iRacing 2.0 - Updated pricing if you bought everything...

[Jack B]

Saw this thread on iRacing and figured it might help some people reading RaceDepartment, who don't have access to iRacing's forums.

Most wouldn't need 100% content for either road or oval... I raced 400 races in the Skip Barber over the course of about 2 years before I ever moved on to another series. It was that challenging and that much fun. :thumbup:

There is no need to buy all the content for everything. You can be kept busy in a few cars and tracks for years, but people always want to know, "What is the most you can pay...". Not the right question, IMO.

The first D series is the one that's expensive. You'll probably need about 6-8 new tracks to complete a D series and one new car. After that you re-use tracks, so C and above become less as you often already own some of the needed tracks.
Plus, you buy things over time. The first D series you compete in will cost less than 2 Xbox games. After that each series probably about the cost of 1 Xbox game. Each series takes 12 weeks and many people run those series for many series, so you get your money's worth if you enjoy it.

Hope this helps anyone wondering about the costs.

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After seeing so many iRacing "haters" complain about it costing so much to play iRacing (I've even heard numbers like "$1000/year") I decided to sit down and do the math to see what it REALLY costs.

$583 - Total spent to buy ALL cars and tracks including the 3 new ones (Iowa, Ford GT, and HPD) if you take advantage of the 25% discount by buying all content. (it would be $621.68 if you bought everything in packs of 6, $777 if you bought it all separately)

$24 - 1-year subscription. I calculated this by taking the regular cost for a 1-year sub ($99), subtracting Participation Credits and Anniversary Credits ($45 total), then subtracting $30 if you take advantage of the deal they frequently have where you get $30 credit for re-upping for one year.
__________
=$607 - Grand total for 1 year of iRacing including all content. That comes out to $50 per month for that first 1-year period.
If you want to continue after that, you'd only have to pay for subscription fees which comes out to a whopping $2 per month using the figure above (with credits/discounts.)

If you played for 3 years with all content, you'd average $18/month over that time period (assuming the prices stay the same and you don't buy any new tracks/cars when they are released)

 

[Jack B]

Just checked and there are 25 total cars. 10 Oval Cars and 15 Road Cars.

http://www.iracing.com/cars-and-tracks/cars/

There are 48 total tracks with 148 variations. 28 oval and 20 road tracks, although some like Indy, Charlotte etc are both oval and road.

http://www.iracing.com/cars-and-tracks/tracks/

An official series (ie D class and above) only counts the 8 best week points of the 12 week season, so you really only need 8 tracks to complete a season. You aren't required to have any more than 1 track, but 8 tracks is a logical number. Since you often find even in D class you'll already own a few of the tracks, because they came with the base membership or you already owned them from a lower series, you may need less than 8 even for a new series.

At the end of the day, as your iRacing career progresses your costs keep going down, because you'll repeat seasons over again, because it's that challenging and fun. If you treat this as an online hobby it can be a low cost compared to other hobby's or MMO's like WOW etc. If you play for a few months and compare to other boxed games or Xbox games it's more expensive, but how many Xbox games do you play for 3 to 10 years? Not many I'd expect.

Anyway, as a hobby it's cheap and if you're having fun, then it's a value. If you can have more fun doing something else, then do that...

 

[Glenn Petersen]

For me:
iRacing - 100% content, 1 yr subscription = $816
Computer system = $2000 +
Racing with my buddies at RD = priceless

 

[Jack B]

For me:
iRacing - 100% content, 1 yr subscription = $816
Computer system = $2000 +
Racing with my buddies at RD = priceless

I agree with the priceless part. Online racing in a competitive environment with like minded drivers is priceless.

As for the cars and content purchases. I'm about the same after 3 years, but that was back when content cost more.

Out of my 524 races about 420 have been in the Skip Barber car. I own all 24 other cars, but have only raced a few in an actual race. The Corvette, the Spec Racer (free), the Solstice (free), the Indycar, the Legends (free). The rest I've just practiced and messed around with in testing.

I don't regret buying any of the other cars I don't drive, because I probably got about 4 to 8 hours of fun out of them one weekend after they came out (i buy almost everything just to try it). I spend $12 at the movies for 2 hours. Why not $12 for 4-8 hours with a new iRacing car....

I guess that's the difference. I look at the fun I have and say, "man, that's definitely worth the price or a pizza or a movie". Others fret over it... To each their own, but you don't have to spend much if you just buy what you really want to race and focus on it. It can take years to get from division 10 to division 1. That's the way it should be. A challenge that takes practice, practice, practice. Trying a car for 30 minutes like you might in Forza or Gran Turismo etc, gets expensive in iRacing depending on how you look at it.

Focus on one car and one series and you'll many hours, days, weeks or months out of it. I love the Skip Barber even after 3 years. And I still am in no position to win a division 1 championship. I have more work to do. :-_

 

[Saul Boucher]

When iRacing first came out I tried it. I didn't like it very much, and thought it was too expensive. Fast forward a few years later, I've gotten pretty sick of the Race 07 Series, GTR2, and rFactor. And I'm tired of waiting for rFactor 2 or GTR3 to come out. So I decided to give iRacing another go. Since the last go, they've dropped their pricing on cars and tracks, and added the ability for people to run their own leagues and events, not to mention many other things I'm sure.

When it comes to cost, I sat back and took things into perspective. I dropped well over $5k on my computer system, a high end triple screen setup, primarily for sim racing. So it doesn't really make sense for me to be cheap when it comes to the software. Also, iRacing is second to none when it comes to Triple monitor support. I'm really that impressed with how it handles all the bezel compension in game, and allows you to set your side screen angles, etc.

I'm really starting to see the value in iRacing. The monthly subscription is worth it for the race matching / scheduling system alone, and you get some free cars and tracks as a bonus. Cars and Tracks are more reasonably priced, and when you buy in sets of 6 you get a 20% discount, which brings a lot of the stuff to under $10 each. I have no intention of buying all of the content (not much of an oval fan), but the handful of cars I've already purchased I'm really enjoying and have got my eye on a few more when the time comes I'm ready for them. The tracks are top knotch best in the business..

If you want to host your own session for a couple hours it costs $1.... $1 for a dedicated high speed server with several client slots! LOL, that's nothing. Look into what it costs to rent a dedicated box or a game server on a monthly basis, ouch. So, I think that is a very cool service to offer!

So yeah, this go around I'm really enjoying it and think they are offering fair value for the product and service offered. So I'm going to stick with it this time around