-wide.
The software side has grown in parallel. What started as basic tuning options for early adopters evolved into Simucube Tuner and the True Drive ecosystem, giving users granular control over force feedback behavior across the product range. For sim racers who remember configuring OSW rigs by hand, the jump to a polished software layer managing a direct drive wheelbase is a fairly direct line from where this all began.
Granite Devices remains the parent company behind the technology, and that industrial motion control pedigree — engineered originally for factory automation in Finland — is still part of how Simucube frames its products: precision built for industry, repurposed for the sim rig.
Key Takeaways at a Glance
- Simucube’s 10th anniversary falls in March 2026, marking a decade since Simucube 1 launched.
- The brand originated from the OSW (Open Sim Wheel) DIY community project.
- Simucube 1 launched via Indiegogo in March 2016 and hit its funding goal in three hours.
- Granite Devices, the parent company based in Finland, brought industrial servo motor control expertise to the project.
- Simucube 1 remains supported today, a decade after release.
- The current lineup includes Simucube 3, ActivePedals, and the Simucube Link Platform.
Why the Community Still Drives Simucube
What stands out about Simucube’s own retelling of its history is how much weight it puts on that original conversation with a community member rather than a boardroom decision. The company didn’t identify a market gap through research — it was handed the idea by the people who were already trying to solve the problem themselves with soldering irons and OSW forum threads.
Ten years in, that origin still shapes how the brand talks about itself. Rather than positioning Simucube purely as an engineering company that happens to sell to sim racers, the narrative keeps circling back to the fact that sim racers were the ones who pushed the technology into existence in the first place, and that the sim racing community remains part of the product roadmap today.
What This Means for Sim Racers
For anyone running current Simucube hardware, the anniversary story is a reminder of how deep the support commitment goes — Simucube 1 owners are still getting backing for a product that’s a decade old. That’s a relevant data point for buyers weighing the long-term value of high-end direct drive hardware against cheaper alternatives that may not carry the same support runway. Simracing.Fan’s News section tracks how brands across the category are handling long-term hardware support.
It’s also useful context for understanding where the Simucube 3, ActivePedals, and Link Platform fit into the bigger picture. None of it exists in isolation — it’s the latest iteration of a product philosophy that started with a crowdfunded wheelbase built to satisfy a DIY community that Granite Devices decided to take seriously.
FAQ: Simucube’s Growth Explained
When was Simucube founded?
Simucube’s first product, Simucube 1, launched in March 2016 via an Indiegogo campaign, marking 2026 as the brand’s 10th anniversary.
What is Granite Devices’ role in Simucube?
Granite Devices is the parent company behind Simucube, based in Finland and known for industrial servo motor controller technology that was adapted into the first direct drive wheelbase.
What was OSW and how does it relate to Simucube?
OSW, or Open Sim Wheel, was a community-driven DIY project focused on building accessible direct drive force feedback wheels. It predated Simucube and directly inspired the collaboration that led to the brand’s creation as a full sim racing platform.
Is the original Simucube 1 still usable?
Yes. Simucube 1 remains supported today, ten years after its initial release, which the brand points to as proof of its long-term commitment to the sim racing community.
What products does Simucube currently offer?
The current lineup includes the Simucube 3 wheelbase, ActivePedals, and the Simucube Link Platform, supported by the True Drive software ecosystem.
Source: simucube.com
