The news that Ridge Racer will only launch with three courses and five cars attracted some raised eyebrows, but for Namco Bandai it's all part of a bigger plan: a plan that will see the game milked for all its worth increase its value proposition over the coming months.
We should also point out that Ridge Racer will cost significantly less than many other Vita games: it'll sell for ¥3980 instead of the usual ¥4980.
Famitsu reports the Japanese DLC schedule as follows:
December 22: Visual Demo Appli, Music Pack 1 R4#1 and Music Pack 2 R4#2. These are all free. The Visual Demo Appli is the playable demo that was shown at E3 2011. The music packs include music from R4.
January 12: Music Pack 3 Ridge Racer V #1, Music Pack 4 Ridge Racers #1 — Free (Ridge Racers is the name of the first PSP Ridge Racer game)
January 19: Music Pack 5 Ridge Racers #2 — Free
January 26: Music Pack 6 Ridge Racers #3 — Free
February 2: Music Pack 7 Ridge Racer 6 #1 — Free
February 9: Music Pack 8 Ridge Racer 6 #2 — Free
February 16: Ridge Racer Pass. Priced ¥1,600, this lets you purchase all the download content that will be released between February and May. Through February 29, this will be discounted to ¥1,000.
February 23: Car 1 Promessa, priced ¥250, and Course 1 Old Central, priced ¥400. These two will be free through February 29. Also due on the 23rd is Music Pack 10 Ridge Racer 7 #1, also free.
March 3: Cars 2 to 4, priced ¥250 each, and Course 2 and 3, priced ¥400 each. Music Pack 11 to 15, available for free. A "Medley" will also be released, priced ¥100.
April to May: Cars 5 to 8, priced ¥250 each, and Course 4 to 6 priced ¥400, Music Pack 16 to 19 free, and New Song Pack 2 and Medley 2 for ¥100 each.
That's eight extra cars and six extra courses for a total of 13 vehicles and nine tracks. Buying all the cars and courses individually will cost you a whopping ¥4,400 — that's around £36 or $56.
A cheaper option would be to grab the Ridge Racer Pass on 16th February, which entitles you to all the extra cars and courses for a discounted rate of ¥1,600 (£13/$20), or ¥1,000 (£8/$12) if you purchase the pass before 29th February. Quite a saving, we think you'll agree.
[source andriasang.com]
Comments 8
What - a - rip - off
Wait, wait, wait, wait. How the hell did this horrid idea even leave the brainstorming room?
Wow Namco Bandai. I thought choosing Tales of Innocence (of all the Tales games, Innocence?!) to remake on Vita was the worst decision you could've made. Clearly, you've set out to prove me wrong.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is an exact representation of all things evil about DLC. Don't get me wrong, DLC a neutral tool, and when done properly can be amazing. It can bring you back to the game in ways nothing else can. However — and this is a big however — tools are soooooo easy to abuse. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that NB wants (and expects) us to pay for content that should already be in the game.
Between this debacle and NB's apparent inability to localize the best of the amazing Tales series, I sometimes seriously wonder if NB is really thinking things through when they make ANY decision.
...or NB could just be trolling the world on an internationally corporate scale. Either or could make sense.
no is gonna buy this game.
this is absolutely ridiculous, so much competition for racing games on vita already and now NB pulls this? I hope they crash and burn or this might catch on
I was really going to get this game was quite excited for it but i definitely not getting it now DLC is a great feature to Gaming Consoles but i really dislike it when Game Developers Abuse it Sorry NB I'm not buying this at all now.
Another RR game I gotta pass on. When you guys gonna get it right, man?
The idea of releasing games with less content at a lower price, then offering more later on could be a really good idea for both the industry and for gamers. A great example would be rockband unplugged lite for psp. That game came with 5 songs and only cost $5, then you could buy additional songs as you saw fit. This would help fight used game sales, as well as encourage people to buy more games. . .however
This is just ridiculous. They shouldn't expect anyone who knows that there are so few track and cars on the game to buy it. Assuming the game will release at half the price of a normal vita game, they should include half of the planned content.
I'm a Ridge Racer fan but there is not a snowball's chance in hell that I buy this game and I hope nobody else does either. What an absolute joke and complete abuse of DLC. I hope Namco sees the pitiful sales for this that it deserves. Unreal.
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