America's Army PC Game, a good idea for Indycar?

[SportscarBruce]

The PC game "America's Army" is financed by US Army recruiting and is provided free as a recruiting tool, as a result many thousands of downloads have been made by the late teen to early 20s demographic group, the age of entry for most in military service. Evidently the US Army sees value in a project such as this as they continue to update and support it, if I'm not mistaken they used the Red Storm Entertainment Rainbow Six physics engine to base it on.

The last X-Box Indycar game by Codemasters didn't reach high distribution numbers, it takes established brand recognition for a potential buyer to make the desired choice and take the risk on a title.

IMO when an entity is trying to establish or re-establish awareness something like a free game distributed through the Indycar.com site will pay dividents for the investment made. Take an existing physics engine, create a mod around it, package it and make it available. Word of mouth on gamer websites, message boards, and chat rooms will do the promotion work and thus the exposure will come. To defray some of the cost of development and hosting offer Indycar advertisers "ad placement" space through the game.

Comments?

[SportscarBruce]

Link to story on AA:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601505.html

[cruss]

My understanding is that the AA game's initial purpose was as an alternate method for training infantry... it was sent back to the barracks with the soldiers to practice... and they did... a LOT... and they enjoyed using it so much that, aside from their training being much more productive, they decided to release it as a recruiting tool... So, the development costs were already paid for in its primary purpose... there was little development cost in actually releasing it as game. Whereas, if you develop an IndyCar game solely for the purposes of branding and goodwill, the development expenses would likely be so great that, while you can recoup some money via product placement/advertising in game, you would have a very hard time breaking even... You'd have to just make the decision that it is a pure marketing ploy... spend the money on the game in the same context that you would buy advertising inventory on television or in print... If they could get THAT mind set, then I agree... could be a GREAT promotional tool. Heck, I'm one of the suckers who has bought both versions of the codemasters game for Xbox... and I still have the Papyrus discs around here somewhere.

That said, when they released the codemasters game, they also had the 'simulators' set up at the Indy Racing Experience... the simulators played a DIFFERENT game... it was not the codemasters game... it was a variation of an F1 game IIRC. Hmmm... wonder why it didn't sell much.

[CaptHowdy]

I think the IRL needs to come out with a new video game for 360, PS2, and PC. Make the price $20 for the first season, this would draw a lot of attention. Where they are in contract with Codemasters, negotiate a deal with them to get the ball rolling on a new game. Of what little is in TOCA Race Driver 3 is good, but nothing to really get excited about. There is only four tracks (only two they currently run at), and the cars are outdated as much as two seasons. Giaffone is with Dreyer Reinbold and Carpenter is with Red Bull Cheever. If they came out with a new game, I would definitely buy it, of course I would like to see a NTSC PS2 version this time. Also, make it to where it shows bout the Avg Mph and Total Race Time, that way sim leagues can have a field day with it.

[SportscarBruce]

My understanding is that the AA game's initial purpose was as an alternate method for training infantry... it was sent back to the barracks with the soldiers to practice... and they did... a LOT... and they enjoyed using it so much that, aside from their training being much more productive, they decided to release it as a recruiting tool... So, the development costs were already paid for in its primary purpose... there was little development cost in actually releasing it as game. Whereas, if you develop an IndyCar game solely for the purposes of branding and goodwill, the development expenses would likely be so great that, while you can recoup some money via product placement/advertising in game, you would have a very hard time breaking even...

What AA did and what I'm suggesting for Indycar drives down the developmental cost by a significant amount, in short taking an existing physics engine and merely modding it with licensed approval by the originating software company. That approach is far less expensive than creating a new one altogether.

Take an open source game such a rFactor (admittedly I haven't played it) or a good but about to be superceeded version such as the original GTR by Simbin. Sell the deal to the developer as an opportunity to reach more potential customers of new products to come by the press this endeavor will generate and wide distribution. In other words taking a product at the end of its shelf life and adding value to it through a partnership with Indycar. At first include 4-5 tracks and announce intentions to release more tracks and updated car sets, that'll keep the people coming back to Indycar.com for more.

[cruss]

Personally, if they just took an existing engine and created a cheap new game, I'm not sure that I'd download it... I am really just itching for someone to release a really kick @$$ next gen open wheel racing game. Hopefully that's not the only way we get to see Indy (Mindy?) on hi-def...

If they're going to create a new game, I'd rather see them accept the fact that they're going to burn a bit of money creating a new next gen game and just write if off as a pure marketing cost... then give it away or sell it like the good Captain said around $20... That said, I'd probably give them another $60 of my good, sometimes hard earned money for another game too. Either way, I believe the phrase "Drop the damn flag" applies here as well.

Is it May yet?