Automobilista 2 March 2023 Development Update

Max is very active in iRacing with Team Redline.

 

THIS is the target group as customers. The race cars driver in front of the console is just one of the marketing tool... also a marketing tool for racing sims at the same time.

 

Also, supercars are advertisement for the car brand as a whole. Bugatti sold the Veyron well below it's actually value for it to become VW's engineering darling. The actual sales of the car didn't matter as much as the publicity it gathered for VW.

It's the same reason every Chevy dealer has a couple 706's sitting in the lobby, even in a fairly poor neighborhood. You may be there to get a quote on the used econo-box, but you'll definitely take a moment to look at the brand new sportscar before you leave.

Video games, TV, movies, etc. are *good places to build the brand. Someone is paying you to advertise your car... It seems like an easy win for manufacturers.

 

Works well for manufacturers that ALSO sell economy class mass volume entry level cars.
The Porsche Cayman is such a volume model, as it costs just as much as a fully equipped VW Passat. But... how does a Rolls Royce economy model look like?

 

Idk for luxury brands, that world is beyond me. For something like that, video games/racing sims would be pointless given performance isn't their focus. Still, mentions in media (movies, rappers, music videos, etc.) still probably help the overall brand. (Edit: think the popularity of the G-wagon in popular culture as rich people status symbol) I'm just speculating, as I'll be the first to admit I'm not the greatest at marketing.

The only personal experience I have with vehicle sales of that price level is tour buses, and I can tell you that even multi-millionares aren't as careful with their funds as you'd think. I've seen quite a few repo's in my time. I find some of Ed Bolian's VinWiki stories are similar to ridiculous things I've seen while working for a guy who leases buses.

 

Ferrari's Marketing Strategy of Maintaining Exclusivity

Could also not be true

 

Well he doesn't drive a Porsche

 

Brand building is definitely part of the whole licensing thing. That's also why some manufacturers don't allow showing too much visual damage in video games, they don't want the internet to be filled with 'damaging' screenshots or videos going viral on Reddit or Twitter, despite the common sense and people being aware that that's what can happen in racing games.

Some manufacturers don't allow their cars to be painted pink e.g. for whatever reasons etc.etc. That's just a reality. I remember Ian Bell mentioning or let's say 'hinting' in an interview that he had manufacturers that would only allow adding a certain car model to the game under the condition that it'd perform better than the other brands in that particular racing class.

 

Sounds like those marketing teams are run by insecure teenagers.

 

They told you it was a Ferrari, mate...

 

Today is the last day of March...
Tomorrow my wife will take all the children to her parents' house.
And if there's a new update coming out, it'll be a perfect weekend for me.

 

To me it sounds like marketing teams rightfully concerned with brand safety

 

Funny how they care about brand safety of virtual cars getting wrecked in video games, but not about the brand consequences of being caught in a billion-dollar emissions scandal...

 

Tbh I doubt the marketing team would have known about emission defeat devices.

 

The CEO was saying that he didn't know either

The plan must've been not to get caught. ^^ It'd be a good point assuming customers actually cared about air quality in their cities, carbon emissions or even the cheating itself, but the reality seems to be that they don't. VW had record sales after the scandal became public.

 

Well it's simple, circumventing environmental regularion saves money so long as you don't get caught or face actual consequences which sadly usually is the case. The thought process is "who cares what the public may think of us so long as we are making short/medium term profits"

 

Oh no. Somebody crashed our branded car in a game. Thats gonna ruin our reputation. I mean, its not happened to any other car company, but its definitely gonna happen to us!

 

They want consumers to think that their cars are safe in a crash, so game devs cant have the car crumple like its BeamNG