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Controversial Freemium Game Real Racing 3 Hits the U.S. App Store

Wednesday February 27, 2013 7:33 pm PST by Juli Clover
Controversial freemium game Real Racing 3 was released in the U.S. App Store tonight, after being tested in several international App Stores. Real Racing 3 is the highly anticipated followup to Real Racing 2, with real cars, photorealistic tracks, and online time shifted multiplayer gameplay.

RR3_LaunchScreenshots_iPhone5_suzuka
Unlike earlier games in the series, Real Racing 3 is free to play, with time-based freemium mechanics. Wait times have been implemented for repairs, upgrades, and additional vehicle unlocks, which can be sped up with the purchase of gold coins.

Our sister site TouchArcade has published a review of the game, explaining both the upsides and the downsides of the freemium gameplay.
Real Racing 3 is a weird game to review. On one hand, it's free, and is the absolute best looking game available on the App Store right now. You need to experience the sights and sounds of the game as it is downright jaw-dropping to see what Firemonkeys has accomplished on a technical level. On the other, it feels incredibly strange to take a genre that's typically very hardcore and wrapping it in free to play trimmings with hard timer-based stopping points. The juxtaposition between awesome adrenalin-fueled racing and the "Sorry bro, insert coin or come back later" is very, very odd.
TouchArcade has also released a guide on how to spend conservatively in the game, recommending specific cars, damage mitigation, and strategic repairs.


Real Racing 3 is currently available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
[ 108 comments ]

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Hastings101
Posted: 12 weeks ago
Hope it crashes and burns... followed by a "premium" $5.99 release without annoying freemium features.
Rating: 26 Positives
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Chundles
Posted: 12 weeks ago
Such an annoying way to play a game like this.

I'd pay for it, I'd pay a decent amount for it, like $10 or $15 like RR2 but I'm not going to download it for free because it's such a rotten way to play a game.
Rating: 12 Positives
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el-John-o
Posted: 12 weeks ago

Can someone please explain to me how "freemium" games/apps continue to be produced when every single person hate them. Do people just hate them yet continue to play them and in turn keeping devs thinking that freemium works?


Because they make money. Plain and simple. Folks spend tons of money on those games.

Drives me nuts. I loved the earlier model of iOS gaming, where you'd have a limited 'free' or 'lite' version, with maybe one or two levels or something, and then a 'pro' or 'premium' version that was fully loaded. What an awesome experience for the consumer! You can try out the gist of the game for free, and if you like it, pay a reasonable price for a full featured and supported game!
Rating: 11 Positives
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The Bulge
Posted: 12 weeks ago

In the top 20 grossing apps in the app store, only 3 are NOT freemium. Despite what people complain about. Freemium works, and can make more money than not-freemium.

http://appshopper.com/bestsellers/gros/?device=iphone


Doesn't mean it's a good thing.
Rating: 10 Positives
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markie
Posted: 12 weeks ago

I don't see how this game is "controversial" though.


Because freemium sucks.
Rating: 8 Positives
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ctdonath
Posted: 12 weeks ago

what are these things called "coins" that you speak of?

They're the archaic precursor to debit cards. Similarly thin (well, a bit thicker), made of metal instead of plastic, and - get this - round (about 1" wide). They were one-time-use microtransaction tokens, completely anonymized without cryptographic tagging, so cheap and common that rather than swiping the thing you'd just give it to the seller. Sucked for online purchases though: you'd have to take a big heavy pile of them (made of metal, remember, and contained fixed microtransaction values) to a brick-and-mortar (marble-and-steel actually) storefront service which would convert them into transaction tickets on processed dead tree carcasses (data expressed in plaintext even! really! security practices were hideously lax), then have to pay someone to carry the token to the recipient (lag times were atrocious, I mean like days), where they'd reverse the process.

Somehow, use of "coins" correlated with a fad involving small printed portraits of dead presidents (the most desirable being a portrait of some guy most people thought was president but wasn't). Pretty lousy portraits too, high resolution, but color depth was pretty much limited to green, black, and a crummy off-white. And - get this - you'd get thrown into a small metal box if you so much as tried to get a printer for making your own (friggin' expensive printers too). Pretty popular fad; everyone was obsessed with collecting them, even though there were only about a half-dozen portraits involved, everyone wanted thousands of 'em, even millions.

20th Century was weird. Let's not go back there.
Rating: 6 Positives
Avatar
arn
Posted: 12 weeks ago

Can someone please explain to me how "freemium" games/apps continue to be produced when every single person hate them. Do people just hate them yet continue to play them and in turn keeping devs thinking that freemium works?


In the top 20 grossing apps in the app store, only 3 are NOT freemium. Despite what people complain about. Freemium works, and can make more money than not-freemium.

http://appshopper.com/bestsellers/gros/?device=iphone
Rating: 6 Positives
Avatar
Derekuda
Posted: 12 weeks ago
Can someone please explain to me how "freemium" games/apps continue to be produced when every single person hate them. Do people just hate them yet continue to play them and in turn keeping devs thinking that freemium works?
Rating: 5 Positives
Avatar
nostaws
Posted: 12 weeks ago
I don't see how this game is "controversial" though.
Rating: 4 Positives
Avatar
komodrone
Posted: 12 weeks ago
Due to the title, I thought this game had sex involved.
Rating: 4 Positives

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