I think it's quiet dumb to sell a product like this to competition sector when the enthusiats are a lot more than the real users of this professional software. Actually most of us are here to compete in simulators which in most of the cases gets reflected by the need of having the maximum accuracy possible…other thing would be that is too expensive product to be introduced in domestic sector, in which case i would just shut up
To the first part of your post: the clientele ISI is catering their "rF Pro" product and services is used to pay a fair amount of money for a solid product that covers their needs.
The clientele ISI is selling "rF 2" to is the one that complains about a DLC of a racing sim they paid a laughably small amount of money (the equal of two hot beverages they consume every other day on the way to work or one or cold beverages at a pub on a evening out) not to mention the audacity, the developer has to include a FREE bonus car which the client generally doesn't like and immediately (and openly) complains about.
Perfectly solid business strategy here. In a world where simracers complain about content not being free (just look at any of the threads centering about pay mods), no solid business will try to market their high end products for a fair price with a fair profit (which they deserve). What the general consumer gets is a product that can be produced at far more reasonable cost and that performs "good enough" to satisfy in the long term.
I am sure the members of RD that actually would be prepared to pay rF Pro prices and have an actual need of what sets rF Pro apart from consumer software can be counted on one hand, because despite the "oh" and "ah" about the nice screenshots of rF Pro, what really sets it apart from the consumer software is an enormous step up in data accuracy and physics calculations combined with custom made data sets to customers specs (read: environments, vehicles and data) and support.
"Only available to race teams, not for public purchase."
What do they consider to be a race team "worthy" of rFactor Pro?
I am very sure ISI does not limit it's services "to race teams" or vets its customers like Ferrari decides who will be qualified to pay for a limited edition hyper-car. I am sure they will cater to any customer who realistically can and will pay invoices issued - thats what business is all about at the end of the day.
If the content has already been digitally created, then these astronomical amounts of money that everyone mentions are just the licensing fees?
Like others I don't get why these tracks aren't released for the consumer product especially when this is such a weak area for rf2 (my 2c anyway). I would have thought that ISI/S397 at least put them up as DLC for a representative cost so consumers can decide if we want to fork out for each painstakingly rendered track. Why not sell the same bit of work twice: to pro and consumer market?
Can
@Marcel Offermans shed any light here or is this "not-rfactor3" territory?
It is highly unlikely that the content, ISI has created for rF Pro is suitable for consumer software and hardware (think much higher accuracy and detail, although it may not look as much in a video or screen shot). rF Pro content very likely would need complete rebuild at much rougher detail and optimization to even be able to be run on consumer hardware and would have to be completely bug-proofed for the very critical eyes of consumers - in a professional application the odd hole in the ground or wrong texture simply is irrelevant to the task at hand, while correct data for the actual application is very much important - with consumer "racing games" it often seems to be a little backwards in this respect if one is watching the forums ;-)
Another point quite likely may be contractual clauses.
ISI may very well have created a certain track to highest detail for one of their customers projects but may or may not be contractually bound to NOT release that data to other parties.
When our business engineers a product and it's series production tooling we are contractually bound NOT to use that set of data for any other purpose than satisfying our contractual obligations to our customer.
I wouldn't be surprised if such rules apply in terms of rF Pro content.
for the purpose of this thread: I enjoy seeing information and insight on products as rF Pro but unfortunately for the majority of use who are not involved with ISI or ISI's customers who use rF Pro - we will never have the opportunity to have a closer experience than screen shots and videos about it :-(
