rFactor 2 Open Beta (pre-release discussion)

[Adam Eggbeer]

What is the pricing structure for rF2?
In the USA, rF2 will sell for $43.99. This will allow unlimited access to single player and mod development mode. It will also include one year access to an online account. Additional one year access to the online account can be purchased for $12.99.

Why not simply raise the initial purchase price?
That wouldn’t be fair to those wanting to use only the single player or mod development mode.

What exactly are online services?
Users will be given online accounts from which they can access multiplayer races. This should reduce the number of anonymous race entries and in turn hopefully reduce the number of passworded servers.

The service will identify when updates are available and allow for automatic downloads.

The service provides a way to generate and maintain unique Mod/Package ID’s. This should help reduce the mismatch problem found in the current version of rFactor and also help reduce/eradicate version confusion for the end user.

Additional features such as online statistics are also planned.

What will I be able to do if I don't use online services?
You will be able to run single player, run Mod Mode, and manually find and install any mods or updates.

What is this open beta I have been hearing about?
We plan to release an early content-limited version for mod makers to provide feedback on the system. It will be an open beta, meaning anyone can participate. People wishing to take part will be required to make a full purchase (see pricing info above). We are planning to give those who take part in the open beta 18 months of online access with that purchase rather than the 12 months which will come with purchase after the open beta.

Will you offer refunds during or after the open beta?
If you believe you became a part of the rFactor 2 community too early we can arrange one.

Source

 

[Mark Aalberts]

In the end its verry simple, if you dont like it dont buy it.

However i do agree that they could have done this in a different way, for me i feel this was a way to generate some more income for the years to come or perhaps to cover the costs that went into rf2. I can see the point of Ondrej as it takes away a vital aspect of the game being not able to play online, i prefered they have raisen the initial price, however that might scare more people off i guess. Anyway i think in the end a big share of the rf users wil purchase rf2 anyway cant wait to get my hands on it and paying 8e per year to be able to play online,.. o well whatever xD

 

[Senad Subasic]

AFAIK, you pay a fee to use their online service. Their online service.

How does my LAN connect to their online service?

And again, it's not about the 13$, I spend that on chocolate milk in a week :tongue:. It's about forcing you to pay for basically nothing, just because they can use some spare cash.


EDIT: hopefully I'll stop beating the poor ol' dead horse. Have fun with the game. I'll rather try iRacing instead, where the fee actually provides something.

 

[Robert Woodward]

technically you could say it is not their online service because all of the rfactor1 servers are run by players, league sites and places like racedepartment.

And you dont get my point, MMO games are heavily multiplayer based (hence the MassivelyMultiplayerOnline tag) and they usualy have a community and levels and money etc etc...they require maintenence litteraly 24/7/365.25 this is why they have subscription fees(or cash shops if they are a free to play MMO).
rFactor is not an mmo, nor is need for speed shift, granturismo, race07, gtr,forza, rfactor arent MMO's they are games that have a multiplayer mode. an MMO is a game where a large number of players are together in one place all at the same time. iRacing is a game which i think deserves its subscrition fee because they work round the clock making updates whenever they possibly can, but rfactor... it has a matchmaker server and a couple of updates which will come later, not really much that justifies a subscription.
I will still get rfactor2 but i would much prefer to pay £40 once than pay £27.50 and then £8 every year. As i said if one (none MMO) game does this then others will and by others i mean the ones that cost £40 in the first place.

If ISI PROMISE to fully support the game making REGULAR updates weekly, monthly, bi-monthly or even maybe tri-monthly than ill take back everything i have said but as far as i know so far i have no reason to believe that rfactor2 deserves to be a subscription service.

 

[Yoeri Gijsen]

They way I see it you pay a fee for an online service. That service includes continous game updates and a controller infrastructure. It's way better than rFactor going live and receiving it's only patch a couple of months later never to be updated thereafter. Does anyone recall how long we've been running with a flawed rFactor v.1255? I'll easily pay that little fee for the game to be rid of it fixable weaknesses over time.

 

[Warren Dawes]

Interesting thread.
I normally don't participate in rF (busy enough elsewhere), but the initial pricing didn't seem too bad to me.

I suspect that a lot of this discussion is going off track because the system isn't fully clear yet. Maybe ISI need to make it clearer what is being offered for the annual fee. Maybe people will have a better idea after the first year (and that is free, so maybe leave criticism until after a good deal of experience with it).

One obvious bit I don't quite understand? With the annual subscription for On-Line Services, does that mean that 3rd party servers, such as Racedepartment's, may no longer be needed for On-Line Events. eg. RD concentrates on organising the event, but the Event is run directly in the rF2 Server (much the same as how our RBR Rally Events are done)?
Or is it still as per current rF, GTL, Race On Events where the RD Server is still required to run the Event, and the rF2 Server is just the Lobby where the various servers are co-ordinated.
Sorry for my lack of technical background knowledge, but I'm trying to look for extra benefits to be gained from the planned annual fee.

BTW, anything that eliminates the rammers and badly behaved on-line drivers is well worth an additional subscription fee. These people are killing on-line racing and ultimately erodeing the future for SimRacing Developers. :frown:

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I am having the same questions as you Warren. Personally I would very much welcome centralized servers from ISI. The system of hosted races works like a charm in iRacing where you can host a race for less than a dollar without all the hassle. In the end this solution is so much cheaper than renting dedicated servers. Secondly I wish to learn more about the central way to download mods and updates. It sounds like a very nice service but will ISI be responsible for the huge amount of data traffic? If they do both then the 13 bucks is MEGA cheap. If not, its still just cheap

 

[Juen-Jen Wang]

Yeah I would post another response back to Kapal, Robert, and Warren but to be honest, I don't know exactly what ISI is doing and how EXACTLY their $13 additional fee works. I think we're making a lot of assumptions as there's people here assuming that ISI is just slapping on a $13 fee for a slightly more organized lobby system like rF1 or there's people (like me) assuming that the $13 fee will include a lot more (including constant updates and patches). The "organization with no more mismatches" sounds like they have quite a bit planned for rF2 online.

But yeah. I think we all should wait until rF2 is out then we can fully discuss whether the $13 is actually worth something

 

[Hiroshi Awazu]

Simply put, " I'm all over it " when it is released.

 

[Luke McVicar]

are you guys seriously complaining about 13 dollars?

are you from Zimbabwe or something? this is an Online game getting constantly updated compaping it to a game you pay once for and never gets updated is just stupid.

heck it costs more then 13 dollars for a good feed here lol.

 

[Luke McVicar]

What did I not read correctly? After a year, I lose all the game features relevant to me, unless I pay again. And I'm not ready to go down that route yet :tongue:

And I'm glad that's cheap for you, it's not that cheap for me

23 cents a week is too much for you?

are you like living under the poverty line?

 

[Juen-Jen Wang]

23 cents a week is too much for you?

are you like living under the poverty line?

Yeah I'm pretty sure you can find that on the ground... each week... $13 is barely a full meal here in America

 

[Philip Antonia]

If league and club races can run seamlessly without errors etc then surely we'll all forget about those $13!!!

 

[Dave Begley]

Look on the bright side. If the world ends in 2012 you wont have to pay $13 a year anyway. Ill just raid the kids piggy banks for the yearly fee they never count their money :eek:

 

[ZMC888]

No, I don't get it.

Just because you have to pay through the nose for XBox, iracing etc, why should you have to pay for a RF2?

This is because the market (that's you) is willing to pay.

99% of sites on the website are free to use as we have this thing called.........advertising! Yes advertising! They pay for things when we don't. Lots of click through stuff, simracing even has big billboards next to the track for....advertising! Sheesh you guys will feel dumb when they charge you for online play and advertise to you like some cable TV network.

Anyhow I'll buy to support the development of the product and have my year for free, after that I'll probably play with AI because most online drivers just smash into each other like kids on dodgems.

 

[Senad Subasic]

23 cents a week is too much for you?

are you like living under the poverty line?

Yes, it's too much for nothing.

 

[Craig Hume]

Firstly, i think alot of people here should chill out with the having a go at people about the $13. Everyone is different and everyone financial stability is different. If you have a good job etc then its easy. But you might not have, so it might not be so easy. To have a go at someone cause they cant just spend that money is seriously being small minded. Not all countries work with euros or dollars. So that amount can become a whole lot bigger when converted to another currency. RF has never really been a outstanding for me personally. The modders who kept it up to date with the cars and tracks is whats kept it going so long. But the basics of RF are old, same as the "race" series is getting now. Then again, something new is whats needed for the sim community right now

 

[Stuart Rinck]

Hobbies generaly cost money if you want to continue to be involved. Any hobby really. I fish, let me tell you, everytime I go out I spend more money. I already paid once! But I have to keep buying bait, and gas for the boat etc..... Few years ago I was into RC racing, talk about a money pit, spending with no end in sight. Same with an awful lot of hobbies. So for a few bucks a month, if you get any sort of enjoyment at all out of the game, its worth it.

 

[jimbop]

Wow many people here have a lot of silly principles and arguments why they shouldn't pay $13 for a game.
I payed $13 for my dinner the other day and let me tell you that I can skip that dinner to re-new my subscription for rFactor 2 for another year of intense simracing!
Some people...

wow! when will some of you get it into your head the minimal fee isnt the issue for me.

but PAYING a fee for something that in nearly every game out there is for free is. lets see how chirpy you all are when all otgher games follow this line.

congestion charges, import taxes, speed cameras and this are just another hand plunging in your pocket.

charge £60 for the game, it would be WELL worth it! not this sleazy way.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

They really have thought of this, the pricing is just right.. I don't like to pay subscriptions but if that ensures stable platform and good community with that price, i'm in! I was fearing for the 50 bucks-mark for the online.. Now i just have to check what do i have to buy for my PC..

 

[Ryan Vickery]

I don't understand why people feel that they are entitled that Rfactor 2 be the same as Rfactor 1 in this respect, why shouldn't they try to compete witht he competition, it may be that they have to charge this in order to keep the services running, the fact that it is so cheap is what amazes me. The game is cheaper than most games, so even after 2 years (assuming 12 + 12) you're still paying less than the price of a normal game. Lets not forget that not many games can actually last years, as was already stated, F1 2010 cost as much as Rfactor 2 with 2 years of online, but F1 2010 was replaced and abandoned in less than a year, then you have to pay the same price again for F1 2011, which will be abandonded after a year.

Meanwhile, Rfactor 1 released in august 2005 (updated dec 2007) is still completely alive after 6 years. So let us assume that Rfactor 2 will actually last 6 years, that is $109 with the game + subscription, for 6 years. Then lets try 6 years of F1 Codemasters at $60 per title = $360. Ok fair enough, its not a great example since those are obviously new games (tho essencially F1 2011 is a bug fixed, patched up with updated content over F1 2010, in many games it would be called a content patch).


Lets try another example, to buy one year of basic iRacing (a direct competitor) subscription with no extra content is $99. I think the bottom line is, Rfactor 2 is amazing value for money, even if its online service turns out to pale in comparison to iRacing, so does the price.

People want quality games but are not prepared to support the game developers, while the expectations for these games climbs through the roof, so does the cost of development as a result, continued support of a game (which it seems ISI plans for RF2) is not something you see often, If I have to have 2 beers less per year to be able to enjoy the online, then I'l have to be a slightly more sobar sim racer.