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.

 

[Luciano Pacheco]

Cmon guys. If you think 5-10 dollars /m (2 beers) expensive for a quality service you mustn't love this the way I do. You get what you pay for. There's no free dinner.
Last week I just signed for a GSC league here in Brazil and paid 20 dollars for 4 races with live broadcast. Thats expensive. Either the money goes to Kenosha, which I prefer, or they go to leagues administrators.

 

[Luciano Pacheco]

Either the money goes to KUNOS

 

[Kazumi]

"Should AC business model be more like iRacing's ?"

No.

A premium service like an online pass for one year DLC and perks, maybe for leagues like the OP said, I'm okay with that, but I don't think it's necessary or beneficial for AC and Kunos. Just release the game and sell it

 

[Mapu]

please make a generous donation to Kunos Bank Account when you feel like Kunos isn't going to charge enough for their software product or when you're not happy about the way Kunos is going to handle their service, but please stop this kind of discussion - this isn't supposed to be our concern at all!

what are you expecting from this discussion anyway? Go do some iR if you, for what ever experience you have, feel like subscription based leagues are better. I mean iR is just there to please this kind of mindset.

 

[Luciano Pacheco]

I am not talking about product, but service. I have no doubt the software is going to be great. I just think it would be nice to have a great service too. Then it would be Sim Racing heaven. those who don't like it, don't pay for it. Simple as that. Everybody will be happy.

 

[RaceNut]

I am not talking about product, but service. I have no doubt the software is going to be great. I just think it would be nice to have a great service too. Then it would be Sim Racing heaven. those who don't like it, don't pay for it. Simple as that. Everybody will be happy.

That's the problem with iRacing, you either pay the subscription or you don't play it - period. Those content to have only the offline experience are locked out. Having both options might be okay but, also complicates matters for the developers.

 

[Mapu]

Sure lets have a two-tier racing community!

Like the sim-racing community isn't small enough, no let us separate them into two tiers: those who want to buy theirselfs into some possibly better leagues (this term is crying for a coherent definition, which is impossbile) and those who wish not to or simply can not. When lucky, even a third tier may come up, consisting of those, who do not accept such a policy and therefore give it a miss.

Besides, I don't believe that Kunos wishes to spend their restricted resources (it is a small team just to say and they already have huge ambitions)on a official league program and services, servers, maintenance and inherent customer service.

Why don't you keep playing in that league you are already paying for? I mean, they should be able to guarantee you a "quality league" just like Kunos would, if they would charge you for league programs. no? Well if they don't, you shouldn't pay at all, but you do, so everything is fine I guess. Anyway in this regard (providing quality leagues) a third-party supplier should be and (presumed this supplier has all the needed resources) can be as good as the producer itself.