R3E 100% Free Access and More!

[UMC 22]

Greetings all,

I'm sure many of you have noticed various companies offering sales on their products and services, supposedly aimed at those in isolation. This includes game developers. Maybe I'm just being somewhat cynical, but offering mediocre discounts equal to what is seen in any other Summer, Winter, Christmas, Easter, whatever sale feels a bit like profiteering during a time of worldwide crisis. I mean, what is this? The Coronavirus sale? The Apocalypse discount?

What I would prefer to see these companies doing is what Sector 3 Studios is doing. As of today, everyone can enjoy full access to R3E and all of it's content completely free of charge! This will remain the case for a minimum of five days, according to their own announcement. In addition, they are having a #RaceFromHome event this Saturday and the devs will be online to race themselves this evening too.

Thanks to S3 for the generous gesture, and for showing how things should be done in this difficult time.

The full announcement is as follows:

Hello everyone,

In these difficult times of quarantine and lockdowns, it's very important that we take care of each other. As a racing game providing entertainment, we thought temporarily opening the gates and letting you all enjoy the RaceRoom content without worrying about the next paycheck was the best we could do. Starting now and for a minimum of five days, all the content in RaceRoom is freely accessible.

In addition to that, we are throwing a #RaceFromHome event this saturday, with all kinds of motorsport and simracing personalities. It will be streamed on Youtube and you can already set a reminder here.
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for regular updates on the confirmed participants!

Later today, around 20.00 CET, RaceRoom devs from Sector3 Studios, including yours truly, will be hanging out on the RaceRoom Discord to chat and race on the ranked servers. See you all tonight!


Please take care of your loved ones as well as vulnerable people around you. You may very well have elderly neighbours scared of going outside from what they see on the news. Please take precautions to not spread the disease to them when reaching out.

While you are not using it, your computer can also help make a difference: please make sure to check out Folding@Home ( https://foldingathome.org/ ). It is a distributed computing project simulating protein dynamics, which helps scientists figure out new ways of curing diseases. They have recently dedicated resources to covid-19.

See you on track, and most importantly, stay safe, everyone!

J-F Chardon

Source

 

[MJQT]

Hot damn, that's a classy move by Sector 3. Good on them!!! Haven't installed R3E yet (although I just might now!) but regardless, my respect for Sector 3 just skyrocketed...

 

[Cote Dazur]

 

[ModoX]

Downloaded it immediately - looking forward to trying it out. What do people recommend as the best cars and tracks?

 

[UMC 22]

What do people recommend as the best cars and tracks?

Personal preference really, but one of my favourites has always been the DTM `92s. Any track with plenty of corners to slide them around is good.

Other favourites in our R3E racing club are the GT3s and Group 5 monsters. For open-wheel fans, the FR X-90 and F2s are good fun.

Since it's now free, why not come and join us in this Saturday's club race?

 

[Rory Wetherington]

I was just about to post this
just another reason to love and support Sector3 and RaceRoom!!!

 

[David Wright]

Am I missing something? What exactly are they giving away? What will I own at the end of the five days? Is there any possibility they are doing this hoping people will buy content after the free trial?

 

[newbert]

Am I missing something? What exactly are they giving away? What will I own at the end of the five days? Is there any possibility they are doing this hoping people will buy content after the free trial?

Geez -- You make this sound like some sort of bait and switch scheme.

What they're giving away is full access to all of their content for a minimum of 5 days (meaning that it might be extended(?)).

What's so hard to understand about that? You can try out whatever car and/or track you like during this time period And I assume that you can also race against the AI (and perhaps on multiplayer(?) as well. Normally you can only test drive (ie - hot lap alone) any car on one track (RRE's fictional test track). So, you're getting quite a lot, for free, during this time period, IMO.

But, to be clear, unless you then purchase a few cars and/or tracks, you will own nothing at the end of 5 days.

Of course they're doing this in hopes of people eventually buying content. But what's wrong with that? You're getting at least 5 days of free access to the whole shebang. They don't have to offer it. Nor do you have to purchase anything unless you want to. That's how the world turns. <shrug>

 

[Case_]

People complaining about having been given something for free because it will not be permanently theirs...

And yes, David, I am sure they are also hoping people might like what they see and buy something. They are still a company doing business, and the upcoming months will certainly be hard(er) on all of us, because what we're facing will not be a matter of couple of weeks, and people are already losing work/money as we speak and we might see quite a few smaller businesses going away or struggling.

I, however, don't think it's their primary reason for doing it.

 

[Denis Betty]

C'mon David, it's a freebie - try before you buy. I'm outta work over this already. Can't blame any company that touts for work in this climate. Esp if they're offering a bit of escapism for free whilst they go about it. I, for one, appreciate the gesture.

I'm gonna give it a go I think. I've shied away in the past because I haven't been able to get a feel for the FFB on the test track. I did manage to try a car out on some hill climb track though (I can't remember how I did that?) and it felt worlds apart from the test track. Loads better.

Anyway, long story short. I will try to join the event on Saturday... unless I get a better offer.
I broke the return spring on my clutch pedal though. Will I be able to race without a clutch pedal Ross?

 

[Greg Latty]

I have pretty much all the content but respect the gesture.. Classy move guys

 

[UMC 22]

I broke the return spring on my clutch pedal though. Will I be able to race without a clutch pedal Ross?

@Denis Betty, absolutely mate. Manual clutch is never mandatory in the R3E club. Mine works fine but I rarely use it.

 

[ears]

I'm sure many of you have noticed various companies offering sales on their products and services, supposedly aimed at those in isolation. This includes game developers. Maybe I'm just being somewhat cynical, but offering mediocre discounts equal to what is seen in any other Summer, Winter, Christmas, Easter, whatever sale feels a bit like profiteering during a time of worldwide crisis. I mean, what is this? The Coronavirus sale? The Apocalypse discount?

These are times of uncertainty and doubt for all of us. Not just individuals or consumers.

Many companies face risk and uncertainty too.

I appreciate what RaceRoom have done - good for them. I believe it's an honest gesture.

But I also appreciate the sales and discounts offered by other vendors. They don't have to do it, people are so bored they would probably buy the stuff anyway at full price.

 

[BrunoBæ]

For open-wheel fans, the FR X-90

FR-x90 should be mandatory.
I mean you should not be allowed to buy any cars if you hadnt allready bought this one.

Hehe or maybe all 3

 

[David Wright]

But I also appreciate the sales and discounts offered by other vendors. They don't have to do it, people are so bored they would probably buy the stuff anyway at full price.

This!! It was Ross's criticism of other developers (and in reality its publishers who decide prices in many cases) for offering discounts and saying that a free trial was so much better that I didn't understand.

If I buy a car and one dealer says - you can have the car free for five days but after that you have to pay full price, how is this better than another dealer who says I'll sell you the car for 50% off?

 

[ears]

Yeah. What Sector 3 have done is very commendable. There was no need to put a negative spin on it, to use it in order to accuse compaines who are offering reductions on their products of profiteering from the coronavirus outbreak.

Especially on the same website that put this story on its front page this morning.

Simracing.GP fills gap created by global shutdown of motorsports

As the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile has postponed the start of their World Championships -- including F1, Formula E, World Rally Championship, World Touring Car Championship, and many endurance races -- simracing takes centre stage as a rising esport. Simracing.GP, a new esports...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[BrunoBæ]

If I buy a car and one dealer says - you can have the car free for five days but after that you have to pay full price, how is this better than another dealer who says I'll sell you the car for 50% off?

You cant really compare these 2 offers David.
Because the first one does try to get you to buy a car at full price because it feels great.
The other does try to sell you the car because you can get it cheaper than full price.
Something like lemon and oranges - if I may say so

 

[newbert]

This!! It was Ross's criticism of other developers (and in reality its publishers who decide prices in many cases) for offering discounts and saying that a free trial was so much better that I didn't understand.

If I buy a car and one dealer says - you can have the car free for five days but after that you have to pay full price, how is this better than another dealer who says I'll sell you the car for 50% off?

It comes down to:

Would you rather get to try something out for 5 days before deciding to buy it, and then pay full price for it?

Or would you rather pay 50% of full price for it without getting to try it out?

Your call - but R3E cars and tracks are pretty inexpensive to begin with IMO. And remember that you're not just getting cars and tracks to try out. For those that have never tried R3E this opportunity provides them to try out all of the sim's features in total - not just one car on one track.

It's a generous offer, IMO.

Bert

 

[BrunoBæ]

Hehe I used the nice offer to run a LB session on the new Ningo Dingo track that I dont own.
I was able to get on top of the LB with the P20.

CatsAreTheWorstDogs: Maybe it was because nobody else have tried this monster car on the lil twisty Ningo Dingo.

 

[ears]

It comes down to:

Would you rather get to try something out for 5 days before deciding to buy it, and then pay full price for it?

Or would you rather pay 50% of full price for it without getting to try it out?

Your call - but R3E cars and tracks are pretty inexpensive to begin with IMO. And remember that you're not just getting cars and tracks to try out. For those that have never tried R3E this opportunity provides them to try out all of the sim's features in total - not just one car on one track.

It's a generous offer, IMO.

Bert

But we don't have to prefer, or rather have, either.

This thread doesn't need to be about who's being generous with their offers and who people think is taking advantage of the current world situation.

Raceroom have done something great. Leave it at that.