I think the possiblilities for modding will deffinately be there, they are going to offer DLC and would want their development times to be as low as possible. Since they have built the engine, assuming its Lizard, from the ground up and are looking to offer it up as a licensed engine for other developers to use for all types of game which suggests it will be a very modular system to aid that.
David Wright;509534 said:
A new mod might rekindle interest from existing owners but I doubt someone who doesn't own the title will find out about a mod and then buy the game to run a mod.
Exactly, The existing owners are key to it. Keeping their interest in a title ensures future sales of future titles. Think about RD, There is a hardcore of members that race the title, of course amongst other games, but just look at the schedules, its Race07 for the most part. A key part of running all those events and keeping them interesting is the possibility of new combinations of car and track, new challenges etc, if that wasn't the case then all that server time would inevetibly end up being spent on other titles like rF that can provide that.
People come here from all types of sims, on all platforms and when they like it they buy the other titles so they can take part in more events. If we raced 5 days a week on rF instead of Race07 which one would people be more likely to buy.
I wasn't suggesting it will produce mass sales for a long time into the future offering modding, but generally in bussiness all income streams that produce profit are good to have, even if they are small, especially if they are consistent. Modding can help allow the sales rate to drop to a steady level after the initial surge.
Günthar Rowe;509560 said:
I do believe that they may also look at something where a mod maybe submitted to be add to the DLC as free content, but licencing might limit this kind of method...
I wouldn't mind, licensing aside, something like the Xna Creators Club and community software schemeson Marketplace that Micro$oft run on the 360. If a set of minimum standards where drawn up and mods had to pass through a SimBin QA process (MS's is community driven) then people would be more inclined to be willing to pay a small amount for a mod, 2-3 Euros maybe. That would provide a revenue stream to SimBin alongside their own DLC, and if a slice of the money returned to the modders it would promote better quality mods and support future modding.
Some articles recently have suggested that EA are considering offering the modding functionality of Bad Company 2 at a future time for a fee. Most probably a level builder and physics editor etc. For a fee, now if that means another package around the price of of a game, even the price of a new console game, I think it would be an acceptable price to pay and there will be many takers I'm sure. Simbin could offer the same, A complete set of tools. no monkey bussiness now part tools, just what you need all in. Im sure ther'd be a lot of takers, more than will ever release anything.
I'd buy it just to play with, a sim racers Garry's Mod if you will.