By limiting the car/season pass to a given number of car packs, it gives T10 a chance to tell the customers how much savings they would get in comparison of buying the car packs separately (which is the main selling point). That way, they give the customers a chance to decide what they want to do - buy it all now at a discount and take a chance on what you’ll get in the packs OR wait and see if you are interested in the car packs before you buy but risk ending up paying more.
If a car pass covered all car packs, T10 more or less would have to release info on how many car packs that would be released for the game (which they may not necessarily know), so that the customers would know exactly what they pay for. It may even be some law in some countries where Xbox Live is supported that requires a seller (Microsoft/T10 in this case) to specify exactly how much content that a customer would get in a purchase, but that’s just me thinking out loud. By specifying exactly what a car pass includes, I’m sure it’s the easiest way not to break any law.
By limiting the car pass to a certain number, T10 can keep releasing car packs, and keep it a secret for how long that will continue. That way, the success of a game can decide for how long they keep serving more DLCs.
Releasing info on how many car packs are expected to release would provide more transparency to the consumer in terms of how much money they are probably going to spend in the long run.
I’m pretty sure (I don’t work there so I have no evidence for it but anyways) that Turn 10 is well aware of how much content they are going to produce.
They most likely have to pass these projections to Microsoft so I doubt that they will suddenly stop at one point in future saying “Nah, that was enough DLC”.
You might be right about the legal reasons though even though I’m not aware of any country forcing such policies.
Going back I can see how my previous reply can appear like that.
Sorry for this misconception.
You can argue that “Season Pass” or “Car Pass” are just semantics, but remembering the time when season passes became a thing, they actually were what the name implies.
Pre-paying all the content of the game’s season (aka it’s lifetime).
The Season Pass doesn’t disallow owning all DLC but that is not the point.
The discount the car pass provides is a great thing and much appreciated but again, that’s not what this is about, it’s about the content that is covered by the car pass.
I neither expect nor demand Turn 10 to change their pricing formula even though I personally believe that they are overpriced, but that’s another topic.
I didn’t compare the Car Pass to other Season Pass-esque offers but if I would, I wouldn’t compare the prices and judge which one is worth more than the other but what amount of content is enclosed by both.
If one covers all DLC throughout the game’s lifetime then it clearly is the more preferable choice if you consider that Season/Car Passes are targeted to that specific audience, the players who want everything for their beloved game.
At least it is definitely more transparent than the other one that calls it the same but only provides a limited amount of content with more stuff coming afterwards that has to be paid again.
But the Car Pass doesn’t disallow that - anyone who gets the Car Pass can still buy the other packs since in the case of FM6 there’s no car exclusive to Car Pass owners. (If you mean promotional DLC, I do agree there because I don’t think anything that can appear on a leaderboard should be timed/access limited.) For me the “Car Pass” vs. “Season Pass” name issue is largely semantics, though the confusion it causes is enough to warrant a FAQ, and can disrupt a player’s overall budgeting if paid DLC has no end date. But for someone (like me) who is going to buy all the car packs anyway, the Car Pass discount - any discount - is just a nice bonus. Or a convenience, since it’s nice not to have to wait a couple minutes each month for each pack to install. To ask “And what would stop them to hand out DLC made after the “season period” to car pass owners at no additional charge?” or note “The BF pass price is similar more but it covers DLC for the lifetime of the game. Not just a part of it.” sounds more like asking T10 to change the pricing formula in favor of the players, rather than a simple one-time purchase convenience.
I can only speak for myself but personally am not a massive fan of the whole dlc concept. I have purchased my fair share over the years probably on Forza more than any other title.
But I’d definitely be leery of paying up front for content I may not even want let alone use. I’ve got 1000’s of hours in across fm2-fm4 & there are still cars I’ve never bought driven or painted across each title.
If loads of people decide to buy this mythical car pass, that’s being discussed, what’s the incentive for the developers to come up with the goods. They’ve got your money already, why try to innovate?
I guess what’s most confusing is why you believe the car pass doesn’t live up to it’s name and should include all future car DLC.
No where has it ever been mentioned that a Turn10 car pass would cover all the car packs and nothing in the name car pass generally implies this to be true.
I can’t think of a single context of the word ‘pass’ that does not at some point expire.
That’s not to say I don’t understand your point though. It would be great to be able to just make a one-time purchase and be able to say “Right, I now own all the cars, no more paywalls!” Even with all the money in the world, finding a car you really want to drive, attempting to buy it and being greeted with DLC payment options instead always sucks.
Trust me, what’s worse than you not having the car is painting a car & not even realising it was DLC. Putting it out there at a cheap price SF or AH only for someone to tell you its a dlc they don’t have. They will sometimes say I’ll buy the pack & I’m like noooo what’s the point in me making the paint available for cheap fake money if its costing people real money to get it. That’s a real pain
The Car Pass as it exists right now throws you in the same situation though, doesn’t it?
You pay up front for six monthly DLCs and don’t know before hand whether they will include cars you want to own.
My suggestion of a “real” car pass shares the same problem, just with a larger amount of content.
As for the incentive for devs to come up with the goods it’s also the same as it is now.
You’re paying them up front already, don’t you?
The incentive is to satisfy the customer and also the simple fact that not everyone is going to get the Car Pass but rather waits and decides for every DLC seperately.
That’s why I initially asked you what the term “Car Pass” or “Season Pass” means or implies to you.
I explained several times what this terms means to me and where this comes from.
And sure you’re right, nobody ever said that a Turn 10 Car Pass would include all DLC, but I also didn’t make that claim now did I?
I’m just saying what I’m personally expecting of Car Pass based on what these terms used to mean.
Everything else I explained in my previous reply, so I don’t see a reason to repeat it here.
That’s exactly what I mean.
One time purchase, get all DLC, don’t worry about future costs after an arbitrary timeframe.
My implementation of a car pass would expire at the day the final DLC is released, the end of the game’s content life-cycle, not somewhere in the middle.