Controversial Freemium Game Real Racing 3 Hits the U.S. App Store

[Snowy_River]

Yes.

People who are used to paying up front for games don't like freemium, so they don't play them.

However, 10 to 1000 times more people who don't like to pay for games download them because they're free to download. If a small fraction of those players later decide to upgrade, the game makes even more money than it would have from catering to the much smaller number of people who pay for games up front. Who cares if they complain? Further, since so many people can be seen playing these free-to-download games, they generate even more downloads from this free advertising.

You know, if it were a matter of "upgrading" I wouldn't have an issue with the freemium model. However, that's not what the model is. It is a matter of constantly having to pay to play, unless you want to take the "slow road". There are a number of these freemium games that I have downloaded and played, and even enjoyed. I have, however, never, EVER bought any in-app currency, and for one simple reason: it's always, ALWAYS grossly over priced. There is one game that I've played where if you wanted to "buy" all of the possible bonus items (at any one time, as they continually add new ones and retire - temporarily - old ones) you would have to spend several hundred dollars on in-app currency. To me those kind of prices on a game that isn't even as elegant and impressive as Real Racing 3 (which, based on the promo video, is quite beautiful, if nothing else), is simply disgusting.

Now, if there were more reasonable prices on the in-app currency, I might well choose to spend a dollar or two here and there. But if I am going to spend, honestly, $20, let alone $100 or more on such a game, I would expect to have essentially have a god mode that would allow me to effectively have as much in-app currency as I want. Beyond that, the games aren't worth it.

 

[InuNacho]

Might as well go to Dave & Busters and play an 8 man round of Daytona. That right there is REAL RACING.

 

[sammich]

IMO the freemium aspect doesn't quite ruin the game. It really sucks when you have one car but after a while it's not so bad. Sure, it might have been better had it been a straight ready-to-race at any time but I think the limiting aspect makes it a better game; makes you 'value' your car more.

But then again, I'm the type that likes to play freemium games without using any real money as a challenge. Also, I'm a patient fella. I've spent over 36 hours on the game this far and still love it.

(Btw, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS is probably the worst car I've bought so far, for so many reasons)

Besides, there isn't any real need to spend money. The gold is quite generously given.

 

[lusky]

I've never bought anything within a freemium game but my wife just told me she spent over £10 on Candy Crush????? yet would she have spent that on a fully featured version of the game? probably not. I hate them.

I guarantee that we are only weeks away from a news story breaking about people racking up hundreds of dollars of debt on these games. This is where I would love to see Apple's legendary control frakery come into play and control what these guys can charge (doubt it will happen)

If anyone complains in the future to you about the cost of Apple's hardware, point to freemium games as an example of what happens when companies race to the bottom in price, they need to make their money somehow. Amazon are already doing it with adverts on the kindle

 

[gursis11]

Despite it being a freemium app, I've never had to pay a single sent in the past 2/3 weeks I've been playing it with (I'm in Australia).

You can actually upgrade your car, buy a new one and still progress through the levels.
What I do is only upgrade and service my cars after I've finished my gaming session, this allows the cars to service or upgrade and I can do my own thing. After an hour or two when its finished, I can pick it up whenever I like and continue through the races.

That way you're not missing out on gameplay AND you don't spend a single dollar. No way to me does this feel like a freemium, more like an app that's App of the Week forever.

 

[NameUndecided]

I just played for a little more than an hour, with two two-minute breaks and one five-minute break while I "upgraded" my car three times. This is not something that pissed me off because I'm a reasonable person and I'm actually glad the game gave me an excuse to get up and take a break.

I'm sure this will be even less intrusive after I have more than one car.

This game looks fantastic. Kudos to the developers and teams that put it together.

I've already resolved to not spend any money on purchases because I don't want to spend on anything that doesn't have a "final" price to it. This is sweetened by the fact that the purchase system hasn't done anything to irritate me yet.

Thanks, other people who would rather pay because they don't want to put the game down for half an hour, for keeping this enterprise going while I get to play for free -- guilt free.

Anyone who is not downloading this game AT ALL just out of spite for the payment system -- this seems like such a pointless protest. Just don't spend money if you don't want to spend money.

 

[mindvent]

Will download this to give a negative review. This microtransactions model is awful. I don't care how much more money it takes in.

Greedy developers selling their soul at detriment of the game experience. Boo!

Do the right thing developers!

 

[inscrewtable]

I'm not a gamer I prefer playing Go or more likely watching a couple of 9 dan professional players. However I downloaded it to my new iPod touch just to see what a state of the art game looked like.

I was shocked at the way it tries to extract money out of you. After ascertaining that it is what I thought it would be, I trashed it.

It seems to be trying to make money in the same way that pornography does, by luring hard core gamers in with promises of free playing, then whacking them with cash penalties if they want to continue.

 

[antonis]

Although I'm very willing to pay for any paid app that is quality-made including games of course, I can never buy anything from within a game, even if this game was free to download at first place. It just feels like...someone laughs and calls me "sucker" if I do that.

It's not like rewarding the devs for their work by buying their well-made app, it's something different, feels like "milking the cow" and that repulses me.

 

[mazz0]

If this is out in America but not Britain I'm declaring war.

On Washington.

In Civilisation.

 

[NameUndecided]

So anyway, I just went through a race while an upgrade was happening to the car that I was racing with.

It seems that the wait time only applies while servicing the car (doing the oil, replacing the brakes, etc.).

You can skip those wait times by using gold coins that are actually given out quite liberally as you progress.

I only have one car at this early time, but I'm pretty sure you can just race with a different car while one is being serviced if you don't want to wait ten minutes or spend two bloody gold fake-currency coins.

The level of whine, victim mentality, and pre-emptive outrage that some are displaying is stunning to me. Have fun with it.

 

[mazz0]

Will download this to give a negative review. This microtransactions model is awful. I don't care how much more money it takes in.

Greedy developers selling their soul at detriment of the game experience. Boo!

Do the right thing developers!

I hope you mean “Will download this to give a negative review if, after playing it, I decide my fears were well founded and free minus does spoil it”

 

[ahbiteme]

It's a great game

You know what, when I first started playing it, the waiting time annoyed me. But it also meant that I'd put the iPad down and go and do something else for awhile, which isn't a bad thing. It is odd to disrupt a game that would usually draw you in so much though.

I do really enjoy it though. It's fun to play and looks amazing. As others have said, I'd rather pay $10 or so upfront.

I don't intend to spend any money on it unless I feel there's a really big jump later on by doing so. I figure that I've paid my dues by playing the waiting game. But there are also some issues with some levels, such as the Endurance levels (going down a straight at 170 mph and then suddenly slowing down to 21 mph for no reason), so until the bugs are ironed out, I'm certainly not paying anything.

 

[tdtran1025]

Server overload!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

How do the costs compare to arcade prices, though?

As I recall, arcade games are supposed to generally go for about 1 minute per $0.10 for a noob or about 5 minutes per $0.10 for a really good player.

Personally, I'd like to implement some kind of theatric model, where you can buy a game outright for your crappy system for $20 or play for two hours on my awesome system for $10. (This is the businessman/developer in me talking, not the customer.)

 

[Cod3rror]

Can someone please explain to me how "freemium" games/apps continue to be produced when every single person hate them. Do people just hate them yet continue to play them and in turn keeping devs thinking that freemium works?

How?

This is how,

Conditioned, weak minded consumer drones.

DLC and in-app purchases is the worst thing that as ever happened to the software market.

 

[CBlakeston]

I wish everyone would play the game first before passing judgement and see how the pay system has been implemented. Would I rather pay 9.99 for a fully unlocked game - probably. Does the freemium model effect my enjoyment at all - No. If anything I'll probably spend the equivalent of 9.99 at some point to reward the devs for their phenomenal work!

It's quite something to see the game in action. If anything, the fact its free means more of my friends will give it a try, so they'll show up in my races. So in that sense being freemium helps it

Being on the verge of the next round of consoles I don't think PS4/ Next Box really knows what they're up against! In a world where I can download a triple AAA game with phenomenal graphics that instantly hurls you into a contest with other players from around the world seamlessly.. and is FREE! How is anyone ever going to spend £60 on a 'proper' game again?

 

[cdmoore74]

If the game was not free it would be one of the most pirated iOS games out there considering that every idevice has the potential to be jailbroken. Don't hate the player hate the game.
Expect every game to follow this model. Imagine if Sony and Microsoft used this model to combat piracy. Pay $5 to unlock each level or $60 to unlock everything. It would kill used game sales overnight, no piracy and more money in the hands of developers. You would see games passed out like free AOL disk.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

In the top 20 grossing apps in the app store, only 3 are NOT freemium. Despite what people complain about. Freemium works, and can make more money than not-freemium.

The problem is that most of the people whining CAVE in the end and pay through the nose. It's the same reason why game developers keep making these massive online pay by the month RPGs (hello Warcraft and the like) and give away the first X amount of levels for free. They hope to addict you and like a slot machine, keep you inserting "coins" indefinitely.

Until people STOP supporting such a model, they will continue to do this and it will become the defacto model for the future because it makes more money.

OTOH, Apple has never addressed the problem of the inability to easily offer a DEMO version of software and this just wreaks havoc on game developers that want you to buy their game, but who the heck wants to plonk down a bunch of money for a game they've never played before? You can at least try Playstation games or whatever at a friends house first and regular games have demo versions to try out the first level. So I think this pay to continue model was probably developed to address that sort of thing (along with pay to get rid of ad models). The "free" aspect acts like a demo and you pay to get rid of the limited features. Continue to pay is just a slot machine version of this (like paying to get cheating 'extras' on Angry Birds which cost more than the game itself 100x over and aren't very good anyway).

Maybe Apple should adopt a more traditional demo/store model. They are too restrictive, but then I'm against a mono-store model where Apple can reject something just because they don't like it. The consumer should decide what can go on their iOS device, not Apple.

 

[Richdmoore]

If the game was not free it would be one of the most pirated iOS games out there considering that every idevice has the potential to be jailbroken. Don't hate the player hate the game.
Expect every game to follow this model. Imagine if Sony and Microsoft used this model to combat piracy. Pay $5 to unlock each level or $60 to unlock everything. It would kill used game sales overnight, no piracy and more money in the hands of developers. You would see games passed out like free AOL disk.

I suspect the PS4 (and probably the next Xbox) will have downloadable "free" games like this. (I believe Sony already stated soon after thier big press conference that ps4 games will cost from free to $60.)

I think the biggest issue for some people is that ea has not given people a unlock option to just purchase the game, only a virtual money system that many people see as "nickel and diming" or a rip-off.

I am in that camp, I would rather buy a full game vs this virtual money stuff, but at the end if the day it looks like the market (at least for mobile games) prefers this kind of system instead.

 

[SpyderBite]

Until people STOP supporting such a model, they will continue to do this and it will become the defacto model for the future because it makes more money.

Heh. Sounds like the call to action online gamers made about in game purchase models 5 years ago. Now you can't swing a cat without hitting a game that doesn't have a subscription and/or in game purchase options.

freemium a successful revenue model and most developers are in the business to make money. I don't know too many developers that spend a ton of resources on a project just to see the smile on children's faces. This is business not a Sally Struthers commercial.

 

[jonhaxor]

I've never bought anything within a freemium game but my wife just told me she spent over £10 on Candy Crush????? yet would she have spent that on a fully featured version of the game? probably not. I hate them.

your wife lost 10 pounds crushing candy? .. interesting ..

----------

I can't picture dropping coins into a game to play it. Where would anyone get that idea?

what are these things called "coins" that you speak of?

 

[BlankStar]

Been playing the NZ version for weeks now and the freemium hasn't bothered me once. It's a really cool game and I love it and haven't spent a cent on buying coins.
You get coins everytime you lvl, when you get 25/50/75/100% on an event so the need to buy them ain't that big.
When one car is waiting for maintenace, just race with another one. Got 8 cars now and don't give a ***** that one of them is in maintenace for 20 minutes.

I even hate the fact that the 1.0.2 update made repairs instant. It's ridiculous that a windshield is instantly replaced. It only took 5 minutes or so but it made you race more carefully and thus REAListic as it's called REAL Racing I thought this was a cool thing.

 

[BornAgainMac]

That video looks like a race against grandmas.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Can someone please explain to me how "freemium" games/apps continue to be produced when every single person hate them. Do people just hate them yet continue to play them and in turn keeping devs thinking that freemium works?

I detest "Freemium" games as much as the next sane adult. But I remember when I was a kid I'd mindlessly stuff quarters in machines @ the arcade (yes, I'm an old dude). It drove my parents nuts but it was my $ to waste.

I suspect this is how Freemium rakes in $: kids mindlessly pushing the upgrade button b/c they have no concept of money's true value. Lots of kids out there who get iTunes cards by the dozens for birthdays gifts.