But what I really wanted to say is that I think there is a place for a slightly higher-priced but extremely realistic wheel. I could see myself going as high as $500 for something truly excellent.
I second that opinion, however from a practical standpoint anyone developing such a thing would also want to make money. And to do that they have to cater to all audiences, from n00bs to pr0s, from people that don't have race frames to those who do, and every added feature is a trade off on something.
It's really not impossible to take real car parts, wire them up, and sell them for less than 500 bucks. However, wheels as game controllers generally cater to a very small and niche market as it is, and a wheel thats super realistic and would cost more, would cater to an even smaller market. Companies generally don't like to build and sell things that don't make lots of money.
A company that would also be able to produce such a device would have to be a big company that has ties with other manufacturing companies and can control the price of the parts used to make such a device by buying in bulk. Thats the only way something like this will cost cheap.
(The same way Walmart can sell stuff cheap, because they buy in crap loads from manufacturers and can control the market.)
So to build such a thing cheap, you need to buy lots of parts and produce lots of units, or outsource the labor to bring down production costs. But remember that these units will not sell that much because they cater to a small audience. So no big company will do that unless they're willing to lose money.
Because this is how the economics of our world work, unfortunately we may never get a game controller like this, unless someone somewhere comes up with a business model to make such a thing sell in massive amounts.💡
There is also the logistical side of going about building such things. What makes it difficult is the bureaucratic bull**** of business.
Could you imagine yourself as a CEO of the company building this peripheral going up to the CEO of General Motors (for example), to pitch him the idea that you want his company to produce car parts for a PlayStation 3 controller that will sell only a 1000 units?
You either have to be amazing at pitching such deals, or hope that one of the old corporate greasers on his advisory board know what a playstation is.
I bet you this is part of the reason why it took Fanatec so many years to license this thing with Porsche.
The only people that would build such a device are people like us,
and they do build them. However, because they're not big companies, they can't control the market value of the parts they use, and they don't have corporate ties to outsource labor. So it doesn't cost them 500 bucks to build such a device, its costs them 1000 because they have to buy those parts fromm their local store, and then they sell it to you for 2000, because their rent is expensive.
Sucks, doesn't it?
...Just so I'm not off topic here, 911 Turbo Wheel,
yeeeah, wooo hooo!
Vroom, vroom, force feedback, gas, break, clutch
. As for firmware that can be updated or? Would be nice to see some list so I know what differs from the retail wheel if I find any issues with it.
, and I'll even move to germany!
), or Frex (soon).
