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BEDFORD, MA (23 January 2008) iRacing.com today announced pricing for its racing simulation, which will be available on a subscription basis starting in 2008. A one-year subscription to the service will cost $13 per month and includes all of the content necessary for a subscriber's first season of oval-track and road-racing. Shorter terms of six and three months are priced at $15 and $17 per month, respectively. A one-month trial subscription is available for $20.
"We're building a community," said David Kaemmer, iRacing.com's CEO. "Our pricing reflects our desire to attract simracers who are interested in being part of that community over time, providing the lowest monthly rate to those willing to commit to a longer subscription. At the same time, we want to offer people a low-cost way to try out our service and see if it meets their needs."
Kaemmer noted that every subscription, regardless of length, includes a selection of both oval and road-racing cars, tracks and series, as well as a certain number of free "iRacing Dollars" that can be applied to the purchase of additional content. As with the monthly subscription price, annual membership offers an advantage, bringing $60 worth of free iRacing credit.
"We expect to appeal to racers of all types, including all skill levels and budgets," said Tony Gardner, the company's president and CFO. "Through the purchase of additional content tracks and cars subscribers will be able to drive what they want, where they want, and when they want. Some of our members will want to have every track and every car right away. Some will only ever be interested in a very limited number of cars and tracks. Some may want to purchase everything up front, and some may want to progress more slowly, using mainly their free iRacing dollars to collect content over time. The point is to offer a pricing solution for everyone."
The list price, before credits or volume discounts, is $15 for cars and $15 to $25 per track. Licensing three or more pieces of additional content reduces the price by 10 percent, and six or more reduces it by 20 percent.
"We've spent a lot of time and committed substantial resources to create the most accurate racing simulation outside of what the top Formula One teams use," said Gardner. "With this approach we expect a typical member's average monthly cost, including content, will be on the order of $16 to $19 over a three year period which we think is very reasonable for the quality of experience we provide."
Kaemmer, who races in both the physical and virtual worlds, emphasized the importance of the inclusion of both experienced simracers and those who race in the physical world in the development of the new sim.
"We're grateful to all of the people who have participated in the development process as testers," Kaemmer said. "The input of the experienced simracers into literally every aspect of the user experience, combined with the expertise of the real-world racers validating car and track accuracy, has resulted in a product that we think will be truly groundbreaking. We know we can't be all things to all people, but with all of the help we've had, we're hoping to get as close as possible to meeting the needs of everyone in the community."
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