I too am quite excited for F1 in Forza. It's about time 👍
Anyways, I said that I would have a post with my thoughts on the Day One DLC, and here it is:
Basically, my main argument here is this: How does it follow that ready on day one means it was done when the game shipped?
In the past, Forza games have generally 'gone gold' roughly a month before the game comes out. That means that anything that will be on the disk needs to be done. In my mind, that means that the gold day is when any development of things that are intended to be included in the $60 game will stop. That $60 should cover everything that is developed before the game goes gold, and all of those things should go on the disk.
Here's the sticking point for me: Assuming that the game goes gold about a month before it releases, that leaves, for the sake of argument, 4 weeks from that day until the game comes out. Even if only 150 people work only 40 hour weeks for that time period, that's 24,000 hours of additional development that can happen between the gold date and launch. Now, we all know that T10 employs a lot more than 150 people, and we also know that working 60-90 hour weeks is not uncommon when it's crunch time in the video game industry, so it's probably a lot more than 24,000 hours of work that potentially could be done.
That work, completed after the game goes gold but before it comes out, could potentially have tangible assets ready on the day the game comes out. Like say, I don't know, a car pack? The other car packs for Forza are spaced 1 month apart, which means that it's fairly easy to assume that it takes roughly one month to create them. And how much time is there between gold day and street day? That's right, roughly one month.
Now, I can already hear the argument that “they have pictures so clearly it's done now” and that's total garbage. In video games, a picture is the equivalent (to borrow the earlier metaphor) of a concept car. Just because it's up on stage doesn't mean it's ready to sell. A picture is really easy, but that hardly means that the car is 100% done and fully usable in the game. It could mean that, but it could also not mean that at all. Assuming that it does mean that it's done is baseless (just as assuming that it isn't done is) and unless you have evidence, I see it merely as pointless speculation.
Basically then, the argument that the day 1 car pack should be free is an argument that the developer should not be paid for a month of work they did after the game went gold, and that's where it loses me. I'm all for free stuff, but let's face it, this is a multibillion dollar industry, and giving away free stuff isn't high on the list of good business practices. Some free stuff, sure, and T10 has given us some free stuff in other games, but on a consistent basis you need to charge people if you're doing work.
If the work is done after the game goes gold, why shouldn't they charge for it? How is using that month any different from using the month after the game comes out? Just because it's ready on launch day doesn't mean it's ready on gold day.
but you're correct, I suppose it isn't an ad hominem.
👍
