A virtual tech factory from a manga that develops real, tangible products – there is no such thing! Wrong. Such a factory really exists. It’s called RIVALWORKS, and within a very short time since its first appearance it has already created two high-end pieces of hardware that are causing a sensation in esports and sim racing: The Rival Rig and the BMW Motion Platform. In other words, RIVALWORKS is by no means a cloud-castle, but rather the logical link between BMW’s reality as a tech company and totally new digital experiences.

Where the virtual inspires the real

RIVALWORKS made its first appearance in the fictitious manga series “Heroes of Rivalry”, with which BMW, together with its partner teams, offered Esports fans a totally new storytelling format in recent months. RIVALWORKS was portrayed as a technology factory, in which BMW engineers researched ideas and hardware components. The goal is always to use innovative technology to promote competition between players and teams in Esports, and to take this to a new level. This has now produced its first (real) product: “The Rival Rig”.

The Rival Rig by BMW and RIVALWORKS, more than any other project before, was about pushing the boundaries of human capabilities. What we wanted to achieve is a gaming rig design that takes both technology and aesthetics in this field to the next level.
Holger Hampf

President of Designworks

In the real world, BMW engineers developed the ground-breaking concept for this multifunctional gaming hardware, supported by the BMW Group’s innovation studio Designworks. “The Rival Rig” offers many unique features to support players’ performance, whilst at the same time integrating health aspects. The Rival Rig is also designed as an open platform, which, in the future, will incorporate ideas and stimulus from the community, as well as from gaming platforms and third-party hardware and software providers. The many stand-out features of “The Rival Rig” include the “Microclimate Control System” and “Adaptive Seating“. AI-controlled interaction between integrated sensors, pneumatic air pads and electro-mechanical actuators ensure that the whole platform is perfectly geared towards the players.

The ultimate racing experience

The latest sensation and big technological innovation from the house of RIVALWORKS is the BMW haptic platform. This hardware is unprecedented in sim racing and delivers an ultra-realistic racing experience. Exclusive know-how from BMW Motorsport’s professional racing simulator is incorporated in the moving platform for sim rigs. BMW SIM technology motion cueing, in particular, takes the quality of the BMW haptic platform to a new level. Using BMW's unique lift, roll, yaw and pitch techniques combined with haptic feedback, the top-secret motorsport simulator tricks are available for home use for the first time.

RIVALWORKS x BMW turns visions into reality. With the concentrated innovative power inherent in the tech factory, the next revolution in esports and sim racing will certainly not be long in coming.

Feel all the Movements

BMW Motion Platform