$10 puts the average Sim Racer into bankruptcy

~ Chris

Two weeks ago, the $10 Assetto Corsa Dream Pack DLC sent many sim racers into financial disarray. Overdraft fees and bankruptcy lawyers were commonplace among the sim community. “How could I possibly afford another $10 on top of the $2000 worth of computer, wheels,pedals, and headset I have here”, said one victim who wished to remain anonymous.

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iRacing has to resort to handing out $5 bailouts for long-time sim racers who could no longer afford the $11.99 NASCAR Truck Series upgrade that was released. Tony Gardner from iRacing had this to say : “It is a major concern, we do not want to see their be anymore financial instability in the sim racing community, so we did what we could to help increase liquidity and keep the economy going.”

/Sarcasm

Several years ago a friend of mine told me that there was more to racing games than Forza 2 and Project Gotham Racing. He signed up for an iRacing account, and from just listening to his descriptions of how it played, I was sold.

$550 worth of computer parts, a $150 monitor, and a USB Microsoft Sidewinder Racing Wheel later, I was up and running. I haven’t looked back since – neither have the vast majority of us. It isn’t uncommon for the average sim racer to spend a few hundred dollars a year on content and upgraded equipment.

But new software content? NOPE! How could we spend any of our money on software that lets us utilize our hardware?

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What is perplexing to me is that back in 2009, most iRacing members would have put the price point of a laser scanned Nurburgring at $25 to $100. Many of us would have gladly paid that price. To get a laser scanned version of the Nurburgring for $15 and 10 amazing cars including the legendary McLaren F1 GTR, we must be in sim racing heaven.

Well heaven for most, but not all. It seems like there are some who would have preferred Kunos give out all that content for free. They probably want iRacing to hand out their version for free as well.

Well they sorta want to – James

Seems to me some people don’t understand what it costs to develop software, let alone the licensing fees required to re-create a race car or race track.