Fhew.. Just read through 7 pages since last night. You guys talk too much.
A few things:
Part 1 - In reference to continued debate on the value and cost of the Power Pack DLC:
For those who are saying the 50 races and Sophy AI 3.0 etc is not worth $40 or even $20 to them: Let's pretend this happened a different way:
How do you feel reading that? What would you pay for that Spec 3 update? $20? $30? $40+? What if you liked 6 of the cars in the update? What if you only liked two of the cars but it's two that you've be DYING to have in the game? What if you only liked 1 of the new tracks but it was one of your favorites ever? What if you bought the DLC, but your friend didn't, and now you can't play together with whatever car or track combination?
Now imagine that's what you're actually paying for.. It just isn't being presented as such by Sony.
Hopefully it helps you understand what you personally value and also how it's not as simple as it seems to offer additional content.
Part 2 - In reference to a lot of people saying that qualifying, endurance etc should be in from launch but it wasn't so it's "half-baked" which I think implies that they were going to add that eventually (fully baked) but didn't have time or money or whatever:
I imagine the reality is more like, they felt they had two different audiences:
- One group who liked Sport mode/online racing in GT Sport. In their eyes, the "Hardcore". These are the people who want challenging racing. They are going to yell about other players crashing into them, complain about almost everything, and continue to play for the most part. They say offline AI is dumb and a waste of time in basically every game because they don't get the same "high" as competing against another real human being.
- On the other end, you had the "Casual" players who preferred playing offline/solo and just wanted to pop in and out of the game, do quick/short races, move through a curated "experience" (Cafe), and likely had a lower skill level. They don't want to practice. They don't want to qualify. They want to get credits and collect cars.
Where would they get this idea? Because there are likely millions of players who do fit into the casual category and maybe 100,000 or less that that fall into the "Hardcore" group. So I don't think they had any intention of adding Qualifying or 24 Hr Endurance races to single player GT7. They probably didn't think anyone really cared except like a tiny 0.5% of players. And then some story would pop up in the news about a person dying in an internet cafe from health/food/thirst reasons, while ignoring their baby, while trying to complete the 24 Hr race and then bring stupid bad press.
The reality, which I don't think they had enough data to see based on GT Sport being primarily E-Sports focused, is that there is a large group of people who fall into the middle ground, and probably where I'd attach myself. I played a lot of GT Sport online because that's what there was to do and it was a novel experience. I've only touched it like 5 times in GT7 since release. But I believe there's a segment of people who want all of those "Hardcore" features but not online. They want more than a quick 3 lap easy race. They want a challenge, but not from some person whos going to throw a temper tantrum and then torpedo their car in the next corner for accidentally touching their bumper. So GT7 came out, they got some feedback, and now they had to go back to the drawing board and make or remake a bunch of features that the game was never designed to do.
I believe GT7 was fully baked in the eyes of PD. They thought it would serve all or most audiences. But a larger portion of the player base than they expected just didn't like the taste. They can't just
"BAM!" and
Emeril Lagasse it-- sprinkle a little salt on and everyone is happy. They have to go in and change ingredients and almost start over. And we have to wait for that time (years) in the oven. And meanwhile, Polyphony is continually paying crazy rent costs or whatever on a kitchen in the heart of a very expensive city to house that oven and dozens or hundreds of chefs who get paid a lot to live in and around that expensive city.
Nothing is free.
Part 3 - In reference to what the Power Pack is going to be
I'm going to make my prediction from a "realist" position. Meaning, not overly optimistic or pessimistic. This is based on what we can make educated guesses on so far. Hopefully it's better, but don't be surprised if it's not.
- The Power Pack DLC could cost anywhere from $20 to $50. Credits do not cost them anything to offer. It's a couple 1s and 0s in a digital note tied to your save file. It's more of a perception thing. A "Value Add". Removing the credits from the DLC does not make it any cheaper for them to produce.
- The Power Pack DLC could be intended for late game, high level/experienced players. Meaning, it may unlock races gradually or the whole feature may not unlock til level 50. They could argue $50+ for the base game gets you all of that base content and this is intended to be just an expansion pack for players who want an additional challenge but is not required content.
- These are likely going to be similar to Missions; Some will have specific cars. Some will have a certain type of car. I would hope, but not expect, that there are some events that are just PP based and let you use any car within a theme.
- I would not expect new, unique cars as gifts. My assumption is they are just pre-modified cars. Not special "Racing Modifications", but base cars that already have all the bodywork/accessories/tuned parts on it.
- The events might not reward any money. I haven't seen a shot with prize money. The reward could just be the gift car at the end.
K I need to go pick up groceries and cat litter so I have to cut this short
cough No time to proof read.
) in that Weekly Challenge.
