iRacing is overpriced

[Hor-hay]

Coming up to the end of my 3 month sub and I've enjoyed my iRacing time. But got to say it's way overpriced. Yes they provide a good service but compared to other online games it's a rip. I'd be happy to pay a sub but the extra cost for tracks and cars is ridicules. I think at the very least all tracks should be free.

I just hope they get some competition to force them to lower there prices.

 

[Andy_J]

AC doesnt have the racing like iRacing. AC has terrible AI and an even worse MP. iRacing has a set of rules which stops a lot of the crap that happens in AC

Or the OP could race here where we have rules that match Iracings and where fair and clean racing is a given. He could use Pcars, AC or GSCE. And soon hopefully RRE.

 

[Decenten]

Or the OP could race here where we have rules that match Iracings and where fair and clean racing is a given. He could use Pcars, AC or GSCE. And soon hopefully RRE.

I race here with AC using RD's club racing system but that only happens for an hour on friday, saturday and sunday. A lot of the time I am busy then whereas iRacing offers GT3, V8 Supercars, Star Mazda and other cars racing at a wide range of tracks every 1 to 2 hours

 

[Andy_J]

My post was aimed at the OP really. He can have all he want's here without paying the over priced fee that I racing charges.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

i wrote this in another thread some weeks back: "figure it out this way: i pay 45 euros for a year (because i always use the black friday two years for one offer) and get sth. like 17 euros worth of stuff every three months, so about 70 euros more. my total expenditure per year is thus 115 euros, however i get 8 euros every three months for having been active (completed two series or more), i get 4 euros every year for still being around and from time to time i can stockpile some cash and get a little bonus (usually another 2x4 euros each year). this adds up to about 45 euros in bonusses (which of course is rubbish since iRacing is a monopolist, but it makes me feel good to view it this way ). so i end up with 70 euros each year for having 24 hours of service each day. let's say i play 300 days a year, i end up paying 2.5 eurocents for every day i play iRacing. not really expensive.
however, the first year certainly works out more expensive, but once you have a solid base of often used tracks and some cars more than base content, you should be fine, try going back to AI in three months and you will truly appreciate their model."

 

[Hor-hay]

i wrote this in another thread some weeks back: "figure it out this way: i pay 45 euros for a year (because i always use the black friday two years for one offer) and get sth. like 17 euros worth of stuff every three months, so about 70 euros more. my total expenditure per year is thus 115 euros, however i get 8 euros every three months for having been active (completed two series or more), i get 4 euros every year for still being around and from time to time i can stockpile some cash and get a little bonus (usually another 2x4 euros each year). this adds up to about 45 euros in bonusses (which of course is rubbish since iRacing is a monopolist, but it makes me feel good to view it this way ). so i end up with 70 euros each year for having 24 hours of service each day. let's say i play 300 days a year, i end up paying 2.5 eurocents for every day i play iRacing. not really expensive.
however, the first year certainly works out more expensive, but once you have a solid base of often used tracks and some cars more than base content, you should be fine, try going back to AI in three months and you will truly appreciate their model."

you can justify the cost all you want it's still overpriced when compaired to others games...

 

[Decenten]

you can justify the cost all you want it's still overpriced when compaired to others games...

Yes but this is like no other game. No sim offers what iRacing gives, constant races with multiple cars against human opponents.

 

[Hor-hay]

Yes but this is like no other game. No sim offers what iRacing gives, constant races with multiple cars against human opponents.

Yep that's correct and that's why they can charge whatever they want....

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Yes but this is like no other game. No sim offers what iRacing gives, constant races with multiple cars against human opponents.

Still doesn't make it less overpriced though.

 

[Jason Palmer]

But aren't we now at a point within the sim racing community where we have such a diverse range of sim titles available that there is one that fits each racers needs whether that is price, content or physics.

As sim racing is my hobby I justify the cost of each bit of related software or hardware based around that view point rather than just looking at the price on the box, but again that's my personal view and may not be the same for others.

I do subscribe to iracing.com, in fact it's the main sim I play, but from my point of view the cost in relation to what I get from this sim more than covers the cost and I am happy with that decision.

Again if Iracing.com is not for you, and it doesn't fit for many sim racers, then we all lucky enough to have several other sim titles that will and I like that fact.

Jason.

 

[Decenten]

I like the way my friend justified spending $100s of dollars on the free league of legends game. He says he is happy to pay $1 for evvery hour spent on the game. I have spent well over 500 hours on iracing and only have spent 400 on it with most being birthday money and other gift cards and such.

 

[Hor-hay]

$200 aud (with all discounts) is what it will cost me to race the Williams in the current series (not including the sub). That’s 1 car and 8 tracks. Will I get my moneys worth if a play for 500 hours...that's not the point. Compared to other games, I think iRacing could offer the same service for less cost.

 

[Decenten]

$200 aud (with all discounts) is what it will cost me to race the Williams in the current series (not including the sub). That’s 1 car and 8 tracks. Will I get my moneys worth if a play for 500 hours...that's not the point. Compared to other games, I think iRacing could offer the same service for less cost.

If you get that though you can then use those same tracks in other series as well as use money from completing series to pay for it. It only costs a lot of money if you are not smart in paying for the content. Buy only the content you need for the season and then use iRacing credits from competing in the previous season. Also it will only cost that one time fee for the F1 as the season schedule doesnt change a lot with the tracks remaining the same most of the time...

 

[Chris]

Assetto Corsa only had the basic 7 or so tracks that were laser scanned plus 20 or so cars.

Actually, Assetto Corsa offers 53 cars (not including step versions) and 20 laser scanned tracks.

All that for about $60 is far better value than iRacing, even with iRacing's superior MP system.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

But aren't we now at a point within the sim racing community where we have such a diverse range of sim titles available that there is one that fits each racers needs whether that is price, content or physics.

As sim racing is my hobby I justify the cost of each bit of related software or hardware based around that view point rather than just looking at the price on the box, but again that's my personal view and may not be the same for others.

I do subscribe to iracing.com, in fact it's the main sim I play, but from my point of view the cost in relation to what I get from this sim more than covers the cost and I am happy with that decision.

Again if Iracing.com is not for you, and it doesn't fit for many sim racers, then we all lucky enough to have several other sim titles that will and I like that fact.

Jason.

While I agree with the most part of your post that there are more than enough options to choose from nowadays thumbsup the topic discussed here is that iRacing is overpriced and compared to the other available titles out there it is. By a large margin I find it very overpriced and so far I haven't seen any valid arguments in this thread that justify such a high price as others have now proven to produce at a lot lower price.

Not saying that other titles aren't overpriced though. I find Sector3's R3E with their not-so-free-to-play-model and Simraceway also overpriced.

 

[Jason Palmer]

Bram good point mate it was a little off topic and did not really cover the main issue of this topic.

I think the trouble with a topic such as is its very subjective as we all have our own idea of whats expensive or not as we all have slightly different priorities in life that effect our views.

For me i am happy with the cost/enjoyment ratio iracing provides me with and so from my point of view i dont really agree with the topic starters issue concerning iracings value for money, but I do agree with his right to express his opinion and that for his, and many others, set of circumstances or views iracing is over priced and not good value for money which is fine.

At the end of the day sim racing should be something we enjoy and i hope that those who dont enjoy iracing for what ever reason are able to find a sim they do like and can have some well earned fun with.

Jason.

 

[JD Sim Racing]

Overpriced related to other sims or overpriced in relation to real world racing?
I feel iRacing falls into the latter. Its not overpriced in either situation, more expensive than other sims yes but not overpriced. Real World racing i don't need to tell you its cheaper than going karting let alone then the other cars.

 

[Wojciech Swirydowicz]

I put around 700 euro into iracing and had easily same amount of high quality races with serious sim racers that think alike, with big grid sizes, top of the range netcode and practically no intentonal crashers. I spent half of that money on all other sim games and had maybe 20 quality online races between all those other games with countless crashfest, tiny grids "races" in between that were mostly waste of time. For me iRacing is great value.

 

[The Jackal]

I must agree. The sub and content you pay for in Iracing is worth every cent. I also think that Iracing’s tire module is one of the best ever made and has taken years to perfect (still getting better). I play both Asseto Corsa and Iracing and you can feel the two games are worlds apart (not knocking AC). In fact for those who think that Iracing are run by greedy people think again. They only started being profitable last year if I am not mistaken.

They quality of racing and content are out of this world and I am glad the price keeps the idiots out because we don’t want them. This is as true a sim as you will ever get, look at Project Cars calling themselves a Sim Game, they not even close, more like Arcade/Sim. Once you buy the main tracks the game becomes almost free if you a regular driver.

Iracing is also the only game that ever made me feel like a real race driver, no other racing game gives you such joy when winning a race like iracing does. In fact, just finishing a race without going of track and incidents free is a great feeling and achievement. The competitions is amazing and racing is always close. Show me any other game that run consistent 20+ car fields with almost zero incidents, esp at the start.

 

[drivatar]

I am a newcomer to iRacing (I did tried it for free a couple of times before but this time I am going to keep myself playing it and will invest in content), In my opinion it is worth the price, it's not about quantity but quality. Besides, it is not as costly as you would think if you buy with intelligence and take into account the refunds and the discounts.

Well, at the beginning it is a little expensive yes, but it is more affordable the more time you spend with it....

I am planning to start racing in a Series (still to decide if it will be the Global Challenge with the Caddy, the Skip Barber series, or perhaps the Ruf Cup) and with the volume discount I would need to invest about 60€ (to be able to complete at least 8 weeks of the season), and then the next season after that, I would need to invest less money, and then less, and less... of course I am only interested in Road racing, which make it more affordable...

Back on topic, I can understand people who think iRacing is way to expensive, but in my view (and in my experience, long with other sim titles and short with iRacing), what you get it worths every single penny.

Cheers! ;-)

 

[Wojciech Swirydowicz]

I forgot to add that I agree this prices keeps the idiots out, I do also believe that it also keeps many great simracers away that would add a lot to the community and make iRacing even better. Maybe they drop prices someday, they did this once before. At the moment there's many savings to be made using volume discount and seasonal sales as well as getting participation credits, but those savings are to be made after spending some serious money at the start.