Developer Slightly Mad Studios have provided more details on the plans they have for supporting Project Cars throughout 2015, calling the initiative ‘On Demand’ they have said:
“PROJECT CARS ON DEMAND is our commitment to keeping Project CARS up-to-date with the greatest, freshest, and most critical content whilst also allowing players to pick and choose the cars & tracks they want – without being locked in to a pre-paid scheme.
“Project CARS was built for the future from day one and with PROJECT CARS ON DEMAND racing fans around the world will be able to enjoy a continually growing and evolving experience throughout 2015 with continual free updates that improve and expand upon the original core game, free cars and vehicle liveries delivered at no extra charge, and additional content made available without the usual obligation to purchase a long-term season pass.”
The details they have provided so far (and some we have managed to obtain ourselves) include:
Feature Updates
SMS have restated the commitment to keep supporting Project Cars via updates and we already know that Update 1.3 is out for the Xbox One and Update 1.4 has been detailed and is with Sony and Microsoft and should be with us soon. With SMS promising to keep Project Cars up to date with new hardware support and put fixes identified by the community in place.
- Fixes for the highest priority issues identified by the community
- Improved balancing and defaults
- Additional functionality and expanded support for existing features
- Brand-new items that open up new possibilities within the game
- Support for new hardware released
Free Cars
Each month a free car will be released. The first of which, the Lykan Hypersport, arrived in May shortly after Project Cars launch and the next is being promised very soon.
While it has not been confirmed, it has been suggested that this will be the Audi A1 Quattro. Only time will tell if that is the case, however a free car each month will certainly help to keep Project Cars fresh without any additional cost and it will be interesting to see if this will be the route to provide road cars to the community.
Free Community Liveries
Another regular free DLC will be the free Community Liveries, these will be released every other month and once again the first arrived in May just after Project Cars launch. These will consist of the liveries created by the Driver Network and WMD communities and will allow console players access to some of the best user created liveries.
The May pack contained a range of creative designs and homages to iconic real-life liveries as well as an accurate recreation of Deadmau5′ livery for his BAC Mono. The second pack, due in July will feature a community created livery for the Ford Escort Mk1, six real life DTM liveries for the Mercedes-Benz 190E as well as others that have not yet been detailed.
Car Packs
To date three chargeable car packs have been released for Project Cars, the Modified Car pack (which featured the Ruf CTR3 SMS-R complete with GT Planet livery), Limited Edition Car Pack and the Racing Icons Car Pack.
Future car packs will feature “American muscle and US stock, Japanese road machines, British LMP and GT, classic and modern-day open wheel, touring, and track day vehicles. Promising a wide range of cars that should cater for all tastes.
No details have yet been provided on how many packs will be released or how frequently we will see them, however as soon as details emerge we will keep you updated.
Track Expansions
Currently no additional tracks have been released for Project Cars, but SMS have stated that we will see “an additional 12 unique locations consisting of road tracks, historic locations, modern circuits, and ovals.”
These Track Expansions will not just consist of the tracks alone, but will also contain appropriate vehicles so that “players will therefore get access to the most iconic, beautiful, and contemporary locations throughout the year that continue to represent a truly global snapshot of racing around the world.”
The first of these packs is scheduled for July and while no official details have been released about its content, it has been long rumoured that it will consist of five layouts of the Audi Ruapuna Park circuit in New Zealand and will be supported by three cars from Audi’s racing lineage. The Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, Audi R8 LMP900 and Audi 90 IMSA GTO.
This would seem to be supported by two of the banner images that are on the Project Cars website right now, one of the Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro and another of a field of Audi 90 IMSA GTO’s in action.
Visit our Project Cars Forum for more discussion.
See more articles on Project Cars DLC.
TBH I don’t mind a prepaid scheme/season pass (or what ever you want to call it). I’m a bit confused as to why they haven’t gone down this route to secure up front money for development etc.
I did find the whole post from project cars a bit poorly worded and i had to reread it a few times. It is a bit meh because all it tells us is that there will be DLC, some free, some not free and there’s not a season pass.
I don’t understand this.
Does this mean paid DLC will be regularly released, or will there be free updates with all the cars, tracks, and such?
I think SMS is taking all the bad examples set by PD/Kaz, and insuring they don’t let their fan base down by not following through. Does anyone remember the promise of one car per month via DLC for GT6? If PCars representatives read the feedback for GT on this site, they have a perfect road map on what NOT TO DO in order to endear themselves to paying customers.
To be fair, SONY has a huge controlling interest in what Kaz and PD can do in terms of development of the game. I am sure for instance Sony would not allow GT to become a full SIM Racer due to the possibility of scaring off “casual” racing fans. Hard core gear heads would love to be able to adjust each wheel of a GT car. They would also love tire pressure, mechanical failure and realistic crash damage. I understand that PCars crash damage is one of the big let downs for he game.
The other side of the coin is Sony is filthy rich and give Kaz and PD financial backing that SMS can only dream of. However, that is why PCars strikes a chord with many gamers.
They are not bound to a big Corporation like Sony who will dictate what can and can not be done to the game. Big Sony wants to include all gamers. So the technical side has to be dumbed down to allow EVERYBODY to play. My solution is making Arcade play in GT7 completely independent disk/download. Remove the ability to tune the arcade cars and optimize the cars so that they are not challenging to drive in the arcade mode. Make them easy to drift and slide. The “Real Driving Simulator” disk/download needs to be more hard core and aimed at gamers who want more control over the tuning of their cars.
Project cars is aimed at semi, to full out hard core car lovers/racing fans. That is the only God PCars bows to. They are in business because of their fan base contributing to the actual build of the game. So SMS knows their customer, and their customer knows SMS.
For the sake of the game I hope Kaz and PD reps start reading the GT Forum at GTPlanet.
Because they need to put a better foot forward in the development and release of GT7.
If they don’t, their sales and fan (paying customer) loyalty will take a nose dive.
I’m pretty sure Gran Turismo has already suffered a loss of gamers.
Based on the reputation of GT6 (broken promises broken game) that same fan base wont touch GT7 with a ten foot pole until they are satisfied the product is massive improvement over GT6 and that promises are kept. Right now PD has zero credibility with it’s fan base.
That is a dangerous place to be.
Lets see if PCars pushes the right buttons. Right now, they need to release 1.4 and it needs to be spot on in curing major shortcomings in the (Controller PS4/XBOX/PC) game. Remember SMS; Steering is fundamental, even with a pad controller.
My wish list? Fix the controller twitch on center, Corvette and Ferrari GT3/4 cars, create Zandvoort and old Hockenheimring.
well said mate,
so far I am really enjoying project cars, had some monster races and I haven’t experienced the bugs that the majority of people have come across. in full agreement with the controller “twitch” fix. wheel works excellently and is adjustable.
The funny thing is its not the fact that PD promised all these lavish things for GT6 that where never realised that turned me off the game, it simply got stale. I don’t actually think GT is built for racing (my opinion) I believe its built to test drive cars and hot lap. project cars is like I am actually racing for the first time.. god knows what would happen if I tried PC sim racing, my head would probably explode. so project cars has cured my lust for racing, where as if I feel like doing up a car and flying round Bathurst I will still fire up GT because I do love it for what it is.
good to see some communication and support from SMS, lets just pray that they don’t end up like PD. don’t think they will for the various reasons you stated. :)
Keep in mind that it’s not now down to SMS when 1.4 gets released, but Sony. However word is that it is imminent.
Fantastic! Can’t wait for the steady flow of really good DLC. Ruapuna looks like a great club type layout with a couple of really big sweepers that I find really challenging. Should be a great addition to the franchise. Barbagallo and Eastern Creek would fit in their nicely too! Absolutely stoked about all of it but really looking forward to the historic track packs(s) and the historic cars to go with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MScGQs7E9E
They should still put a season pass for people who will want all the content and obviously get a discount for paying for all of that upfront.
A BTCC/Super Touring pack is my one and only request!
So basically, ON DEMAND is just their promise to add things, fix things and update things?
Really internet person, it literally states what it is “PROJECT CARS ON DEMAND is our commitment to keeping Project CARS up-to-date with the greatest, freshest, and most critical content whilst also allowing players to pick and choose the cars & tracks they want – without being locked in to a pre-paid scheme.”