Rfactor 2 pricing.. future switch plans?

So the pricing for Rfactor 2 is out and causing a few waves for leagues such as ourselves. Initial game cost will be around £27 and include a year access to online racing. Beyond that 12 months annual fee £8 will be applicable for accessing online play including private leagues.

Compared to other sims such as iracing thats still very good value but many of us have enjoyed free online play for years so its causing some waves to actually have to pay for things....but hey the world has changed and we can't all be Greek

As far as future for our league goes, rfactor will become outdated and players will move to new platforms so it does have a limited shelf life left in it whcih is why most leagues these day dont grow to vast numbers. Therefore a discussion is required on which platform we take...so over to you chaps, whats your stance?

Just another way to get rich quick? I don't understand why everyone would have to pay if you don't use Thier servers etc? They've got Thier selling price to make Thier money, why kill it with demanding more?

Think is, it's pay & play or don't. So like you say, if it gets people in and numbers because it's the 'latest' thing, then so be it, we update..

From my personel point of view i think i'm like you Brandon, on one hand i'm trying to justify the online subscription for events on a server self hosted, on the other hand i've had that much value and enjoyment out of rfactor over 5 years it doesn't seem that much to ask if they are going to manage online play better than RF1 was able to handle. Additionally from what i can tell its a forced move to crack down on all the cracked copies of the game being run out in the world.

At this stage I'll probably buy the game after the beta is finished as the current alternatives dont appeal. So what are the modern alternatives?

-iRacing is subscripton only and you pay $99 dollars per year for 9 tracks and 6 cars. Additional tracks and car packs cost about $12 each... no thanks not for me!
-C.A.R.S. , title in development, looks good but early days and how the software will pan out is unclear.
-Simbin GTR/RACE, based around same game engine as rfactor, also has custom mods/tracks etc but as far as i can see not as popular as rfactor. New version due next year but little detail available.
- console only racing, Xbox and PS3 are yet to see a qaulity racing title that has long term appeal

From a league point of view, what is known is rfactor 2 will continue to support custom work such as tracks and car mods so its all a balancing act really. Do we stick with a 6 year old sim platform that will please current members with no intention of upgrading and risk not growing the member base ... or do we embrace the new for all of eight quid and tap into new content, members and a quality platform. Our old friends over at GMWC are saying they wont now touch rfactor 2 but i think weve all been spoiled by the mass of free content over the past years.

The whole £8 thing is stupid they have copied what blizzard did with world of warcraft to make more money. They have practicaly shot them selves in the foot though but i think its because of the amount of people who own a cracked copy of rfactor. I might consider getting it if a few people from here are getting it aswell but with grand theft auto 5 comming out it will probaly take me awhile to get round to rfactor 2.

Edit:
C.A.R.S is still in development and im not sure if you would be able to mod it although it dose look good and very realsitc its £15 a month to use it and even then you can only use the builds released and not the beta ones.

Xbox and PS3 do have longterm games Froza and GT5.

Or the other option would be to use GTR2, I have played it before, and is quite enjoyable, with little effort I think GTR2 could become a better base for this leagues direction in the Touring and GT class. It's plus factor is it simulates rainy conditions, and a variety of other conditions.

The open wheel series of the league is not going to be around for at least another 12 months based on my assumptions, I think GTR2 could also be a good platform for open wheel cars, physics will need some work, but all-round its a good platform.

Chris, I agree GTR/Race or whatever its called these days is an option yes but i guess were looking for the next step up rather than sideways step. if i see it cheap anywhere then i may take a lot otherwise it'll be rfactor2 then see what it has to offer and perhaps see what GTR3 will offer next year.

The idea of changeable conditions does appeal but i know that will be in rfactor2 also. Either way i think it'll be a good year before the dust settles and the league might make a switch.

Ant, i hadn't realised C.A.R.S was monthly subscription also so thats a non starter for me.

well AJ asked a few questions on the isi forum and got no where the pricing is pretty much it and not suspect to change to an extent though we are not loosing out as much as other leagues after all the mot expensive thing for our league is the domain name i think. I saw somewhere on the pricing guide though that if you pre order u get beta and 18 months of online insted of 12?

Running the league does have a financial cost but i get enjoyment from it so it balances out. Its about £4.99 a month for web hosting and a tenner for the domain name.

To put thing into context i've just looked at iRacing and am somewhat gobsmacked. If you want the full iracing package.. i.e. every track and car going, you start with a $99 annual subscription for the game(incl 6 cars and 9 tracks) and then a cost of $650 for the extra car and track add-ons and thats with a 25% discount for buying the lot! Plus if you want a private server you have to pay for that too!

Suddenly £27 and a future £8 online play subscription for a fully open content sim doesn't seem so bad.

I agree Matt, £8 is'nt much for some of us, but i'll go with what the consensus does really. I enjoy the racing online together etc, so what ever platform it is, i'll get..

At least GTR2 is still (if I remember correctly) free to race online, I like racing online as a hobby, but I don't want to have to pay to play, especially having forked out for a bloody expensive wheel and pedal combo back in the day. Not sure how GTR3 is going to pan out cost wise, but my money is on GTR3 being the bigger brother to RF2 (as GTR2 was to RF) GTR2 had a much better UI than RF, although I believe it's a little more complicated to create mods for it.

Money for me is pretty tight at the moment, especially with the little man around. So the free'er it is, the better.

Understood Chris, think we'll just go for a watch this space stance for now and see what comes out of 2012. Rf2 is only going out as public beta when launched anyway for now.

havent u gotta pre roder to beta it?

http://www.virtualr.net/rfactor-2-pricing-open-beta-info-announced

GTR3 is coming in 2012 too.. Just released teaser is good so could be interesting.

http://gtr3.com/?p=1

I'd say future platform switch could narrow down to Rfactor2 / GTR3 tussle but its too early to tell and whatever we do it'll be a league member desired switch.

MS Flight is starting beta in january and also my computer needs a new motherboard and maybe cpu so i doubt i will get either of them .

I'm with most people on here and do not want to pay cos never had to before, but looking around the net at different leagues, looks like its the way its eventially going to go with what ever sim we go with.
Is GTR3 going the same way doe's anyone know.
For me though i am going to go with both if the need be, the main reason for rf2 are the classic f1 cars and tracks which are being worked on and avaliable in the future.
I will go with GTR3 if we go that way in the league so np there.
To me £8 a yr,less than a pound a month [66p] is not bad compared to what others have to pay.