iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations

Bram Hengeveld · Feb 20, 2008

iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations check it out

Sander Hogendoorn · Jul 22, 2009

Yes, I only have done 33 official races so far, so I'm pretty happy with 145, considering the top guys did hundreds of races :wink2:

Ramon van Rijn · Jul 22, 2009

Highlighting some nice stuff:

"Your membership dollars also help to pay for some major projects we have been working on for more than three months now that will allow us to put iRacing in front of hundreds of thousands of potential new customers every year. The nice thing about some of these projects is it helps us move the ball down the field on projects like private leagues which we hope will be in the build at the end of next season."

"There is plenty more and I could keep typing all day but I will save the rest for the official release notes. Just to start you thinking about what is on the horizon, we do hope to have private leagues, an updated tire model and the ability to do night racing in next season’s build along with many other features and improvements. These projects are all underway and progressing very well."

Cool

Bram Hengeveld · Jul 22, 2009

Private Leagues?? Night Racing??

First thing ill do when i am home is re-newing my subscription! I am back

Thanks iRacing for listening to you customers!

Ramon van Rijn · Jul 22, 2009

Bram Hengeveld said:
Private Leagues?? Night Racing??

First thing ill do when i am home is re-newing my subscription! I am back Thanks iRacing for listening to you customers!

Don't forget you have till aug 3rd to meet your MPR and flow to D License

Bram Hengeveld · Jul 22, 2009

Dont put my under pressure Ramon

Solstice Ole

Mark Birney · Jul 22, 2009

I won't re-subscribe until there is wet weather

Bram Hengeveld · Jul 22, 2009

I hope this means we can also host iracing on our own server with private leagues supported.

Simon Trendell · Jul 23, 2009

Those features are not due until October/November or so, and even then there is no guarantee they will be finished in time..

Mark Birney · Jul 23, 2009

I doubt they'd let people use their own servers. With the whole safety rating thing and persistent profiles they'd proably prefer to handle it themselves.

James Yates · Jul 23, 2009

Mark Birney said:
I doubt they'd let people use their own servers. With the whole safety rating thing and persistent profiles they'd proably prefer to handle it themselves.

Probably right with that, I wouldn't have expected them to let certain leagues run it. Other problem is its not the best game to run league races on - the pricing would mean a low number of entries.

Mark Birney · Jul 23, 2009

True. I do simracing because I can't afford karting etc. And it's fun.

When they bump up the price to, what was it, €150 a year, it's not that bad. But I hope this doesn't trigger a wave of more sims with higher prices and carrying the tagline "Racing training program". There needs to be alternatives. The way iRacing is now, I don't see how leagues would fit in...

Bram Hengeveld · Jul 25, 2009

iRacing's business model

A quote from RSC which i think nails it on the head. At least this is still the same way i worry about iRacing. How will they continue this service in the future

steve112 said:
At the end of the day no matter how realistic iRacing claims to be, it is still a game comparible to rFactor, GTR, or N2003. I cannot justify spending over $500 dollar on non-tangible goods (tracks and cars). I have no problems with the subscription fee and I feel the fee is required, but $15-$25 per track and car is outrageous. Again, let me stress that iRacing is a game, and if I compair iRacing's pricing model to the pricing of GTR or rFactor, it just doesn't make any sense. For example, GTR-2 $39.99, you get all the cars and tons of tracks. No need to purchase additional cars or tracks to compete.

In addition i feel that the current iRacing business model cannot possibly continue their without the company bleeding money. iRacing said over 14,000 people signed up for their service. Giving the benefit of the doubt, lets just assume none of those 14,000 people are trial members and all of them are paying subscriptions and spending at least $500 THIS year on cars and tracks. That is only $7 mil in revenue. Then comes the taxes, overhead, expenses, payroll. They'll be lucky to break even. Of course, the same 14,000 people who purchased all the tracks and cars this year won't do the same next year.

There is no way iRacing can be profitable only catering to the serious sim racers. Any businessman would know if an investment is not profitable, you dump the investment. So where does that leave the people who spent their money on new tracks and cars once iRacing closes up shop. Sorry, once i add up all the factors i just can't justify investing in iRacing.

Ramon van Rijn · Jul 25, 2009

Don't forget iRacing signed contracts with the VW Jetta training team, Skip Barber training center, Nascar and rumors about indycar also.

I think that's where the big money is coming from. Actual racing series train their drivers partly with iRacing.

PS. If you buy more tracks you get discount so the whole package will be just over $300, at least thats what I did spent on it.
For me the biggest pro is listening to their customers and actually invent new things in the simulator, like introducing laserscanning for the first time, or the rating system which is bad on some parts but after all good on most parts.
I am willing to pay a lot for this kind of improvements on the simracing platform, which by other companies seems to be forgotten how it works. (companies is not only 1 company btw; no names

)

Simon Trendell · Jul 25, 2009

Just a few days left!

Kevin Watts · Jul 25, 2009

I pick up iRacing when I have the time. I've recently let my subscription lapse but I'm thinking of resubscribing again soon. iRacing provides structured racing with a clear set of rules on competition and behaviour. No offence to the event organisers here because they are limited to the sims chosen to be played but everything in iRacing is integrated with the web site (obviously because iRacing is a bespoke piece of software where as RD has to use off the shelf games) so it makes it a much easier route to finding good clean racing.

I do wonder sometimes about their business model but Ramon is right, the gamer side of things is just one part of their business, training tools for real drivers is another revenue source for them. Time will tell as to whether all the new series they add can be fully populated but so far I've not had any problems finding people to race with. The community is building nicely and during my time there I've come to recognise drivers names and car colour scheme's but I do miss playing with a small group of friends as I can in other PC games and on the 360 and PS3.

A flight sim called 'Rise of Flight' has recently taken a leaf out of iRacing's book and launched with a few basic aircraft with more available to purchase from their online store. I have spent quite a bit on cars and tracks for iRacing but I've never felt like I've not got my money's worth out of them. The tracks in particular are very well crafted and the laser scanning really does seem to bring the track alive with all the bumps and imperfections. IMHO the boxed racing sim genre is a little stale right now with just a few titles using the same game engine or at least modified versions of that engine.

To me that has led to a lack of innovation. I watched the RACE On promo video on the front page of RD and just saw more of the same, it didn't excite me. All of the current crop of PC sims have not pushed the boundaries graphically either and their console cousins are leading the way in terms of graphics. I know people will chant the same tired old mantra of graphics not being everything and console games not being realistic enough but without good looking visuals you loose a lot of the immersion. Looking through rFactor Central there are lots of tracks and mods but many of the tracks are conversions from old sims with the same poor textures and 2D cut out spectators/tree's and other track-side objects that scream "FAKE" as you drive past them. These conversions are like grave robbing, we're becoming racing zombies feeding off the flesh of the old decrepit corpses of sims from years gone by. iRacing may not dazzle in the visuals (although it does have its own particular charm) but at least it pushes the racing sim genre forward with laser scanned tracks which other developers like Codemasters are now starting to do themselves.

David Barry · Jul 25, 2009

Awesome screens, I want to race the lotus, But I'll just be promoted to C(so I could do it if I got my sr to 4.0) and I want to run the Mazda(just bought it, lots of fun) and I'll also have to race the VW, as well as the occasional skip race, I just can't imagine having time for the Lotus.