Racing Legends Update

Wondered over to the Racing Legends forum (havent been there in a while) and found a very popular thread.

This info comes straight out of the thread "Racing Legends Info gleened from Goodwood Today"

"I managed to have a long chat with the West brothers today about RL and tried to get answers to the all the things people here were unsure about yesterday. I'm pretty sure its ok for me to post the answers here - they certainly didn't ask me not to.

Content

Due to licensing issues (they have no licenses at the moment) the core release is likely to be 1 car and 1 track only. The track I'm not sure of (they said that Sebring had no license costs tho) and the car would be 57 era, non-badged but very similiar to a real one.

Price

This has not been decided as it depends very much on predicted sales, which in turn depend on the response from the community. The more of us who buy into the concept the cheaper it will be. I asked that if the sales were expected to be about 5000 what would the price be, and the answer was around the £100 mark. Track and Car Add ons would perhaps be around £20 but would depend on how much the license costs were and how detailed the model was.

Beta test

They intend to charge for the right to be part of the Beta test program, but this fee would be refunded on purchase of the full product. This means that nobody will be prevented from getting hold of the Beta version. Beta testers would also be given all the information necessary to create add-ons, such as file formats, etc, so allowing work to be done on these before the main release is available.

Add on packs

Many of the functionality add-ons will be free - effectively upgrades. The tracks and and cars tho will probably cost you, depending on licensing and how much detail was included. Functionality that is not normally expected in a racing sim will probably also cost extra. The list of features in the add-ons list does not mean that there is no support for these in the core software - just that the add-on gives significantly more functionality (eg aero is modelled in the core but the add-on will give much more detail, wind tunnel, etc. I took this to mean the same sort of thing for damage.

Licensing

This is a big issue for RL. Tracks and circuits need licensing normally. Brands might well be £10000 to license but this is far from the most expensive. With only a small number of buyers the cost of licensing per owner may be much higher than for a normal game.

Machine Spec

They test on a P3 733 with V5 so a good GPL PC should be OK. As they said tho, more performance is always better.

Multi-player

This will be absolutely free. The add-on for league management is also likely to be free (I think I am right here anyway)

CDs

You will be able to buy normal CDs as well as the CD Cards - In their words, they just think they are cool

Third party add ons

They are very keen to involve the community in creating add-ons for the system, either as freebies or to be purchased. They also said that they may be prepared to effectively sell add-ons for those who create them.

When?

I didn't push this biggie. Very few products are done on time and they are not stupid, so we are not going to get an answer to this yet IMO.

Are Empire using their code?

No as it needs a floating point processor and the playstation doesn't have one apparently. Empire do retain all the rights tho and RL is all new code - They stressed this a lot.

My take on all this :

Chris and Tony have a lot riding on this project - they can't afford for it to fail. All those who write it off as 'never going to happen' are going to have to eat double portions of humble pie.

A lot of the decisions have been dictated by licensing issues - Most tracks costs a lot of money to license hence the core release not having lots of them. It also explains the add-ons as they can be released in small chunks and not require the Wests to commit to a big initial outlay with no guarantee of sales.

The cost is likely to deter those who are not sure if they need such a hardcore sim and have limited spending power.

Many of the issues that people raised yesterday are not really issues.

The one track and one car core release combined with a price tag of £100 is bound to raise eyebows. Personally I think its worth it tho assuming it lives up to its billing.

If we want this to work then we all need to get behind it 100% right now. Show them that the product has a big future, that we will buy it, and that we will help to make it grow as a community. At the same time we also need to give them constructive (operative word) critisim about the product. This will mean that in the long run the price will be lower and the product closer to what we want.

Paul"


Did i read correctly? £100 for 1 car and 1 track? :0 :0 :0

Theyve got to be having a laugh.

Whats your take on this.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2004 07:57PM by 97kirkc.

I'll pass, I won't pay 100 anything for 1 car and 1 track. Then have to pay more for extra's. Fack dat.


We've been waiting to long for this game with hardly ANY updates.

ROFLMFAO. £100 for one car and track!? Then £20 for more!?

This could possibly be the most warezed game ever if it costs that much

o thats £100 for one car, and one track, then £20 for each extra u want?

even bill gates wudnt try that

Sim

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All Hail The New York Giants - Winners of Superbowl XXI, XXV and XLII!

"I'd love to know what goes on in that crazy head of yours sometimes, Sim..." - Locke Cole

£100 for a game and 20£ for add-on mods?? are they crazy?!!

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Its crazy, thank god they are only projected figures.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2004 08:21PM by 97kirkc.

so fricken greedy :shakes head:

I sense they are stuck in a circle. They can't put more than 1 car and track in because they can't afford it, and the reason they can't afford it is because they don't know the number of sales. Fact is, nobody is going to give them a sale if they can only offer that. They'd be best doing an LFS with fantasy look-a-like cars and good fantasy tracks just to give more content.

£20 for an addon though is exsessive, especially for something you really want as standard.

i wouldnt say thats greedy but unfortunate as they are playing to a minority audience and therefore the costs are higher. They have got this wrong as i have thought since i first heard about this game, it seems too ambitious really.

They will have to sell the initial game with more cars and tracks and be prepared to work at a loss to push the initial game if they want this to be a success, then charge for add-ons which if the game is good enough im sure people will pay.

If they dont do this then they will flop big style, they need to seriously look at this or this game will do nothing there is NO WAY even hard core fans will pay that for 1 car and track, but as i said to succeed they may need to sell the game as a loss initially to make people play the game and yearn for the add-ons i think this is the only way....

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Please visit my brand new website [www.grandprixblogger.com] for everything Formula One. Here you will find my motorsport galleries as as well as the latest F1 news, classic F1 reviews and polls on the latest happenings in the world of F1.

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My First Single Seater Drive: Formula
Audi, Brands Hatch Feb. '04
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i wouldnt say thats greedy but unfortunate as they are playing to a minority audience and therefore the costs are higher.

£40 becomes £100
Free becomes £20

Just a bit higher yes :-\

whats the complains? they said this years ago...

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24 Heures Du Mans 18-19 June 2005

and we complained then too. And when you look at the quality of free mods these days (TPTCC, Trans-Am, GPL65) charging so much just won't work anymore I dont think.

@Dave Ellis: Its still not greed i hardly think they will be being greedy when they are trying to make this game work in its initial stages, this stuff costs a lot to make, develop and release the start up costs are phenominal, i agree the prices rising are bad but they clearly have planned very badly and realised through their work it is going to cost a lot more, they should have done more research at the start and they would have found this out.

I mean do you think that when they have gambled everything on a game and given a price tag of 40 quid they are going to say 'no actually lets make it 100 quid cause we want more money' i doubt it they want to make this thing work and will not be making much money at the start i wouldnt think, im not sure you are aware of the costs of things like this to start up....

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Please visit my brand new website [www.grandprixblogger.com] for everything Formula One. Here you will find my motorsport galleries as as well as the latest F1 news, classic F1 reviews and polls on the latest happenings in the world of F1.

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My First Single Seater Drive: Formula
Audi, Brands Hatch Feb. '04
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ok then. who will actually pay £100 for 1 track and 1 car? and 2 ppl to play against online :P

The costs are indeed very high we know, but you have to remember we don't have bottomless wallets.

It's a bit like a supermarket getting hold of the best quality strawberries ever grown, and expecting people to pay £50 for a bowl full.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2004 09:27PM by Glyn.

but they are good strawberries

but games dont have sell by dates

It's a bit like a supermarket getting hold of the best quality strawberries ever grown, and expecting people to pay £50 for a bowl full.

We still have nothing to say this will be decent though. WSC went down the pisser, and watching the video of it made me a bit glad because the cars looked stupid when moving. All we have here is two brothers who are producing lovely renders, some of which have nothing to do with the game itself, and there word this be a sim to beat all sims.

1 car and 1 track for £100 will not happen. Plain and simple. It can have the best physics engine in the world and still nobody will buy a £100 game for one car and one track. Its all fine and well saying that they gambeled everything and the costs of making it have forced the price up, but you put the cost too high, nobody buys it anyway, and then it fails even worse than they were fearing before.

At £100 for 1 car and 1 track, this game will fail. Its cruel to say that, but that is how it will happen because gamers dont have that kind of cash to give out for so little back. They need to seriously rethink there pricing plan, and perhaps, rather than sellint it in stores, make it a pay for download which will reduce costs for them and us

They need to get a publisher that will pay for the licenses. Cause no one will pay 100+ for a game that has 1 car and 1 track.

That's like saying you'll buy UT 2004 and get 1 AI bot and 1 level.

It's unheard of and it will fail instantly.

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> ROFLMFAO. £100 for one car and track!? Then £20
> for more!?
>
> This could possibly be the most warezed game ever
> if it costs that much




Thats entirely the attitude that will prevent this from becoming a sucess

that figure of £100 was mentioned at a projected amount of 5000 copys sold


hopefully with the GTR sim being lapped up by racing fans it might benefit the sales of racing legends also

the PC market is in a drought of proper racing sims, we dont need shitty console port overs, we need dedicated simulators

without supporting people that have the balls to go out on limb and provide this sort gap in the market we'll never see this again and the true simulator will die out


its the old chicken and egg syndrome again, with out our support ( i.e the buying public) these sims will never get off the ground


i for one will be keeping an eye out for this






LS's Tip of the week
ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

Nobodyy said we didnt support it, but we dont have limitless funds. Can you afford £100 and then £20 per addon? Seriously? Cos i cant, so thats me definatly out, and i know many others cant, so thats them out too.

There is no "attitude that will prevent this from becoming a sucess", its simple maths. If you dont have £100 to spend on a game, you cant buy it. Most of us dont have £100 to spend, and then £20 to throw at it every time we are bored of one car and one track.

If i had the money to do it, i bloody would. There is alot of promise in this game, and altho im not holding my breath, i really badly want this to be the best sim ever. IF i could spend the cash they are asking on it, i would. But i cant, and nor can many others. Its not a case of the right or wrong attitude at all