Dovetail Direct 25th August

The 2026 Dovetail Direct has been confirmed for August 25th. I wonder what on earth that will be about?

 

Its that time of year again!

 

Hmm. I wonder...

 

Rumour has it, DTG are creating a licensed Teletubbies Simulator. Estimated release date: The day after the Simtrack 104 drops.

 

I swear I feel like this year's Dovetail direct is going to be different as the roadmap said a lot of dlc will be releasing before dovetail direct which normally doesn't happen and normally around this time we get announcements for the next dlc made by third party developers for the next iteration of tsw so something feels off.

 

it’s probably just because there’s so many third parties now that dtg have to start releasing stuff in july and august, otherwise 50 things come out until october

 

Ill copy this from my other thread...

Their Strategy has changed...
theyre waiting it out, instead of flat out announcing it like TSW6.

they are trying to get more hype with this one, theyre keeping the door shut, because they have some kind of ace up their sleeve, i can feel it.

The more speculation and more hype surrounding the direct, the more attention itll get.

Or another thing..

something i have been thinking...or its just me overthinking.

maybe they havent chosen to announce TSW7 flat out, because it may not even be called TSW7 at all...

What if its called something different?

In the focus annual report, they said a new TSW is coming, but, not the name of it.

 

The thing I find odd, is that July 24 and July 25 roadmaps graphics directly had what would become the next games core stuff on it, last years even had the tsw6 logo. This years doesn't...

 

Obviously TSW7. Or a very small chance they might name it TSW 2027 which would actually be better rather than 7,8,9 etc.

 

TSW7

 

I hope they're not doing Bart de Graaf's version of Teletubbies

 

Another year another disappointment

 

That most likely means that the headline announcement at Dovetail Direct this year will not be TSW7 but something else, most likely a new UE5-based game. There will probably be a TSW7 as well (in the same way as there was a TS2018 etc. after TSW was first announced), but the most important announcement this year will not be TSW7. Otherwise they would have announced TSW7 today, in the same way they consistently did in previous years. They now deviate from the usual playbook for a reason.

 

bear in mind that it’s only last year they did that, announcing the next iteration before dtd isn’t a recurring theme

 

I don’t see them jumping over to Unreal Engine 5 anytime soon.

 

I don't think this is anything to look into. Compared to this time two years ago, even last year, the third parties are dominant in the DLC space and Dovetail have practically stopped making them (with Rivet doing what DLCs are done).
The Take a Ticket segment will probably be larger and with a greater number of 3P DLCs than previously.
Also, the major 3Ps either have just released a DLC or have one in the works; so they'll be revealing their next projects. Whereas last time the development cycles didn't seem to align that way.

 

The July 2024 roadmap shown above hinted at a lot of new content, so came close. With this type of yearly recurring project, businesses typically start at what was produced last year and see what needs changing. Plus there is this reference to "exciting news and more details about TSW's development" which also tells you something. None of the pieces in isolation is decisive, agreed, but the direction of travel seems clear.

 

These roadmaps bring back memories, and reaffirm my long standing dream to one day see my grandchildren enjoying the Tadami Line for Train Sim World 4...

 

Perhaps because this was released 2 days before the stream they left it out? - maybe they will release an updated one on Friday or Monday after the stream has taken place mentioning TSW7 in it

 

Maybe it’s just the heat or general TSW burnout but I feel absolutely zero excitement for this marketing hype this year, sitting through something similar to that Take A Ticket nonsense or similar. Just tell us what’s happening, what the content bundle is and how much it’s going to cost.

To be brutally honest, I feel more excited for the Coaches and Iceland DLC’s for ETS2 (and Project Cars for ATS) than more Dovetail PR which is likely to be all fluff and little substance.

 

Since 48 days until the direct is quite long i can see DTG attempting to keep up the hype by splitting the announcement into todays direct reveal and a title reveal in early August.
DTG should know by now there is no need to make a big secret out of it every year again.

 

I have a similar feeling...

But my TSW fatigue is more the screen shots looking absolutely superb, but the product arriving in a completely blurry state that then takes several patches to fix. I'd like to see something that just works relatively well out of the box... But I know some of the announcements will be exciting, but it's how they translate into the game that can be a killer for me at the moment.

I'd like to think MVL has set a standard for optimisation but we'll have to wait and see if any new announcements/releases show physical evidence of this through actual gameplay.

 

Of course, with the big announcements or secrets of DTG (which have happened since the release of TSW), there is a real risk "be left empty-handed"...

 

Pure speculation of course, but my feeling is there has to be a summer release, but with the mounting problems with the game, TSW 7 might not be viable. So maybe we see a route bundle like Rush Hour, while they continue to improve the game without adding more to it. DTD could then be showcasing those three routes, and describing the direction of the next year. And if we see TSW7 in 2027 then so be it.

That's my hope anyway.

 

OMG its that time of year again free starter pack then download all your previous content you know the drill or you should do by now?

 

Well Time for my favourite part of the year which the next instalment gets leaked early again

 

If (when) there is another installment we seriously need to have a discussion about the viability of re-downloading the collection every year.
Mine is hundreds of gigabates and I probably only own half of the DLC. It cannot keep going on.

 

I think it already has unfortunately... But if people haven't seen it obviously we can't speak about it any further, which is maybe a good thing as it will retain the element of surprise for some.

 

My guess is a remastered London Commuter.

 

If you mean the SWT livery mentioned in the roadmap, then I'd have thought DTG would've kept it under wraps until the release of TSW7 if it was part of the core route, as there's not many places on the SWT/SWR network where the 450s wouldn't appear

 

No wasn't that and had nothing to do with a South West Trains. As great as it is to know SWT had been licensed, it had absolutely nothing that (although it would have to be SWR now to match the era the NLL is set).

This was something that was posted last week, agreed that it could be kept if it was rephrased as speculation and with the images removed (which has since changed). I just wanted to clarify that just so no other rumours were started it has anything to do with SWT.

I think a fair few of us saw it, but understandably we aren't allowed to talk about it openly now or it would break the rules. And secondly to that people who haven't seen it wouldn't want to see it anyway, so it'll be nice to save it until DTG direct and possibly leave it as a surprise.

(Although what we did see might not be the flag ship and could potentially be a third party developer which is also a key thing to also note).

 

I see this complaint a lot and can't get my head around why people have an issue with it.

 

Ooh interesting, I really wish I could have seen what it was. Disappointed I missed it. And you can't even tell me.

 

I don't fancy having to re-download my collection every year to then be eligible for updates and remasters should they happen - and that's ignoring just how big said collection is. It takes basically all day if not more.
It's not even really possible to do it in blocks because of the prevalence of layers and if I decide just to play another game then the downloads will cause lag.

It's just a P.I.T.A.

 

not everyone has a good internet connection

 

They're going to announce that Metro Rivals is being continued again lol

 

but still, why does it matter? regardless of how long it takes.

 

because it's a total pain in the ass having to download over 500 GB of DLCs
and for what? just so the "new" TSW can be featured in the store highlights for a few days? lmao, pathetic

 

But why is it a PITA? It's not like you have to do really anything. I've been waiting years for a valid explanation. Ever since the announcment of TSW5.

 

because you have to find the tutorial, choose what you want to download first and then wait hours, sometimes even days for it all to download

 

So what? I'm really struggling to see the issue. Sure it takes time, but so be it.

 

it’s the fact that it’s just completely needless; if we stayed on the same iteration each year then we wouldn’t have to redownload anything. may i ask how long it takes you to redownload all your content each year?

 

Days?
If this isnt just completely exaggerated you should try to switch to a different internet provider.

 

it doesn’t personally take me days for all my dlc to download each year, but i’ve heard several people having to wait that long. and in lots of cases, it’s not the case that they can just ‘switch to another internet provider’. that’s a very entitled view that doesn’t take into account that people may not be able to afford a different option, there may be no other option where they live, or the other providers may be no better. it’s not as simple as just ‘choosing a better one’

 

To the handful of people hell bent on seeing UE5 magically appear as the game engine, it's not going to happen. It's most likely TSW will remain as a UE 4.26 game until its replaced in 2030/31 with a UE6 game.

UE6 is expected to release towards the end of 2028, so it will have started to mature slightly by 2030/31.

In 2030 the game will be 12 years old. That's a reasonable point to start a fresh.

 

I can't remember exactly how long but I believe it was the best part of a day. If the marketing brings in new players, re-downloading really isn't an issue and Idk why some believe it is. Like you can last a day without the game I'd hope.

 

I just curate my reinstall, a few items at a time but that doesn't mean the process isn't a complete PITA. Think I read on PC/Steam if you have the HD space you can copy the DLC pak files from the previous version folder to the new one and Steam will just update, rather than download the whole thing but I haven't personally tested that. Also bear in mind while Steam is downloading to the game, you can't play it.

 

Even in 2026 some people rely on community broadband speeds that are slow, even on ADSL, some areas have/and probably wont see fibre internet speeds for the foreseeable future. Some of us are spoilt.

 

My add-on download is taking 4 hours. The problem is that it tries to download all possible versions of the add-on. And I have to manually stop them. If it was only the PS5 version that was downloading, I would create a download queue and let it all download overnight.

 

If DTG make changes to the .pak to include new "core features" you are likely to bork your game. I wouldn’t be trusting of the few people who rely on grey area file moving to be a solid and safe way to maintain your install.