Inside sim racing announces rumor that upgraded premiums will cost money.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike712
  • 302 comments
  • 20,158 views
If you buy DLC depends on what you think the value of the GT5 is. Some people don't like it. I think it is a screaming deal. Even though I use bumper view and don't really care that much how pretty the detailing is of a car is, I will be buying any and all DLC GT5 has to offer because I want to see the series continue. If you want GT to die and go away then don't buy anything associated with GT. That's how it works. They make more of what sells. If people don't like driving/racing games they will quit making them.
 
NOS Waster
Then what will happen, like forza, is a temp car will show up and take its place and its physics and collision boxes will be translated to your screen.
In forza, it was a black VW Bora (Jetta).
I wouldn't be surprised if it's something similar to that in GT5.
Click to expand...

Forza also had free DLC available so all the models were in the game, but you couldn't purchase or use them. This way when you raced online you'd see the actual car as it was intended, not a Jetta, but you couldn't go buy one yourself.
 
I'd rather pay for new tracks and racing series (like more and better a-spec events) than new cars. New cars don't really offer as much replay-ability as new events and/or tracks would.
 
Mike712
That principal makes me lol, you are aware the whole PD team probably are on £1,000,000 salaries(or more).

This has everything to do with greed and nothing to do with making a living.

I don't get how people just roll over to games companies and accept this sort of thing...seriously :P
Click to expand...

1,000,000?! LOL
That's about 1,5 million dollars. Were do you think they get that money from? The average game designer gets around 50.000 dollars each year. The head director gets a maximum of 200.000 dollars. No were near 1,000,000 pounds.
And do you realize how much world wide advertising costs? Then there is the costs of the energy bill, computers, development kits, the rent of the building, and for this studio the trips to all the racing tracks all over the world, etc. Also, the biggest part of the money probably goes to the publisher, in this case, Sony.

Anyway,
I'm freely willing to pay for DLC as long as it's worth it. I would give 8 euro for a 10 car pack. Maybe even more depending on the cars.
As for tracks, 3-4 euro's for each track seems like a reasonable price.
I'm hoping for free DLC, but i'm definitely willing to pay for it.
 
I still have 14 bucks on my PSN account, waiting for the first DLC just in case it will cost some money. Wouldn't mind paying for more content, although it depends on how expensive it is. At least it would be something new and not stuff that's already on the disc (hello EA and Activision).
 
Mike712
That principal makes me lol, you are aware the whole PD team probably are on £1,000,000 salaries(or more).

This has everything to do with greed and nothing to do with making a living.

I don't get how people just roll over to games companies and accept this sort of thing...seriously :P
Click to expand...
You are tripping. You need to get your facts straight. The people who do the real work (the game developers), that bring these games to you work 70-80 hour weeks, and has been mentioned, earn somewhere from $50-70,000 a year.

Greed is when people feel entitled to endless freebies for a pathetic game that cost the price of a meal for two.
 
Upgrading current standard cars to premiums should be free. Including new cars not in GT5 as premium models should be paid DLC (or a freebie gift).

I really hope they don't charge to upgrade current standard cars. I refuse to pay for it. If PD releases DLC though as new premiums, I'll be all for it and day 1 buyer
 
BeardOfChuck
1,000,000?! LOL
That's about 1,5 million dollars. Were do you think they get that money from? The average game designer gets around 50.000 dollars each year. The head director gets a maximum of 200.000 dollars. No were near 1,000,000 pounds.
And do you realize how much world wide advertising costs? Then there is the costs of the energy bill, computers, development kits, the rent of the building, and for this studio the trips to all the racing tracks all over the world, etc. Also, the biggest part of the money probably goes to the publisher, in this case, Sony.
.
Click to expand...

invader67
You are tripping. You need to get your facts straight. The people who do the real work (the game developers), that bring these games to you work 70-80 hour weeks, and has been mentioned, earn somewhere from $50-70,000 a year.

Greed is when people feel entitled to endless freebies for a pathetic game that cost the price of a meal for two.
Click to expand...


If kaz was on 200k a year he wouldn't own the collection of super cars that he does, he's absurdly well off.

Yes the average programmer earns around 50k a year, but PD as I've already stated is a tiny team, their business profile gives an estimate of 110 employees, yet they have sold almost 50 million copies of Gran Turismo in total. I can assure you that the average staff salary will be very above average.

Quoted from the top gear webisite:

What's in your garage at the moment?
I drive my Nissan GT-R most of the time, but I've also got a Ford GT, a Porsche 911 GT3, a Mercedes-Benz SL AMG, and a Honda S2000 racing car.

Trust me a collection like that is far beyond the reaches of someone on a 200k salary. I doubt very much that's the full extent of his car collection either.
 
Last edited:
invader67
Greed is when people feel entitled to endless freebies for a pathetic game that cost the price of a meal for two.
Click to expand...

Amen.

For a company to stay in business and keep producing games or even just DLC for existing games, they have to make money to pay the bills. I'm sure they did make a killing on GT5, but to stay profitable and keep producing they need a revenue stream. Fixes and patches should be free, content that was promised and not delivered at ship date should be free, but they have no responsibility at all to provide free additional content beyond what was promised.

It is of course nice if they do, it makes some business sense to offer occasional freebies to keep up interest, but businesses run on money.
 
If the cars end up costin money, I hope it's microtransaction or whatever it's called. If they go the iRacing way, I don't think they'll sell.
 
Mike712
If kaz was on 200k a year he wouldn't own the collection of super cars that he does, he's absurdly well off.

Yes the average programmer earns around 50k a year, but PD as I've already stated is a tiny team, their business profile gives an estimate of 110 employees, yet they have sold almost 50 million copies of Gran Turismo in total. I can assure you that as in the case with Google and other small teams with massive turn overs the average staff salary will be very above average.
Click to expand...

You need to quit while you are ahead. The thing Google is famous for is getting people - and I don't just mean worker bees - to work for them for below industry averages because Google is such a "cool" place to work for.

Good luck to Kaz if he makes bajillions. He deserves it. He brings out the most fantastic racing game available and then has to put up with all the ingrates that think he owes them something.
 
invader67
You need to quit while you are ahead. The thing Google is famous for is getting people - and I don't just mean worker bees - to work for them for below industry averages because Google is such a "cool" place to work for.

Good luck to Kaz if he makes bajillions. He deserves it. He brings out the most fantastic racing game available and then has to put up with all the ingrates that think he owes them something.
Click to expand...


Yes I just checked a source on that info an found it to be incorrect, should have done so before posting it sorry, but I had heard on the news some time ago that the average google employee earned a 7 figure salary, so maybe things have changed since then.

But I also edited my post with some information that proves certainly Kaz earns a vast income. Based on this I would make an educated guess that the whole development team receives a substantially higher pay packet than others filling similar positions elsewhere in the industry.
 
Hmmm.....paid DLC.

I hope it's not chosen exclusively by our Japanese cousins or look forward to a 6 car pack featuring more premium skylines and miatas with the obligatory micro-car.

They need some western input into any further car choices.
 
So PD expects fans to pay for:

GT Prologue
GT5 - which included much of prologue's development
GT5 DLC
GT6 - which will probably use the "premium" cars you paid for as DLC + extras

How many times will you pay this product?
 
Mike712
Based on this I would make an educated guess that the whole development team receives a substantially higher pay packet than others filling similar positions elsewhere in the industry.
Click to expand...
That is like saying the CEO of Barclays Bank earns millions therefore all the staff behind the counters must also be on huge salaries. It don't work like that!

Now, I'm sure Kaz himself is on a fantastic wage, as he is the head of PD and has helped Sony sell millions of Playstations over the years and has earned it. But to extrapolate from that that all the staff earn £1M salaries is ludicrous. I'm sure they are well paid, probably above the industry average, but no-way on Earth does every staff member earn that kind of money. I'd stake my life on it!
 
Mike712
they have sold almost 50 million copies of Gran Turismo in total. I can assure you that the average staff salary will be very above average.
Click to expand...

At $55 each that generates $2.75 billion dollars. I'm sure you can find a way to find some profit in that after paying for 110 employees, Sony fees, manufacturer agreements/fees, etc. Not a bad business.

I love GT5 and am willing to invest another $25 right now for good content.
 
Tha Darkness
What do you mean by microtransaction and what is the "iRacing way"?
Click to expand...

iRacing is a monthly fee to play the game. Then you pay to take licence tests and open new tracks. Pay for new cars and new tracks. At the end of the year, you own none of it. You basically rented it.
 
amar212
From what I remember, it was quite the opposite.

Sony wanted PD to create a new GT game as cluster-platform where players would buy content depending on their personal taste.

Kaz/PD/whatever went against that idea.

In few interviews Kaz discussed whole DLC "philosophy" and he clearly stated that his idea is that every player can enjoy in the same level of content during lifespan of the game.

Later he even went against whole concept of DLC-content by proclaiming that whole content of GT5 will come on the disc, without any DLC. Of course, whole mess-up with the deadlines, finishing the game and actual release of the Gold went differently, but I presume the pressure for both SCEE and SCEA was too big at PD. That is wahy we're getting basically weekly content-updates (in terms od Seasonal Events) and functional updates (1.01, 1.03 and 1.05 being most important) for free.

It is really difficult to say what will future bring regarding GT5 "actual" DLC content (new cars and tracks) but I think that if Kaz is the one who will be asked - he will probably decide to go "free" way.

Also notice that Japanese people are much more influenced by whole concept of "honor" than any Western people. He apologized even before games's release for technical problems, he later even admitted he knows that some design choices went bed and I think he's very aware about shortcomings of the finished product. And just to throw, in his initial "dream", Gran Turismo 5 was meant to be "The GT of Them All". I presume he is actually the one most dissatisfied with the final outcome of the project. I know it is fishing in deep waters, but I wouldn't so easily thrown-out the factor of "honor" from whole DLC context.

Time will tell, ultimately.
Click to expand...

I know not much remember that thing, but back in 2006 it was clearly an option they were looking at. It was originally what Kaz told to Famitsu and discussed by Harrison too at the time, then he moved. Maybe they think about it twice.
What i wanted to point, it wouldn't be a surprise to me to see a lot of DLC and since GT5 models are "PS4 ready" (the photo mode asset 3d models (well even the ingame..)), it could make a lot of sense. You buy a dlc model for almost ten years and two generations.

http://www.1up.com/news/versions-tons-microtransactions
 
There already were rumors even before releasing GT5, that it will be like with 100 cars needed to complete the game, and others sitting in PS Store, for money.
So, yeah. Doesn't surprise me. Although that would be dissapointing. :/
 
I'd gladly pay for some upgrades.

And for those of you who think that the staff at PD are being overpaid, all I can say is that you have absolutely no idea what the business world is like, and have probably never had a real post-graduate occupation.
 
BWX
I'd rather pay for new tracks and racing series (like more and better a-spec events) than new cars. New cars don't really offer as much replay-ability as new events and/or tracks would.
Click to expand...

+1, I could care less about wheels and whatever else a premium car does. I wouldn't pay a dime. It would be total price gouging for the real car fans out there though . Compared to gameplay issues and tracks, cars are e-z to develop since they have the parameters in place they just create the graphic and input the figures. No doubt they employ junior techs and interns to handle the lightweight work. There's only a few cars that actually get used in my garage as it is, the rest are forced acquisitions or collectors.

If they did sell it for cash, good for the enthusiasts, I still hope real updates are on the horizon.

Edit alert: maybe the profits from these sales help offset update burdens?
 
Last edited:
DanDiplo
That is like saying the CEO of Barclays Bank earns millions therefore all the staff behind the counters must also be on huge salaries. It don't work like that!

Now, I'm sure Kaz himself is on a fantastic wage, as he is the head of PD and has helped Sony sell millions of Playstations over the years and has earned it. But to extrapolate from that that all the staff earn £1M salaries is ludicrous. I'm sure they are well paid, probably above the industry average, but no-way on Earth does every staff member earn that kind of money. I'd stake my life on it!
Click to expand...

Barclays have a vast workforce so yes there will be a large disparity between those at the top and those in lower positions, PD has ~110 employees only.

VALVe is an example of a small development team with a very high grossing software product, and they DO have very high salaries for a fact.
 
amar212
In few interviews Kaz discussed whole DLC "philosophy" and he clearly stated that his idea is that every player can enjoy in the same level of content during lifespan of the game.
Click to expand...

This was broken from before shipment with all of these "chrome" and "stealth" cars. Not every play can enjoy the same content of the game.
 
p-coletray
+1, I could care less about wheels and whatever else a premium car does. I wouldn't pay a dime. It would be total price gouging for the real car fans out there though . Compared to gameplay issues and tracks, cars are e-z to develop since they have the parameters in place they just create the graphic and input the figures. No doubt they employ junior techs and interns to handle the lightweight work. There's only a few cars that actually get used in my garage as it is, the rest are forced acquisitions or collectors.

If they did sell it for cash, good for the enthusiasts, I still hope real updates are on the horizon.
Click to expand...

I would expect to get some races along with the cars.
eg.
I buy a Model T Ford and get a few races specially designed to run it in.

Similarly with new tracks, I would expect to get some races for the tracks.
 

Latest Posts

Back