P.E.I. farm equipment to appear in popular Farming Simulator game

A potato bin piler made by P.E.I.farming equipment manufacturer H.F. Stewart of West Point will soon be appearing in the popularFarming Simulator game.

The game is very popular, selling over 2 million copies worldwide, and falls under a category of hyper-realistic simulators that are gaining more and more mainstream popularity.

"They've got some big producers in the game like John Deere and New Holland and to have our name kind of associated with that and a part of the same game, it's really cool to see," H.F. Stewart business development manager Zach Stewart told CBC Radio: Island Morning's Mitch Cormier.

Farming Simulator is a video game played on computers, PlayStations or Xbox. Players start outat a small farm and eventually work their way up to buy more land and bigger,better equipment.

Stewartplayed the game as a child andsaid it's the closest thingto living the life of a farmer, from inside your home.

No money changed hands

"About three-and-a-half years ago, I sent a quick little email to them, just remembering them from my childhood I guess, and wanted to know if it was something that they'd be interested in doing having our equipment in the game," he said.

The company, Giants Software, is based in Switzerland and Stewart said they're typically focused on European-style farming.

The appearance of the H.F. Stewart bin piler is not a paid product placement, but rather a mutual agreement.

It was really cool to see it and play with it. Zach Stewart

"They wanted to look at the more North American style, so our equipment kind of fit the mould of what they were looking for,"said Stewart. "After seeing a few pictures and videos they want to keep moving forward."

Bin pilers are used to pile potatoes insidewarehouses for storage. They can pile up to six metres high for winter storage and Stewart said some farmers also use them to load trucks for shipping purposes.

Game's first bin piler

Before the introduction of the H.F. Stewart bin piler, no bin pilers were available on Farming Simulator.

Stewart said hesubmitted3-D drawings and high-quality photos from different vantage points to the developer, who loaded it all into the game.

The resultis very realistic, he said.

"Actually if you zoom right in on the cylinder on the bin piler you can actually read the part number if you needed to order another cylinder," said Stewart.

"It was really cool to see it and play with it. Three-and-a-half years is a long time and a lot of patience to keep quiet about it, and to finally see it all come together was really cool."

A decision has not yet been made on how the H.F. Stewart bin piler will appear in the game. Stewart said it will either come out in the new Farming Simulator 21 game early next year or be available as downloadable content for Farming Simulator 19, released in 2018.

The company said they'reintalks with the makers of the game to add more of their farm equipment.

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