The rise and possible fall of iRacing

[AnonymousRaceDriver]

Brief history on the Service:

iRacing started out in 2004 by John Henry and Dave Kaemmer. John is a co-owner of Roush-Fenway Racing for those who aren't aware, and so he was able to provide financial backing that has never really been seen before in sim racing. Combine that with the experience of Dave Kaemmer who has competed in the Skip Barber Championship in real life, and is the mastermind behind such sims as GT Legends, and you can expect top notch results. Finally an able developer has virtually all the time and money they need to create the ultimate sim experience. In a period from 2004-2008 iRacing consisted of lots of R&D and closed testing, some early members became part of the testing early on with most early testers joining in 2007 through connections in the sim world. In mid 2008 iRacing was open to the public but through invites only, then released fully to the public later on in the year.

The stage was set nicely, a huge amount of hype and community buzz had set iRacing above all other racing sims, before it was even released. Laser scanned tracks, cars being measured, weighed, and scanned for perfect accuracy. From a scientific point of view it was very hard for people to argue with what iRacing was doing, they were miles ahead of everyone else. They also have a 10 year plan, and a $20million investment from John Henry which they boasted through advertising and shameless plugs in the sim community. It was a good move by iRacing to let people know how serious they were early on, if they didn't there is no way they would get away with charging what they do for their service.

iRacing has a model that is unique to racing sims, but not unique to the gaming world. To use the service you must be a member, which requires you to purchase one of their monthly or annual membership packages. With the membership you get access to limited content, at first it was only a few cars on the Oval and Road side, with a handful of tracks. If you wanted some of the faster cars or more tracks, those would have to be purchased individually. People were so excited about the sim, they did not care much to argue with the plan, they did not mind that they owned none of the content, and were only purchasing access to them when their membership is in current status. If you stop paying to access their service, you lose all access to the content you have purchased. How do they control this? It is simple, the only way you can use the service is through an internet connection with a compatible browser. There is a large program installed on your PC, however you cannot access it unless you are logged in securely through their website. This helps them to keep control and monitor all things that happen in the sim.

This type of service is very controversial, but with the level of professionalism that iRacing was trying to achieve, this was the only way to go for them. By controlling things through an online browser, they prevent people from running modified versions of the game, which could include hacking the physics, or any other type of manipulation. That does not mean iRacing has been free from hackers though, there have been reports of cheats that have been used, patched, with the users who cheated banned, and no refund given. By controlling the sim in such a way, iRacing was able to display itself as a professional service, where people can compete fairly worldwide against their peers, 24 hours a day, with a full time staff of stewards and developers constantly monitoring and updating the service.

They ran ads showing professional drivers giving testimonies on how realistic the simulator is, which is nothing new, every simulator out has done this. However with iRacing, people are required to give their real first and last name, so users who are part of the service can literally search their favorite drivers name, and through a statistic screen, monitor the progress and lap times. This made iRacing unique because people can actually see professional drivers using the service. This helped give consumers confidence, not only were they confident that the company was on solid ground having John Henry as the financial backbone, but they also are able to purchase content in confidence knowing that professional drivers have sworn by the accuracy. From 2008-current the service has grown in overall members, but so has the sim. What started out as a few thousand people in 2008, has grown into the tens of thousands. Content has also been expanded, it was just a handful of cars and tracks starting out, but now iRacing boasts a car for everyone on both Oval and Road, with 24 hours 7 days a week series of official sessions.

The future of iRacing is still not very clear...how could this be though? With such a strong foundation, and having the largest active community in sim racing, how
could they ever fail?

Downfalls of the greatest sim available:

Even though iRacing has been the dominant name in sim racing since its release in 2008, it still has its downfalls. The sim does not provide a lot of the simple things that other sims have for years. Some of these things include tire build up, dynamic weather, and dynamic track surfaces. You are basically racing in a static environment all of the time, which is obvious to anyone that the real world of motorsports simply cannot be simulated accurately in a static environment.

Other downfalls are development times. In the beginning the members were very forgiving over long development times. Cars and Tracks were basically announced, then several months later eventually released, with some projects lasting over a year. As time has progressed and their team grows you would expect development time to go down, but it has not. Members are still finding themselves waiting almost a year for new content to be released.

Another downfall of iRacing is the content it provides, a lot of the cars are somewhat unpopular or outdated when compared to race cars in other sims. Instead of Ferrari, BMW, and other big names in racing, we see Pontiac, Kia, and what seems to be at random one car selected from several different series all over the place. So when you see something like Formula 1 advertised you will be sad to find out you only have two F1 cars available, and they are decades apart from each other. If you are a fan of Grand Am racing, the Daytona Prototype available is a Pontiac, and it is already half a decade old. This is the trend with iRacing, they tend to model only one car from a series, then by the next couple years it is already outdated, and then they tell people they have a virtual version of that series even though it is only that one car that is most likely not used in the series anymore.

Then there are the tracks, other than Nascar, you will be lucky to find more than a few real world tracks available where your favorite series actually races in real life. This, combined with the random car from a random year, can make you feel as if you are competing in some fantasy series, rather than simulating the real life series. Some are hopeful to one day get a complete series, but with iRacing's super slow pace in their development it seems near impossible for them ever to release a complete series will all the cars and tracks from the same year competition. Some tracks were scanned, and left to be forgotten with excuses given from the staff members that they simply do not have the manpower to complete, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of many members. On top of that, some projects end up getting delayed, like the coveted Lotus 49, it has been promised many times by the staff, but delayed every time.

This brings me to my biggest concern with iRacing, its quest for perfection comes at the expense of its members wallets and patience. For iRacing to prepare a release to the public they seem to have very high quality standards and must simulate things accurately through a formula. This sounds great, except they don't always get it right, and when you wait several months for something to be released, you expect it to be good to go when it is released. Several of the iRacing fans will just use the excuse that everything in the sim is a work in progress, and things will always be updated and changed. The problem with that, is it gives iRacing a fail pass, meaning they can release something that is a failure and get a pass from the community because it is a work in progress and will be updated. This is not just limited to iRacing, now that the internet is here to update games, developers across the board are releasing unfinished products and just updating things later on.

The problem with this whole situation, is it creates a circle of long development times, and a pass for mediocre content. Some will say they cannot have it both ways, they cannot offer an advertised realistic experience, yet make dramatic changes to the core of the simulation. Things like the tire model and physics have changed dramatically over time, and to this day the tire model still is not right. When individuals question the tire model they are met with some resistance from iRacing staff members who believe things are not as bad as they seem, but are also told there are yet again going to be more dramatic changes to fix bugs such as more grip with cold tires, but like everything at iRacing, even the tire model gets delayed over and over again.

Then you have cars that were driven by professionals before their release and have sworn testimonies of being accurate to the real life counterpart, that have since been changed dramatically, so now iRacing has to answer the question,are the cars inaccurate now? Or were their professional spokesman just spewing company lines to promote iRacing early on?

One will ask themselves why has iRacing not hired on more experts to help with the physics and tire models, or more professionals to help speed up development time of cars and help with the completion of tracks. Well, as unlimited as their resources may seem, they do not have an endless supply of money. If you think about how much it must cost to run a business like this year round, that $20million will get gobbled up fairly quick over the years, and the membership alone cannot support a super large staff. Even with a small staff they are paying several yearly salaries, sending employees all over the world to scan cars and tracks, not to mention other expenses like the cost of equipment and an office headquarters. They simply cannot afford to stay in business, and also have a super large staff.

There is a lot of controversy over the direction of iRacing, with its lack of features, and its ever changing view on how physics and tires work. One can only ask how long can this company keep all its members? Right now
iRacing has somewhat of a monopoly on sim racing. They are the only sim offering full time year round organized racing in a professional environment. Everything feels official with iRacing, and anyone can join with ease. This gives iRacing an edge over all other sims which depend on mods and communities to bring people together, which as we have seen before can be very messy, but also very rewarding if done right. Personally, I would love to see iRacing just "get things right", but at the moment with how they do things, it would take years before they ever start releasing complete series or getting cars that are up to date instead of outdated ones that are already retired from their current series.

Sooner or later, iRacing will lose its monopoly on this type of service, someone else is bound to come along and offer a similar service. If such a service comes along, and offers things that iRacing still has trouble with, like a correct tire model, or dynamic environments, then iRacing's future may be in trouble. They can only exist in such a state as long as there is no competition to steal their customers away. Eventually when another sim does come along that rivals iRacing, they better be ready to deliver on their promises, or face the reality of having to eventually close their doors after everyone but a few dedicated followers leave for the new kid on the block who offers something bigger and better.

 

[Denis Mitchell]

Having the correct steering ratio - wheel rotation (using 900º) should help you to control better the car, 270º is too low in my opinion. Karts are a different story

Thanks David, will hopefully get to try it out with a decent wheel sometime. I really wish i could win the lotto and get the fanatec clubsport and m3 gtr rim with some clubsport pedals.

 

[Bakkster]

Cool thank you, i might have to give it a go with a better wheel then and see how much better it is. I do want a fanatec, might have one arriving in a few months so will try it out then and see if its enough to change my opinions. Thanks for your insight.

iRacing just does very well with 900 (or more) degree wheels. If you get in a car with a reduced lock range, it will even apply an FFB force as a software bumpstop.

Good luck!

 

[William Levesque]

I dont have a problem with my lap times for now,(Low 1:34 at summit point or whatever the track is the rookie class race on) they ok..

Sure it's not 24' ? 34' is 11 seconds off-pace....

 

[DewCrew88]

Weird that the real life FIA GT driver we tested with at iOpener stated exactly the opposite and said that the grip was spot on.

But he is of course not a sim racer, so what does he know

Bram you didnt know hard = more realistic and everything else = arcade/forza/gt5

 

[Denis Mitchell]

Oh oops yes 1:24's yes...haha.

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

I agree with GTR Evo being a bit too grippy with some cars, which is why I'm a firm believer of "play everything" instead of just sticking to one sim. rFactor's 2012 Blancplan Endurance Series mod is IMO the pinnacle of community content available for that game, whereas LFS has near perfect street cars (despite the lack of licensed content), and the illegal Redline GTP 1.0 mod being the best rendition of late 80's prototypes. Don't be a "sim snob", be a "sim sightseer."

iRacing is the typical overdone difficulty trying to convince people the real cars are that hard to drive, when they're not. Like a previous comment, if cars where that hard to drive, people would be dying every race.

I still think that's the most logical argument when debating iRacing's "accuracy." If real cars were that difficult to drive, you wouldn't see just people dying each weekend in entry level touring car races, you'd see people violently rolling their cars on the way to buy milk and eggs. Every highway adventure would begin with a family prayer, and roads would be a ghost town if any of the wet stuff started falling. Yet, despite iRacing's physics model subtly claiming that real race cars are death traps, you can cough up a couple hundred bucks and go make laps around something like half of the tracks on the current NASCAR schedule.

If you managed to be successful in iRacing's world, good for you. You are no different than the guys who figured out the shift glitch in Project Gotham Racing or how to cut the course without receiving penalties in the original Grid. Posterboy Ray Alfalla embarrassing himself in an MX5 at Homestead should be a giant red flag that "maybe it's not as good as advertised."

At this point iRacing's only use is to be a status symbol for those who take racing games seriously. Unfortunately, the biased moderators, recent change in community, and big promises left unfulfilled mean it's simply not worth taking the plunge anymore, which is a shame because they've built a nice little online service around what was supposed to be NASCAR Racing 2004 Season.

 

[William Levesque]

To be honest, Ray embarrassed himself because he can't drive a stick. Stupid indeed, but in every sims you can bypass that no matter the car you are driving.

 

[Antonio Crinò]

Just a curiosity... Why Ogonoski continues to switch the account in this thread?

 

[Austin Ogonoski]

Just a curiosity... Why Ogonoski continues to switch the account in this thread?

I actually have no idea what you mean by this, unless you're assuming that everyone knocking iRacing is really just me under multiple accounts.

 

[Bakkster]

IRacing is the typical overdone difficulty trying to convince people the real cars are that hard to drive, when they not. Like a previous comment, if cars where that hard to drive, people would be dying every race.

I still think that's the most logical argument when debating iRacing's "accuracy." If real cars were that difficult to drive, you wouldn't see just people dying each weekend in entry level touring car races, you'd see people violently rolling their cars on the way to buy milk and eggs. Every highway adventure would begin with a family prayer, and roads would be a ghost town if any of the wet stuff started falling. Yet, despite iRacing's physics model subtly claiming that real race cars are death traps, you can cough up a couple hundred bucks and go make laps around something like half of the tracks on the current NASCAR schedule.

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -Hanlon's Razor

I think it's much more likely that iRacing just doesn't have it 100% yet, and their principle to physics design is not to apply fixes to the physics unless they think they're accurate. Not everyone's a fan, naturally, but that's the way they work. Knowing that, it makes much more sense to me that they want to get the cars more stable like that, but are having difficulty.

Case in point: every single build for the last year or two has included physics updates intended to make the cars more stable, less unpredictable, and easier to drive. That's counter to what you would expect if they intended the cars to be scary hard to drive.

 

[DewCrew88]

Regardless of any changes,what I perceive every build is a placebo and then back to normal iRacing.

Regardless of all of that Bakkster you cannot deny that you drive iRacing like iRacing wants to be driven and you drive rFactor2 and AC like a car wants to be (and is) driven.

 

[Bakkster]

Regardless of all of that Bakkster you cannot deny that you drive iRacing like iRacing wants to be driven and you drive rFactor2 and AC like a car wants to be (and is) driven.

Every sim has its own feel, no denying that. And many of the cars in iRacing do not behave at all right now (but not all). I won't say things like the SRF are perfect, but they definitely aren't trying to kill you (anymore). On the other hand, the last build has meant I can barely complete a lap in the Kia...

If it is indeed placebo, then why would iRacing's stated intent of many of their updates be to make the cars easier to handle if they indeed thought that more difficult was realistic?

 

[Blkout]

Brief history on the Service:

iRacing started out in 2004 by John Henry and Dave Kaemmer. John is a co-owner of Roush-Fenway Racing for those who aren't aware, and so he was able to provide financial backing that has never really been seen before in sim racing. Combine that with the experience of Dave Kaemmer who has competed in the Skip Barber Championship in real life, and is the mastermind behind such sims as GT Legends, and you can expect top notch results. Finally an able developer has virtually all the time and money they need to create the ultimate sim experience. In a period from 2004-2008 iRacing consisted of lots of R&D and closed testing, some early members became part of the testing early on with most early testers joining in 2007 through connections in the sim world. In mid 2008 iRacing was open to the public but through invites only, then released fully to the public later on in the year.

The stage was set nicely, a huge amount of hype and community buzz had set iRacing above all other racing sims, before it was even released. Laser scanned tracks, cars being measured, weighed, and scanned for perfect accuracy. From a scientific point of view it was very hard for people to argue with what iRacing was doing, they were miles ahead of everyone else. They also have a 10 year plan, and a $20million investment from John Henry which they boasted through advertising and shameless plugs in the sim community. It was a good move by iRacing to let people know how serious they were early on, if they didn't there is no way they would get away with charging what they do for their service.

iRacing has a model that is unique to racing sims, but not unique to the gaming world. To use the service you must be a member, which requires you to purchase one of their monthly or annual membership packages. With the membership you get access to limited content, at first it was only a few cars on the Oval and Road side, with a handful of tracks. If you wanted some of the faster cars or more tracks, those would have to be purchased individually. People were so excited about the sim, they did not care much to argue with the plan, they did not mind that they owned none of the content, and were only purchasing access to them when their membership is in current status. If you stop paying to access their service, you lose all access to the content you have purchased. How do they control this? It is simple, the only way you can use the service is through an internet connection with a compatible browser. There is a large program installed on your PC, however you cannot access it unless you are logged in securely through their website. This helps them to keep control and monitor all things that happen in the sim.

This type of service is very controversial, but with the level of professionalism that iRacing was trying to achieve, this was the only way to go for them. By controlling things through an online browser, they prevent people from running modified versions of the game, which could include hacking the physics, or any other type of manipulation. That does not mean iRacing has been free from hackers though, there have been reports of cheats that have been used, patched, with the users who cheated banned, and no refund given. By controlling the sim in such a way, iRacing was able to display itself as a professional service, where people can compete fairly worldwide against their peers, 24 hours a day, with a full time staff of stewards and developers constantly monitoring and updating the service.

They ran ads showing professional drivers giving testimonies on how realistic the simulator is, which is nothing new, every simulator out has done this. However with iRacing, people are required to give their real first and last name, so users who are part of the service can literally search their favorite drivers name, and through a statistic screen, monitor the progress and lap times. This made iRacing unique because people can actually see professional drivers using the service. This helped give consumers confidence, not only were they confident that the company was on solid ground having John Henry as the financial backbone, but they also are able to purchase content in confidence knowing that professional drivers have sworn by the accuracy. From 2008-current the service has grown in overall members, but so has the sim. What started out as a few thousand people in 2008, has grown into the tens of thousands. Content has also been expanded, it was just a handful of cars and tracks starting out, but now iRacing boasts a car for everyone on both Oval and Road, with 24 hours 7 days a week series of official sessions.

The future of iRacing is still not very clear...how could this be though? With such a strong foundation, and having the largest active community in sim racing, how
could they ever fail?

Downfalls of the greatest sim available:

Even though iRacing has been the dominant name in sim racing since its release in 2008, it still has its downfalls. The sim does not provide a lot of the simple things that other sims have for years. Some of these things include tire build up, dynamic weather, and dynamic track surfaces. You are basically racing in a static environment all of the time, which is obvious to anyone that the real world of motorsports simply cannot be simulated accurately in a static environment.

Other downfalls are development times. In the beginning the members were very forgiving over long development times. Cars and Tracks were basically announced, then several months later eventually released, with some projects lasting over a year. As time has progressed and their team grows you would expect development time to go down, but it has not. Members are still finding themselves waiting almost a year for new content to be released.

Another downfall of iRacing is the content it provides, a lot of the cars are somewhat unpopular or outdated when compared to race cars in other sims. Instead of Ferrari, BMW, and other big names in racing, we see Pontiac, Kia, and what seems to be at random one car selected from several different series all over the place. So when you see something like Formula 1 advertised you will be sad to find out you only have two F1 cars available, and they are decades apart from each other. If you are a fan of Grand Am racing, the Daytona Prototype available is a Pontiac, and it is already half a decade old. This is the trend with iRacing, they tend to model only one car from a series, then by the next couple years it is already outdated, and then they tell people they have a virtual version of that series even though it is only that one car that is most likely not used in the series anymore.

Then there are the tracks, other than Nascar, you will be lucky to find more than a few real world tracks available where your favorite series actually races in real life. This, combined with the random car from a random year, can make you feel as if you are competing in some fantasy series, rather than simulating the real life series. Some are hopeful to one day get a complete series, but with iRacing's super slow pace in their development it seems near impossible for them ever to release a complete series will all the cars and tracks from the same year competition. Some tracks were scanned, and left to be forgotten with excuses given from the staff members that they simply do not have the manpower to complete, leaving a sour taste in the mouths of many members. On top of that, some projects end up getting delayed, like the coveted Lotus 49, it has been promised many times by the staff, but delayed every time.

This brings me to my biggest concern with iRacing, its quest for perfection comes at the expense of its members wallets and patience. For iRacing to prepare a release to the public they seem to have very high quality standards and must simulate things accurately through a formula. This sounds great, except they don't always get it right, and when you wait several months for something to be released, you expect it to be good to go when it is released. Several of the iRacing fans will just use the excuse that everything in the sim is a work in progress, and things will always be updated and changed. The problem with that, is it gives iRacing a fail pass, meaning they can release something that is a failure and get a pass from the community because it is a work in progress and will be updated. This is not just limited to iRacing, now that the internet is here to update games, developers across the board are releasing unfinished products and just updating things later on.

The problem with this whole situation, is it creates a circle of long development times, and a pass for mediocre content. Some will say they cannot have it both ways, they cannot offer an advertised realistic experience, yet make dramatic changes to the core of the simulation. Things like the tire model and physics have changed dramatically over time, and to this day the tire model still is not right. When individuals question the tire model they are met with some resistance from iRacing staff members who believe things are not as bad as they seem, but are also told there are yet again going to be more dramatic changes to fix bugs such as more grip with cold tires, but like everything at iRacing, even the tire model gets delayed over and over again.

Then you have cars that were driven by professionals before their release and have sworn testimonies of being accurate to the real life counterpart, that have since been changed dramatically, so now iRacing has to answer the question,are the cars inaccurate now? Or were their professional spokesman just spewing company lines to promote iRacing early on?

One will ask themselves why has iRacing not hired on more experts to help with the physics and tire models, or more professionals to help speed up development time of cars and help with the completion of tracks. Well, as unlimited as their resources may seem, they do not have an endless supply of money. If you think about how much it must cost to run a business like this year round, that $20million will get gobbled up fairly quick over the years, and the membership alone cannot support a super large staff. Even with a small staff they are paying several yearly salaries, sending employees all over the world to scan cars and tracks, not to mention other expenses like the cost of equipment and an office headquarters. They simply cannot afford to stay in business, and also have a super large staff.

There is a lot of controversy over the direction of iRacing, with its lack of features, and its ever changing view on how physics and tires work. One can only ask how long can this company keep all its members? Right now
iRacing has somewhat of a monopoly on sim racing. They are the only sim offering full time year round organized racing in a professional environment. Everything feels official with iRacing, and anyone can join with ease. This gives iRacing an edge over all other sims which depend on mods and communities to bring people together, which as we have seen before can be very messy, but also very rewarding if done right. Personally, I would love to see iRacing just "get things right", but at the moment with how they do things, it would take years before they ever start releasing complete series or getting cars that are up to date instead of outdated ones that are already retired from their current series.

Sooner or later, iRacing will lose its monopoly on this type of service, someone else is bound to come along and offer a similar service. If such a service comes along, and offers things that iRacing still has trouble with, like a correct tire model, or dynamic environments, then iRacing's future may be in trouble. They can only exist in such a state as long as there is no competition to steal their customers away. Eventually when another sim does come along that rivals iRacing, they better be ready to deliver on their promises, or face the reality of having to eventually close their doors after everyone but a few dedicated followers leave for the new kid on the block who offers something bigger and better.

I know this is an old post but I recently started browsing the iRacing forum and reading these threads that had a lot of replies. I think you make a lot of good points and sum up iRacing as a service pretty well, however you are speculating a bit on the monopoly and how it must fall eventually. Case in point, one monopoly I can think of is the UFC in MMA. The UFC has become the giant of MMA and over the years people have complained that they way they run their business can't last and that their monopoly on the sport of MMA will come to an end. Year after year they've listened to the same criticism and yet they still remain the number one organization in MMA and a global giant of the sport and still growing. Many smaller organizations have tried to rise up, have tried to capture part of their monopoly but all have failed and gone away. Why? Because quite simply, the UFC is managed better than the other organizations that try to take their cut of the pie and in the end, when you offer a product that is unmatched by anyone else and you have management that continues to stay focused on the product at hand and plan for the future by making intelligent decisions, it makes it very difficult for anyone else to take over. This is what I see in iRacing.

 

[Luiz Silveira]

Assuming the premise that competition is a good thing in a market, it's a shame that iRacing has no competition. It just doesn't.

The thread has been necroed from an OP that is over a year old and still the situation hasn't changed one bit. The Lotus was a flop and yet there is no doomsday. AC has evolved but it has no plans to compete with iRacing. rF2... well, is still rF2.

It is true that today it's hard to justify the money spend on iRacing when it comes to the sim itself (on the road side of things at least). But that's not the main reason why people go to iRacing - and will continue to. It's for the service. Races around the clock, with an integrated competition system of ratings, ranks, safety, etc.

When it comes to the service they provide (and not the content) they have no competition that I know of, and no one planning to launch a competing service that has made itself known (note: yes, it has been tried but other services fall so much short of what iRacing offers that they are not competition).

So in the end of the day AC is far from ready and rF2 has its problems, but even if these were people's "sim of choice" they'd still go for iRacing to find good racing for all the times in which there is no racedepartment league/club race happening at that moment.

I don't see it changing in the near future. In the far future... everything changes. My 2c.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

AS someone who has been considering an iRacing subscription for near 2yrs now, I doubt I will ever take it up, purely based on the fact it's overpriced, both the membership and the ongoing content stop me from going anywhere near iRacing. Ive read many reviews positive and negative, @Bakkster and it has made no difference to me who the person posting the review was, or, whether they had a reputation or not.

The thought of forking out over US$1000 for a race sim sub and most of its associated content does not thrill me at all, and I would hazard a guess there is many others who feel the same as I do. It's really not the yearly sub that stop's me, it's more the ridiculous prices for their content, I will never pay US$30 for one sim race car, I don't care how good the physics and/or car detail is.

I can see both the positives and negatives with iRacing, but really it's all about the MONEY, and the fact iRacing is overpriced, so to really enjoy it you have to constantly spend more cash.

Lower your prices iRacing and you may do better, not everyone is gullible enough to fall for the hype, propaganda, free advertising by fanboys or payed for reviews.

My 2c.

 

[Luiz Silveira]

I will never pay US$30 for one sim race car, I don't care how good the physics and/or car detail is.

I think pretty much everyone agrees that it's expensive, but it's just not that bad either. A car is not $30 but $12, and if you get it in promotions (which you have no reason not to) it can get as low as $7.

Tracks are a bit more the problem, but still at $15 and with all the promos you might get them at $8 or $8.50 a piece. You need some 9 of them for your first season, and there is no reason to have them all at once.

So you're looking at between $100~$150 to get started. That'll get you set for one or two series and at least 3 months. After that the cost goes down quite a bit as you'll already have a bunch of content - you'll need a couple of tracks and maybe a car a season. Or some $30 every 3 months for content.

It seems to me that you can spend between $200 and $300 and you'll be set for a year, and after that you'll probably only spend $15 here or there for the odd track (that you can get for ~$12 in the 100 for 75 promo). With the disclaimer that those prices are for road or oval of course - if you want to do both the costs double.

Anyway, I 100% agree that it's expensive and I think almost everyone does. But I'm just writing to debunk the "I need to spend $1,000 to have fun at iRacing" myth to people who don't have access to the service or experience with the series and how they work. We should be talking between 1/4 to 1/3 of that unless you want to do both road and oval (and if you do want to do oval, unfortunately there is no competition to iRacing, neither for sim neither for service).

It would be pretty sweet if they came up with another price reduction like they did in 2009. Imho, the subscription is too cheap. It's roughly £2 a month, and by playing in the right series you can bring it down to £2 a year. That's roughly the cost of 1/2 a pint of beer in a pub, and it can pay for between a month and a year of iRacing. That's obviously not enough for everything they offer in the service side of things. I'd gladly pay 4x that for the subscription of a good service (I think I can spare 2 pints of beer over the course of a whole year), but not pay as much as they charge for the content upfront. Unfortunately many people seem to have an "out of principle" hate for subscriptions even if they are indeed using servers and services in a regular basis.

 

[InsaneOzzie]

I think pretty much everyone agrees that it's expensive, but it's just not that bad either. A car is not $30 but $12, and if you get it in promotions (which you have no reason not to) it can get as low as $7.

Tracks are a bit more the problem, but still at $15 and with all the promos you might get them at $8 or $8.50 a piece. You need some 9 of them for your first season, and there is no reason to have them all at once.

So you're looking at between $100~$150 to get started. That'll get you set for one or two series and at least 3 months. After that the cost goes down quite a bit as you'll already have a bunch of content - you'll need a couple of tracks and maybe a car a season. Or some $30 every 3 months for content.

It seems to me that you can spend between $200 and $300 and you'll be set for a year, and after that you'll probably only spend $15 here or there for the odd track (that you can get for ~$12 in the 100 for 75 promo). With the disclaimer that those prices are for road or oval of course - if you want to do both the costs double.

Anyway, I 100% agree that it's expensive and I think almost everyone does. But I'm just writing to debunk the "I need to spend $1,000 to have fun at iRacing" myth to people who don't have access to the service or experience with the series and how they work. We should be talking between 1/4 to 1/3 of that unless you want to do both road and oval (and if you do want to do oval, unfortunately there is no competition to iRacing, neither for sim neither for service).

It would be pretty sweet if they came up with another price reduction like they did in 2009. Imho, the subscription is too cheap. It's roughly £2 a month, and by playing in the right series you can bring it down to £2 a year. That's roughly the cost of 1/2 a pint of beer in a pub, and it can pay for between a month and a year of iRacing. That's obviously not enough for everything they offer in the service side of things. I'd gladly pay 4x that for the subscription of a good service (I think I can spare 2 pints of beer over the course of a whole year), but not pay as much as they charge for the content upfront. Unfortunately many people seem to have an "out of principle" hate for subscriptions even if they are indeed using servers and services in a regular basis.

Luiz, I thank you, for taking the time to explain some of the pricing, at least now I have a better idea of iRacings costs, I can at least set a budget to see if it's affordable for my pocket, living in Australia is getting expensive these days, still $300-$350 doesn't grow on trees. I'll have to sit with the finance manager (the wife) and submit a request for more monthly entertainment funds, see how we go

 

[yusupov]

an important thing not mentioned is that intelligent long-term buying you'll always be buying 6 packs (maybe a track or two a la carte for emergency purposes or something). that automatically gives you 20% off so, if all content is initially bought this way, you in fact pay $8 for cars and $12 for tracks base. ive been a member for a couple months & i wasn't even aware of this 100 for 75 deal (hope i haven't missed it). once/after you've purchased 40 pieces of content, everything is automatically 25% off.

so it is expense ofc but it can be budgeted for.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

To put the price into perspective:
2 cars and 4 tracks will run you about the same money as an AAA Title Game....

Used to be that part of the reason for them being so expensive was lifetime support and future upgrades were included in the price...that got dropped somewhere along the way and is no longer applicable though.

 

[Bakkster]

Used to be that part of the reason for them being so expensive was lifetime support and future upgrades were included in the price...that got dropped somewhere along the way and is no longer applicable though.

That didn't get dropped, every car that has been updated (some very significantly) any owner gets the new car free and the old car's price gets reduced. Same with tracks, if you owned Daytona you got the rescanned version free.

The cars that need to be repurchased are brand new ones, like the DW12 which is not the IR05 even though both are IndyCars. You buy a particular chassis, not every car to meet a specification.