iRacing Acquires Orontes Games

K1FF said:

Try $19 a month! on to of already spent

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Nope, it's $3 per month. You can buy a yearly membership for $75 very easily and then you get $40 in participation credits over the course of the year to spend on content as you like. Net cost - $35 per year. Less expensive than any of the new sims that you have to re-buy every year.

WTF is iracing going to do with such a dumb downed physics system as 4CPT , this game is pure arcade and its claims are silly. I guess this shows where iracings heart is at as i have always known. Back to RF2 and RBR where simulation is respected.

Gevatter said:

iRacing should add an offline-only "subscription" where you pay like 40 € once and have access to the content, but for offline practice and AI racing only. If you want to go online you need to have an active sub and buy cars/tracks like now.

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How can one race AMS2 or assetto corsa offline? I got them through steam and if internet is down I can't seem to start offline. Any tips? Sorry off topic.

davoroni said:

How can one race AMS2 or assetto corsa offline? I got them through steam and if internet is down I can't seem to start offline. Any tips? Sorry off topic.

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Offline as is "not against other humans but AI". Still, those two should both work in Steam offline mode, but maybe open a seperate thread for that.

pai said:

How in hell is everybody missing the big elephant in the room? This deal means iRacing gets their hands on a new, highly advanced physics engine! The move is ON.

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True, but the monthly fee for the ADVANCED physics engine will be twice the normal fee...

th3orist said:

If you want to only casually play multiplayer online racing sims then you have basically the same cars and tracks in other racing sims that dont require a monthly subscription and look better on top of that. So just go play in those.

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So, other than GT3 and GT4 cars, how do you race the equivalent of what iRacing offers in ACC?

Also, if you want to run your own server for ACC on PC, you have to purchase the server rental from a 3rd party company.. Don't see how that is 'free'.

K1FF said:

But thats not the point!!! I have payed the early access for Drag!!! I don't want Iracing to take over and make it subscription !!! I DID NOT PAY for that! I payed fore playing it normally with out monthly payments!!!

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You are making a whole lot of assumptions based on an acquisition; go read the official press release here and point out what part of that leads you to believe DRAG will become subscription based like iRacing. Sounds more like they're hiring them for their expertise and for possible use of the game engine. One of Orontes' head guys even said in the press release:

“iRacing and Orontes Games share many of the same development philosophies so this is a natural fit for both of us. We remain passionate about DRAG and plan to continue development and we look forward to working with the entire iRacing team as we push the company to the next level.”

So it sounds like they're both getting what they want. Also, paying for early access means you're taking a gamble and betting on a product making it to final version and succeeding...so whatever happens: it is what it is...but nothing about DRAG sounds like it would warrant a subscription model.

Finally, I heard you say $700 on iRacing content by purchasing every piece of content available as it came out. iRacing was marketed heavily as an online-only subscription-based title since its inception. Sorry bud, but it's nobody's fault but your own on that one.

Also to everyone else talking about one-time payments, I've already answered this in a previous thread: https://www.racedepartment.com/news...art-one-rookies.280/?page=2#ams-comment-15332

After reading that, explain to me how any dev that's not Jeff Bezos rich and/or ready to bleed lots of money annually can provide all of that for 14 years (and counting) for a one time cost of the going rate for a AAA game, for a playerbase of 75 - 100K active users. They have created AI racing for some cars and tracks, but the focus is always primarily online racing. There's no way around providing all of that other than subscribing.

Gevatter said:

"Please don't air your grievances with the sim I like."

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It's not that (I play plenty of different sims and love various things about each), it's just there seems to be a common misconception with iRacing in particular about what it is and what it isn't...Just trying to inform, that's all.

Bram Hengeveld said:

You mean where you can play casually on servers that other people pay for each month? There is no free multiplayer experience, in the end it's always somebody who pays the server bill.

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It's astonishing how many people are unable to grasp this concept.

DRDNA333 said:

WTF is iracing going to do with such a dumb downed physics system as 4CPT , this game is pure arcade and its claims are silly. I guess this shows where iracings heart is at as i have always known. Back to RF2 and RBR where simulation is respected.

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There must be some portion of Drag that they liked for some reason, as well as they wanted to bring the 2 developers on board - no one but iRacing knows how much, if any, of Drag will ever make it into iRacing. Now, if you want to talk about "dumbing" something down - just look at NASCAR 21 using the vaunted rF2 physics engine...

Stitcher_CH said:

Yes. I still can’t figure out how people can’t get their head around iRacing is a service not a buy once game. It’s the same business model as Netflix. Iracing should create a one time fee, offline only consumption model though.

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If iRacing were the same like Netflix your service fee would allow you to play all content.

If Netflix were like iRacing you’d pay your service fee and only be allowed to watch a small part of the content, all other content you would require regular market prices or higher to watch, and after ending the service would become inaccessible.

It is a captive customer model.

DRDNA333 said:

WTF is iracing going to do with such a dumb downed physics system as 4CPT , this game is pure arcade and its claims are silly. I guess this shows where iracings heart is at as i have always known. Back to RF2 and RBR where simulation is respected.

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The engine behind Drag may be more complex than it seems, ot it may presents a lot of potential, and it is used in an arcade title because it would require a bigger team to be fully developed. Being 2 skilled developpers doesn't mean you can expand your product alone. Having the support of a big and solid developper changes the game.

It seems to me that the iracing team found an interesting product with features which could be used for iracing. And having a team developping arcade titles is not a bad idea. It can try new things, focusing on them, and arcade titles cost less and sell more. Cash is always welcome. Would Dirt Rally exist without Codemasters' arcade titles? For sure it would not.

I don't play iracing, no hate, I'm just not the target anymore of such a game. I understand those who want to play their paid content offline without any subscription fee. I pay content I can use it, I want to use the servers to race online, I pay a subscription. I would buy some content if it was possible to use it offline. I'm sure a lot would do it. There's some business opportunity there for iracing.

Back to the topic, that's an interesting move made by iracing there. There must.be some interesting technology behind Drag...

So.............what is this Iracing thing?
I have heard it's a game where you rent fake cars and tracks, then pay a month to have the right to be rated based on a fake ability to drive fake cars on fake tracks in order to drive against other people in fake cars on fake tracks so that you can curse them and their parents when you have fake crashes caused by that person.

Is that correct ?

Wayne Hutchison said:

Always amazed at the people that spend hundreds or thousands on computer and gear but can't fork out $3 per month for an iRacing membership...

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If you are a person who is interested in a simulation style racing, but don't live in your mothers basement this does not make any sense to do. The time it takes to login. Then get into a server for practice, register for a race, then do qualifying, AND finally a race isn't going to work for people that have children . Then you have the steep penalties to pay to just to do what you would like. All the tracks and cars to pay for plus the subscription. That model isn't worth it for someone like me. Time is rare to play. If the base game was free and you could pay for the content and use it ALL for AI racing I would love to have it, but as it stands it doesn't add up to throw money away. I love ACC, raceroom, and recently AMB2. Why? because I can play on my terms. Create what I can do in the time I have. I am a huge Indycar and Formula 1 fan. I would love to have a sim that did these well, but I can't afford the Iracing model to do it. It is more about MONEY/TIME ratio that is the issue. Not just the money.

Wayne Hutchison said:

Always amazed at the people that spend hundreds or thousands on computer and gear but can't fork out $3 per month for an iRacing membership...

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It's not a case of can't, it's a case of don't want to.

Last time I checked it was around $1'500 to go all in with iRacing including a 2 year membership (this includes discounts you'll get on bulk buying the lot). No problem for me as it stands at the moment, but when that 2 years is up the idea of having to pay more just to access the content I've already bought really really irks me.

This may sound stupid, but I've been around the block enough times to realise that there are times when money is not an issue and there are times where every dollar, euro, pound, frank etc counts, and the idea of being cut off from content that I've purchased simply because that $10 is needed elsewhere simply annoys the hell out of me.

A lot can change in a year or two - trust me.

Crawdad97 said:

If you are a person who is interested in a simulation style racing, but don't live in your mothers basement this does not make any sense to do. The time it takes to login. Then get into a server for practice, register for a race, then do qualifying, AND finally a race isn't going to work for people that have children

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Speak for yourself not others please.

I'm a father of 2 in my mid 40s and the reason I play iRacing is that everything about it works best for me.
Several of my friends are in the same boat.

24/7 practice servers and hourly races IS the reason I pay for the service.
It offers the most racing desciplines under one title(oval, road, dirt, dirt Oval, off-road, PTP, time trial, quality AI racing) and I can jump in on my time and be grouped against similar skilled players....not someone else pre determined hosted time that's usually Euro based with mixed skilled levels.


Sure there are cheaper solutions, I could search though the millions of AC mods wasting time downloading and installing them (testing and hoping it's of decent quality) to drive around by myself...waste some more time searching for leagues or groups to race with and hope that it fits my schedule but that doesn't appeal or work for me.

Slapped said:

Last time I checked it was around $1'500 to go all in with iRacing including a 2 year membership

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Why do you need to go all in?
No one has that amount of time to race all the content lol
Pick 1 or 2 series a season....there's tons of free base content to keep you busy on the side.
Build your content library over time.

Slapped said:

It's not a case of can't, it's a case of don't want to.

Last time I checked it was around $1'500 to go all in with iRacing including a 2 year membership (this includes discounts you'll get on bulk buying the lot). No problem for me as it stands at the moment, but when that 2 years is up the idea of having to pay more just to access the content I've already bought really really irks me.

This may sound stupid, but I've been around the block enough times to realise that there are times when money is not an issue and there are times where every dollar, euro, pound, frank etc counts, and the idea of being cut off from content that I've purchased simply because that $10 is needed elsewhere simply annoys the hell out of me.

A lot can change in a year or two - trust me.

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I understand everyone wanting to try out all cars in their sim of choice...but in other sims I found (key words) I'd generally gravitate towards cars that I like or curious about. To this day I haven't tried out every Kunos car in AC after 6 years. I personally (key words) find that practice pointless for two reasons:

1. There's rarely a league where I can drive said car against others that aligns with my schedule, plus AI racing in nearly all sims always feel programmed to me (key words)...within a couple laps I know where they're weak, where you can always gain places so they're super-predictable...there's (to me...key words) little to no challenge (even on the highest AI level in some sims). I love that there's a human on the other end and you're not sure what they'll attempt, and there's always someone faster than you.
2. I've found my driving technique improved much more when I stuck to one or two cars (of different classes) for a good while and really learned their intricacies.

So yea iRacing might cost that much to have everything...but I personally (key words) find no need or desire to own everything. There's only a handful of series there that have several cars in a class, but they're usually BOP'd so that any advantage is minor at best (or the advantage is on certain tracks only)...so best you pick whatever car fits your liking and work on extracting every millisecond out of it. I've tried jumping to a different GT3 car to see if that would help my results...of course it didn't; pretty much all of them are capable of a win, problem is between the wheel and the chair lol.

And again, the subscription is for using their servers for their online-focused title. IMO (key words) I think the vast majority of iRacing users aren't under any illusion; we know what the business model is. I like driving exclusively online now and as @Kurupt CDN said, it's convenient to not be limited to only Euro friendly race times when races run every hour every day. So I personally (key words) make sure to put a little aside each month so that, come every Black Friday, I can buy the discounted subscription to use their servers to race online...because that is what I like and this is my primary hobby. That might seem annoying and crazy to some, but it's practical and convenient to others. To each their own, do what makes you happy.

(I keep saying "key words", because people keep forgetting everything posted on a forum is "in my opinion")

Badwheels said:

So.............what is this Iracing thing?
I have heard it's a game where you rent fake cars and tracks, then pay a month to have the right to be rated based on a fake ability to drive fake cars on fake tracks in order to drive against other people in fake cars on fake tracks so that you can curse them and their parents when you have fake crashes caused by that person.

Is that correct ?

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It's all "fake" buddy, all sims...it's in the name: SIMULATION. What's the point of this post other than trying to provoke reactions?

Kurupt CDN said:

Why do you need to go all in?
No one has that amount of time to race all the content lol
Pick 1 or 2 series a season....there's tons of free base content to keep you busy on the side.
Build your content library over time.

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I don't need to go all in, but honestly I do not see the need to pay $10 a month when other sims are delivering incredible quality for a one off price. Last year I went all in with R3E content - it cost far less than a year of iRacing and it's mine - no further charge.

I do really see iRacing as if Netflix charged you a subscription, but then you also have to individually purchase each and every movie/TV episode you want to watch.

It's basically a consumer hostile business model, which offers little more, if anything, above that of other sims on the market - especially if you play mostly offline.

IMO you either have a purely subscription based model where all content is available, or you have a pure purchase model where you buy the content as you want, à la R3E or DCS. Having both models is effectively double dipping and ripping off the consumer.

It's not that I can't afford it, it's that I find the whole business model morally dubious.

Slapped said:

It's basically a consumer hostile business model, which offers little more, if anything, above that of other sims on the market - especially if you play mostly offline.

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But this is exactly the point: It's not marketed for offline players. So to compare it to other sims that are geared towards offline first (they all offer offline career and/or championship modes) is comparing apples to oranges IMO. It offers a lot more if you're an online player.

The AI racing is geared towards training drivers for online play...not to be the sole focus...they've said this many times.

....the discussion that keeps on giving. Every time.