I love R3E and I want to keep supporting it but it's a bitter pill to swallow knowing content costs me three times more than another player because I bought 'Pack A' after 'Date B'. I've been subscribed to this thread forever awaiting release but knowing what I know now, I'm not buying the McLaren. It's a poor show when the business model is not just pushing away new players but long time players too.
No one is making/forcing anyone to buy anything. It is your choice. Buy, or don't. Very simple. Point of reference; how much did you spend on your PC, steering wheel etc.. A lot more than 3 EUROS....
Yes and while all of this is a convenient and apparently canned response around here it doesn't actually address the issues with the pricing model, does it? Can I continue to raise my concerns in a constructive way in the hope S3 will create a consistent pricing model that's fair for everyone or would you like to contine tossing around non-sequiturs?
Ha! I made the same purchase in December and I still think it was a bad decision. I've put something like 30 hours into AC so far and more than 25 of it was fine-tuning the settings and trying out different apps to make the experience more enjoyable... with moderate success. I'm not saying AC is bad, but it's the least appealing sim for me out there. The graphics are... good. The physics are... ok. The AI is... dull. The FFB with my steering wheel is.. barely acceptable. Seriously. Even games labeled as arcade have much better FFB than AC. Which is a shame.
Well, i see no issue with the pricing model that has to be solved. Just another perspective. People don't get tired complaining about something S3 has little to no influence on. Go write an email to raceroom AG. Every new release the same dumb discussion. Neverending story. If a few euros are too much for you ( not you @DowntownSIX in particular ) go play something else. When you don't agree with Raceroom's pricing then you are free to not buy the content.
Thanks for a reasoned response. I hadn't appreciated S3 didn't set the rules for pricing so good point, well made. To be clear, my issue isn't with the price of the content. My issue arises where it becomes acceptable for a player who purchased the GT3 pack prior to November 2016 to get the same content as others for 1/3rd the cost. While you're right in pointing out it's only a few Euro's, after (for example) ten new cars those few Euros is 60EU and someone (me) is disadvantaged.
Quite difficult argument for people who already spend more than 300€ in R3E whilst other can buy the same for 100€... Only with the savings they can buy a G29 I wonder that the Pricing was on a good and transparent way before the new shop was introduced. Before a car was at around 299 or 349vRP, the car with all liveries could be purchased for 549vRP. Nearly a no brainer to buy the version with all liveries. Now it is 349 or 399 vRP for the car and 719vRP for the car with all liveries. Now I would do the math if I really need all liveries. If I choose for no or just one extra livery that would mean in case for the 650s 428vRP. So Raceroom lost 121vRP with that new pricing-concept in the new store...
I bought the GT3 pack when they released the M6, thinking I would get discount later with other GT3 future release, big mistake.
The pricing model has advantages and disadvantages. In general it will probably be ruled a failure and has hamstrung this title. I was a bit of a fan of it at first, but as time has moved on, it gets worse. If you haven't spent much money, or are new, the system works fine, if you are happy with a modular approach it is fine....but, for example, when DTM 2017 comes out and I have DTM 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and I don't get a small discount, it fails as a long term pricing model. One is consistently less likely to continue to purchase as before....I am not talking give stuff away for free or massive discounts, but a sensible pricing model that moderately rewarding your most loyal (money spent)fan base only makes sense.....as all top business do it. And all of this and the game is still missing basic features....
I found the advantage. I already owned all content and now bought the starter pack (which inludes the new McLaren and all liveries) for a whopping 1,03 Euro, which seemed a good deal...
Maybe in i(ce)Racing, but I don't know of any other sims that charge that amount per car. In this case you don't even "buy" the car, you just get to drive it as long as you pay your subscription. Stop that and all your 'content' is useless...
And you have also been able to play for 4+ yrs already, while someone new that may just now be getting into it wont have 1000+ hrs of playtime under their belt. No denying it is an issue of much contention and many people dont like it. It has plenty of pros and cons like you alluded to, but overall many people just dont understand that money is made by purchases of content, rather than selling the game to you for a base price. Since the devs/pub doesnt make any money for the 2+ million people that have downloaded and installed the game, they only make money on the fraction of content purchases that happen. Contrast that to every other game out there where 1 install = 1 purchase. or 500,000 installs = 500,000 purchases. The point there being that content, if bought separately every single time, is going to add up in cost. Especially with a game being supported for 4+ yrs, and will be well into the future. More content is always going to be released, so the cost will always keep going up for those that were around from the early days. Frankly, if someone is sick of the pricing model... the options are very simple. Buy new content on sale, or dont buy it at all. You dont need it. As for the complaints about the business model as a whole... These same complaints have been happening for ~4 yrs, and look at where we are now. The same place. So, one can deduce that the business model & pricing structure is not going to drastically change. Well, aside from the introduction of the premium pack... which somehow garners more complaints than praise even though it has specifically been requested for years. People wholly disregard that the entire content structure with all of the licensed content is contracted to be for the F2P business model where you pay for content a la carte. The devs/pubs would have to redo every single contract for the licensed content if they wanted to make a business model like other games. Where you pay a certain fee for 'the whole game' and then have a dlc model in addition. This is entirely infeasible. Cheers
But you did get a linked discount when you bought a newer season and owned a previous season already, remember?
Same with WTCC 16... where owners of the entire WTCC 15 class got the 2016 package for ~$4. 5 cars... ~20 liveries... all for 4 bucks? Tough to argue that.
Simraceway. Admittedly not all of the cars, but their pricing always baffled me...almost as much as the fact they are still/again alive.
Not all packs were not priced that well. You can praise the system all you want, the pricing model has clearly been one of the biggest issues with this game and it has hurt it more than it has helped it.