Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens On Selling You Just Half a Game

[RaychelSnr]

Kotaku had an interesting article from a GamesIndustry report about recent comments from Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens:

Quote:

"It's not inconceivable to say that we send out a Formula One game that's not complete - maybe it's got six tracks", Cousens told GI.biz. "Then they have to buy their next track, and you follow it around the world. When you turn up in Abu Dhabi you have to pay for the circuit, and whatever the changes are to the cars that are put through. That, I think, would deal with a lot of it, and also address the pre-owned." It would also piss off a lot of consumers who couldn't be bothered shelling out for content over the course of an F1 season. He seems to have left that bit out.

I think Kotaku has this one a bit more right than Cousens. If Codemasters seriously considers a model like this, it'd be a bigger disaster than the White Star Line declaring the Titanic to be unsinkable as the ship was already on its way to the bottom of the ocean.

Let's just chalk this up to Cousens having a bad day and hope we don't see racing titles with just half of their content hitting store shelves anytime soon. Would you buy a game with just half the content it'd otherwise have?

[randombrother]

I hope what he MEANT to say was the game comes out incomplete BUT with a code to download the remaining tracks for those that paid full price but pre-owned people would have to pay (which is still BS). I'll tell you right now if he were to go the route he's saying I guess F1 2010 will be the last F1 I buy. And I mean that seriously.

[FoldsFive]

I have no problem with the model of some games that release episodic content and/or addon more elements to the game to make it better. In the racing genre, iRacing is the prime example of this. It has been the way they set themselves up from Day 1 and people either like it or hate it but they create their own calendars based on the tracks they have.

For F1 2010, they have the full license for F1 and are trying to simulate an F1 season and/or sell the sport of F1. They set you up to have the ability to play a 7 year career starting as a rookie driver. If you have to wait and follow the real F1 calendar, how are even the most hardcore fans going to get through that many seasons? What if your favourite track is Suzuka - Do you wait a couple months after you buy the game to race the track that you bought an F1 game specifically for?

There are a lot of flaws in his strategy. He would be better to update car liveries and add the technology to each car that gets implemented throughou the season (i.e. the F-Duct this year) so that you can pay to keep up with the 'latest' and not have to wait all the way to the next installment of their product. Lots of fans would like to see the cars stay in sync with the real season - but certainly don't want to be limited to have to wait to play it.

[av7]

Companies getting greedier by the day.

[GlennN]

I guess it depends. If the price of the game is reduced drastically (less than half), then I love this idea for all sports games. I don't play most modes of a game. Sell online seperately, HUT seperately, Madden Moments seperately, Be a Player seperatley, and the like. I would just buy the franchise mode and save a few bucks? Sounds like a winning idea to me!

Somehow, though, I don't think that's what the companies have in mind - if they think they will sell the game for full price and then try to sell DLC, unless it is something truly extra and truly incredible, I won't even buy the game, let alone the DLC. I never have bought the Madden packs or NHL boosts or the like (and never will).

[HiTEqMETHOD]

That's a resounding NO. Have these people lost their minds? Just because someone can purchase a pre-owned game at Gamestop suddenly all these companies turned into Gollum from Lord of The Rings and want in on every last cent. I'm sorry but isn't the video game industry bigger than the movie industry? It's not like these guys are strapped for cash and need to screw over the few people that would actually buy their racing games new. This is pathetic.

[Lakers 24 7]

I'm an iRacing customer so the answer for me is yes. The model itself is ok and has worked perfectly for iRacing. But, the game would have to be a hardcore sim, if it's not then there's no point in paying for inaccurate content.

[av7]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lakers 24/7

I'm an iRacing customer so the answer for me is yes. The model itself is ok and has worked perfectly for iRacing. But, the game would have to be a hardcore sim, if it's not then there's no point in paying for inaccurate content.

Which is a small market, something Codemasters doesnt really want to shave down to. And lets not forget, Codemasters has released buggy games on launch (see Dirt and Dirt 2 on PC).