Should AC business model be more like iRacing's ?

[Alexandre Guzu]

edit : A great post by Tom Van Put on page 5 that sums my thoughts pretty well :

The best part about iRacing, in my eyes, are the sanctioned races they organise through their servers.

I really hope AC is considering something like that. They just have to make sure it isn't mandatory.

I prefer leagues over racing on public servers. But I don't always find a league that fits my needs or at timeslots that suit me. Racing on open, unsanctioned, servers is just terrible...

So if AC would impliment some sort of organized and sanctioned races with a championship structure this would be a great ad-on.
They don't have to do this for every car but only for some popular series that would apeal to a big audience. eg:

• Le Mans Series
• GT3 races
• Lotus Racing Series
• Historic DTM Racing
• Formula (1) Racing
• Historic Formula racing

Charge a few euros a month for this for those who are interested and other people can just play the game off-line or in leagues.

One thing a lot of people always seem to forget when they are on the internet is that a company needs to make a profit to create new content or new games. You can't get everything for free or at a cheap price and expect the best product/game ever.

so yeah, I agree thoroughly with this post. In my opinion, fixed schedule races are very convenient, people can plan their evening knowing they'll take part of a certain race without wondering what servers/races will be up (which often demotivates me from setting up my rig and launching rfactor/netkar/..). So originally I was thinking about something like this :

- you buy the game 40/50 euros with all the cars and tracks they announced so far. You can buy DLCs packs later.
- you can race AI and people on servers you host.
So far nothing changes.
- (optional) you pay a small monthly fee (5/10 euros) to access high speed servers with iRacing-like services : series, events, licenses and eventually leaderboards. The irating system is awesome too, it keeps people avoiding mistakes and wreckages.

I'm aware many won't agree. But seeing how many sims have failed to keep their customers when iRacing succeeds, I think Kunos shouldn't be afraid to copy their system and services. They're so expensive because they have no competition, and Assetto Corsa's potential is huge. If it becomes a cheaper version of iRacing with better physics and graphics, they get to swim in pools of money, and we get the best racing experience. Win-win.

 

[DennS]

I admit it sounds easy, but my guess would be that the kind of infrastructure iRacing has for the online racing is just do damn expensive to anyone else in the business at the moment...

EDIT: and to be honest finding a road race on the public iRacing servers is not that easy either beside the mx-5...

 

[Alexandre Guzu]

I admit it sounds easy, but my guess would be that the kind of infrastructure iRacing has for the online racing is just do damn expensive to anyone else in the business at the moment...

EDIT: and to be honest finding a road race on the public iRacing servers is not that easy either beside the mx-5...

Indeed, the infrastructure certainly isn't cheap. I'm genuinely curious if they thought about doing something related though, and if so what were the reasons not to do it.

About iracing, it's true some series are deserted, mainly because few people own the car or track. That wouldn't be a problem if you had to buy all the content upfront for 40/50 euros, besides the DLC.

 

[Kreshnik]

I think this is impossible since AC will support mods. Also a subscriber model can scare people to not buy the game at all.

 

[Alexandre Guzu]

I don't see how the mods and the subscriber model couldn't work along. The subscription service would only feature official content so anybody could race "out of the "box"" ( )

 

[Kenny Paton]

As an offline player, I like the fact that this game seems to be aimed as much at the offline as on.
I'm sure RD will be hosting clubs and leagues for online.
iRacing has set the benchmark, but it's useless to those who want offline content.
I'm normally quite happy to buy the products to support developers but find I'm becoming reluctant when they are ignoring the people who play offline. GTR 3 yes please. RRE no thanks.

 

[Jorge Alves]

[ This is not a Steam is good/evil thread ]

With this model i also think sooner or latter AC will be just one more on the list ... but maybe its a bit soon to assume it ... we will have to wait and see how things will turn out. But for sure i would also prefer to pay a iRacing subscription in a game like AC and have a similar structure supporting to keep a "professional look" where i could feel i was actually part of a Simulated Racing organization ... i just imagine iRacing with Kunos physics/ffb ... its all i could dream in SimRacing.

But like Dennis said it takes money and also a lot of work to develop a structure like iRacing ... and Kunos opted to invest resources and time developing the sim it self ... its their option and i just hope after 1 year or so will not become the big mess all other sims became.

 

[Alexandre Guzu]

I agree, one can only hope.

But hell, people even started cracking the TP <mod-edit: don't share direct or indirect piracy links, even though you had the best intentions >

And "assetto corsa crack" is the third suggestion on google ... I'm truly afraid for Kunos, I love how they're driven by their passion and respect that a lot. But in my opinion if they want to monetize it they'll have to look at things from a different angle.

 

[Requiem84]

The good thing about AC is that it offers an alternative to iRacing in terms of business model.

iRacing is a succes, in the sense that they offer their service for more than five years, but don't forget that many simracers (including me) stopped their subscription because the investment wasn't worth it in the long term.

Why would AC go into the same direction and try to compete with iRacing, who already has a big fanbase and established core business. AC is smart and right to tap into another aspect of the market.

If AC is a commercial succes, us, we the serious simracers, are just a very small minority. From you point of view, I understand you want controlled online races. That was the one thing I enjoyed iRacing for, very much actually!

But from Kunos Simulazioni perspective, offering sanctioned online racing in combination with a subscription model, all you would do is scare away the mega amount that is the casual gamer on Steam. Instead, they would perhaps have a very happy, but also very small userbase.

If you were the Business Developper from Kunos Simulazioni, what would you do?

 

[Alexandre Guzu]

I stopped my subscription too for 2 reasons : the price and the tyre model. If Assetto Corsa provides a better content/buck ratio, I'm sure a lot of current and former iracing subscribers will adhere to it.

I agree it's not a bad move to target the simracing community as well as the mass market. That's why making the subscription optional (like a "Plus" feature) would be a hit. And they could offer 1 month of free subscription for everyone who bought the game, like WoW...

 

[Sebastian Wolff]

No I really hope not! I don`t care that much about leagues and rankings (although it would be a nice bonus), for me it`s all about the fun. And since AC will have a really nice selection of cars and tracks from the beginning, there is nothing in the way for instance for Race Department to create a little championship AND a corresponding app with relevant data. Sure iRacing seems really "controlled" and "organised", but who says we can`t be??
Regarding AC`s success: My prediction is they will be very successful in the long run, once the word starts going round, also due to the fact that they are aiming for a wider range of users. Version 1.0 will satisfy my sim racing needs and those of a lot of others too! Time will tell.

 

[Sebastian Wolff]

.

 

[betterstranger]

Actually I didn't read the thread - I answere only to question in the topic:
NO. NO, NO, NO, NO and once again NO.

For me it's the most honest model: you pay for game + you pay for DLC you want. end of the thing.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

my guess would be that the kind of infrastructure iRacing has for the online racing is just do damn expensive to anyone else in the business at the moment...

Why is that infrastructure expensive? Just the servers running?

(Off-topic: Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can show you a similar community made system that costed and will cost nothing other than sweat, blood, (liters of coffee ) and tears. Stay tuned)

 

[Requiem84]

Bram,

Could you shed some light on that system? Will it include a system comparable to the iRacing's safetyrating and iRating?

 

[Truand2laBiffle]

It would be great if there was some kind of leagues tho, like Iracing

 

[Jorge Alves]

(Off-topic: Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can show you a similar community made system that costed and will cost nothing other than sweat, blood, (liters of coffee ) and tears. Stay tuned)

cant wait to see that ... and i make same question as Requiem

 

[Alexandre Guzu]

Why is that infrastructure expensive? Just the servers running?

(Off-topic: Hopefully in a couple of weeks we can show you a similar community made system that costed and will cost nothing other than sweat, blood, (liters of coffee ) and tears. Stay tuned)

Nice, can't wait to see what you guys are cooking!

 

[Ben Lee]

The fact that the public RACE07 / GTR2 / rFactor servers are total wreck fests is as much of a fault of the developers as the wreckers themselves. Putting a multiplayer game out there with no built-in player banning controls is frankly, crazy. I know there are mods / plugins that you can get for each game which can ban players, but this is something which should be part of the game you purchase, not something which a very good natured modder has put together. No wonder most of the RACE07 servers are password locked. Perhaps if more players were easily banned, some of those servers wouldn't be blocked...?

 

[RaceNut]

If a subscription system is needed in order to have a successful online existence - that's fine for those willing and able to pay for it and take full advantage of the service but, please also offer the option for offline play with AI without the subscription. Otherwise, it's just another iRacing and I'm done paying for something I don't use enough to justify the cost.