This is the email i received today regarding the OZV8 mod that will no longer be made for Stock Car Extreme.
I am happy for those that play rFactor 2 and Assetto Corsa but personally disappointed with this news as i only chose to support this mod team as they intended to bring a high quality v8 mod to Stock Car Extreme.
Lesson learnt.....never fund an unfinished mod!
Hello valued OZV8 pledger,
Since our announcement just yesterday we have received overwhelmingly positive replies from the majority percentage of you who have been extremely supportive of our update newsletter regarding the incorporation of the OZV8 mod into MAK Corp Studios as a necessary means to ensure we can deliver you the best V8 Supercars racing experiences possible.
The larger majority of you have seen this news as extremely positive and we thank you for your ongoing support!
Regarding the very small number of pledgers whom have requested refunds; In answering your questions;
Crowd funding programs are by their very nature a risk. One chooses by their own volition to buy into the project (or not) and in doing so choose essentially to ride the waves of ups and downs the project will no doubt inevitably navigate - together united as a team on the journey that is the process of developing any given project.
On the nature of crowd funding (and we quote as written by Indiegogo);
We must all understand crowd funding initiatives will absolutely see change and need to be altered due to outside influences, technical difficulties, legal requirements, unforeseen circumstances, unexpected events out of our control (such as suppliers not delivering), or perhaps even the technology not being available to achieve a desired outcome.
These are just a few examples of how crowd fund projects could be forced to make change on the fly, and our project is no different.
For example; Lets look at Project Cars crowd fund run via the World of Mass Development process. A high profile crowd fund project.
Not every single feature that was promised to it’s pledgers was delivered. In fact, many, many features were completely hobbled, drastically changed, or in many cases omitted entirely.
This did not become apparent until the final few weeks of the titles development as the SMS team announced these changes/alterations or omissions very late in the development phase.
Did the people who pledged to this project receive refunds because of these changes? No, They didn’t.
In our case; changing of the platform tools the game is being delivered on is in our professional opinion unequivocally the right decision and one we feel justified by the many positive replies we have already received from the larger majority % of our pledgers as being seen to be a step in the right direction.
We advise and we seek to be clear on the fact that we are in fact delivering you more now.
Since our announcement just yesterday we have received overwhelmingly positive replies from the majority percentage of you who have been extremely supportive of our update newsletter regarding the incorporation of the OZV8 mod into MAK Corp Studios as a necessary means to ensure we can deliver you the best V8 Supercars racing experiences possible.
The larger majority of you have seen this news as extremely positive and we thank you for your ongoing support!
Regarding the very small number of pledgers whom have requested refunds; In answering your questions;
Crowd funding programs are by their very nature a risk. One chooses by their own volition to buy into the project (or not) and in doing so choose essentially to ride the waves of ups and downs the project will no doubt inevitably navigate - together united as a team on the journey that is the process of developing any given project.
On the nature of crowd funding (and we quote as written by Indiegogo);
We must all understand crowd funding initiatives will absolutely see change and need to be altered due to outside influences, technical difficulties, legal requirements, unforeseen circumstances, unexpected events out of our control (such as suppliers not delivering), or perhaps even the technology not being available to achieve a desired outcome.
These are just a few examples of how crowd fund projects could be forced to make change on the fly, and our project is no different.
For example; Lets look at Project Cars crowd fund run via the World of Mass Development process. A high profile crowd fund project.
Not every single feature that was promised to it’s pledgers was delivered. In fact, many, many features were completely hobbled, drastically changed, or in many cases omitted entirely.
This did not become apparent until the final few weeks of the titles development as the SMS team announced these changes/alterations or omissions very late in the development phase.
Did the people who pledged to this project receive refunds because of these changes? No, They didn’t.
In our case; changing of the platform tools the game is being delivered on is in our professional opinion unequivocally the right decision and one we feel justified by the many positive replies we have already received from the larger majority % of our pledgers as being seen to be a step in the right direction.
We advise and we seek to be clear on the fact that we are in fact delivering you more now.
- Two platforms instead of one older almost extinct one.
- New feature set.
- New car models which will have greatly improved interiors than our previous.
Further; the new game platforms (lets not forget we are delivering on two platforms now, not just one) used, house features that the aging SCE platform could only dream of having,
- Busy and vibrant communities.
- Populated online lobbies. (SCE online activity is almost non existent).
- Real time weather effects.
- Tyre choices to meet weather requirements including ambient temperature change accordingly.
- Day, Night racing cycles.
- Updates for new seasons?.
- Live road rubbering in to name a just a few;
We inform you all the pledge money was used to pay the first 3D artist who we later found was selling us models we couldn't use, but also devalued them by selling them too another party. Due to it being hard to take legal action against artists overseas for such small amounts, MAK-Corp has stepped in to develop the mod and help OZV8 produce the promised content to it's pledgers. Those requesting refunds must understand that the original 3D artist is the one who has made away with the money and that OZV8 cannot possibly provide refunds as we have taken steps to continue the development with another team and update it to a greater platform.
As you can clearly see we are now offering you all a host of new features that were not even mentioned in our original crowd campaign. We are not asking for extra money for these new feature sets – that’s not even on the table and never, ever was - We are delivering them responsibly because we can and well... just because we should, no questions asked.
The necessary change will also now mean the mod can now be enjoyed by more people for many, many more years to come by nature of the fact SCE is heading towards end of life as it’s developer is starting to talk about it’s future platform options (2016), whilst the newer Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 titles are still in a extended (perpetual?) beta phase and therefore offer a much longer expected life time for you to use the mod and enjoy it.
In closing, we advise, given that we have not reneged on the product’s conceptual entirety (in fact we have upgraded the features of the mod as outlined already), but merely only changed the platforms delivery tools we inform we will not be providing pledge refunds.
The crowd funding platform providers do have steps that allow you to seek refund – of this you can be certain.
This process weighs up your request against our alternative offering (AC and rF2) to see if the product being delivered is of lesser completion, and or is severely hobbled; and if so, advises you seek private litigation.
Never the less, we have spoken with our legal team and we have been advised we have a strong case that we are not delivering less because the platform tools used to deliver the “OZV8”mod don’t negatively change the product and in fact allows it to be upgraded.
We thank you all for your understanding, your ongoing support and we look forward to delivering you all the worlds best V8 Supercars mod in Q1 2016 for your enjoyment.
Kind regards,
MAK-Corp – OZV8 Mod Team.
As you can clearly see we are now offering you all a host of new features that were not even mentioned in our original crowd campaign. We are not asking for extra money for these new feature sets – that’s not even on the table and never, ever was - We are delivering them responsibly because we can and well... just because we should, no questions asked.
The necessary change will also now mean the mod can now be enjoyed by more people for many, many more years to come by nature of the fact SCE is heading towards end of life as it’s developer is starting to talk about it’s future platform options (2016), whilst the newer Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2 titles are still in a extended (perpetual?) beta phase and therefore offer a much longer expected life time for you to use the mod and enjoy it.
In closing, we advise, given that we have not reneged on the product’s conceptual entirety (in fact we have upgraded the features of the mod as outlined already), but merely only changed the platforms delivery tools we inform we will not be providing pledge refunds.
The crowd funding platform providers do have steps that allow you to seek refund – of this you can be certain.
This process weighs up your request against our alternative offering (AC and rF2) to see if the product being delivered is of lesser completion, and or is severely hobbled; and if so, advises you seek private litigation.
Never the less, we have spoken with our legal team and we have been advised we have a strong case that we are not delivering less because the platform tools used to deliver the “OZV8”mod don’t negatively change the product and in fact allows it to be upgraded.
We thank you all for your understanding, your ongoing support and we look forward to delivering you all the worlds best V8 Supercars mod in Q1 2016 for your enjoyment.
Kind regards,
MAK-Corp – OZV8 Mod Team.
