Featured Updated AMS2 DLC Structure Coming Up - Please Read!

So, just to be clear and to hopefully head off any misunderstandings, the item delisting you mention is for the purposes of reorganising and rationalising the current structure of the DLC, and no individual track or car will become unavailable for purchase as a result of this, i.e. all of the existing content will remain available to new customers?

 

Yes. All the content is being re-organized as the DLC structure has always been an issue with new AMS2 players.

But everything that has been released will be available to be bought, just under a different package.

 

If I understand this correctly we have until tonight to purchase individual tracks (Silverstone for example) if we don't have them already. Staring tomorrow they will only be available through packs?
What happens is I already have Racing USA part 1 tomorrow? Will have I to buy the full Racing USA Pack to get the rest of the tracks even though I already own part of it?

 

Finally rationalised dlc, this has been confusing people for years

 

I love discounts as much as the next person, but isn't that a bit too big? Especially when there are any steam sales in the future? Good for the newer players though

 

It would be good to replace the demo version, because according to reviews, it doesn't encourage people to buy the game.

 

First of all. Great much needed initiative.

The current situation:
1) The complaints about DLC confusion is endless on Steam forum, so the users want definitely want some clarity. I am posting the DLC tree 2-3 times a week on Steam forum during sale periods.

2) I must say I am very happy to see that some inaccurate information has now been corrected in DLC listings like:

Racin USA part 1: Daytona oval to be added later

Racin USA part 3: Missing mention of F-USA 2023

I do see still that there is missing information in one DLC:

Premium track pack: missing information about Barcelona

3) Users often complained that the DLC costs 200+ USD, because they saw both Racin USA full pack as well as separate packs summed up in the total on Steam page. Same with the other packs.

4) Users who bought premium expansion pack will not see Racin USA bundle as purchased, but the individual DLC shows as purchased. This creates confusion. The DLC within a DLC is not handled well in Steam store.

Risks with current proposed solution:

1) I see a threat of users being unhappy with having purchased for example Spa, Monza and Barcelona and now having to buy the Premium track pack to get Hockenheim and Silverstone. This effectively makes them double buy three tracks. Same type of risk is with Racin' USA. This is especially true with 200 000 users who just have acquired AMS2 on sale and a few DLC. I think they might be outraged.

The current proposed solution does not eliminate risk of double buying smth you own.

2) I foresee players confused with what they bough before now not appearing even listed on Steam store page (example: spa DLC). What they see in game won't match up with what they see on Steam store DLC page. People will spend time trying to figure out what happened, what they own, what they need to buy and they will be angry. They will have to go in game to understand what they have and then come out of game to compare. This will be tedious and many will not figure it out. Especially with now the ability to select in main menu some racing series and have tracks from list disappear. Some people can't even find a car they have bought in DLC, because its not always crystal clear.

3) Some buyers might be put off by the higher price of Racin USA and Premium track pack, instead wanting to buy in smaller increments. Especially users who buy the base game on 5 USD sale and then later face a 19.99 USD price tag for example.

4) If licenses end at different times, the Racin USA pack / Premium track pack has to be modified. And then people would have DLC with the same name, but with different content. Instead, a smaller DLC could be delisted / repackaged.


My suggestion:

1) Retain all individual DLC's to allow incremental purchasing for the 200 000 people who bought the basegame just recently at a very low price. Also, this gives flexibility to for example give a time limited discount to Monza track just around the Monza F1 race to push impulse purchases.

2) Do away with Premium track pack, Premium expansion pack and Racin USA pack as these create confusion (also proposed in your original post in a different way so that no DLC is included in another)

3) Create bundles like the IMSA pack, but now with the names "Premium track pack", "Premium expansion pack" and Racin USA pack". This way you don't have to pay again for what you already own, but you can get a discount to complete your collection. As time goes on, these bundles can be easily modified. Maybe you wish to add a new track to the "Premium track pack", remove a track because its license ends, or make time limited Nurburgring ultimate bundle (2020+2025) to give a discount to anyone who already owns the 2020 track - should be easy then.

4) With this solution nobody is ever at risk of buying what they own already.

Risk with my suggestion:

1) The DLC list will remain very long and grow

2) The amount of bundles might be overwhelming and confusing

3) I don't know how technically Racin USA bonus pack can be addressed in a Racin USA bundle to be free for the people who own the total Racin USA pack already, but maybe it can be discounted to 0% in the bundle?



And last, very important from my personal perspective based on experience on Steam forum: please diligently update all DLC listings with up to date information, when things change. Historical examples: daytona oval to be added later, information about F-USA 2023 car, Barcelona in premium track pack, Nurburgring or Spa 1970 version to be added in the future.

 

It’s decreasing in price

 

To me personally, one of the big problems is selecting a DLC that is NOT In my library on Steam, and having it say "You own 5 of the 6 items". It doesn't tell me WHICH 5. WIthout opening up AMS2 and MANUALLY reading and comparing each individual item in the DLC listing with what I can find within the game, I don't know which 1 item I'm missing. It's a pain and I just ultimately say "not worth it". This potentially costs you sales with this kind of confusion.

I don't now how you can fix it easily within the Steam framework, but the information I want is very simple:

1) What am I missing
2) How do I get what I'm missing without overpaying or re-purchasing existing content that got repacked in multiple DLC's

If you can do ANYTHING to make it easy to answer these questions, I can continue to purchase remaining DLC that I need.

 

I'd say instead of delisting all individual packs and just keeping up the one big expansion pack, do it differently.

Delist individual DLCs but put up a bundle of them on Steam. That way new people can't buy individual packs but they can get them together and clearly see what they're getting. The people who already have only one or two of those packs can get the remaining ones and see clearly what they have and what they're missing.

Delist big packs, delist individual DLCs, make Steam Bundles of individual DLCs instead of keeping the big packs.

For example, delist the Full Racin' USA Pack, delist the individual parts. But put the individual parts in a bundle on Steam called Full Racin' USA Bundle.

The only possible negative here is that the main page for the game might get crowded with bundles but then again I think Steam allows you to sort and highlight different packs and bundles on the page however you like.
DLC Visibility (Steamworks Documentation)

 

Just thinking out loud here, but would it make sense to have bundles and individual items for purchase? For example if some would like to buy one track from the Racin' USA pack, but not all of them. For those people it makes sense to have all items for purchase individually, while I'd like to have everything bundled so I don't have to do that many purchases to complete my collection.

 

Just trying to understad two things - going forward:
Assuming I want to purchase EVERYTHING.
Do I get the
1) Automobilista 2 All-Inclusive Bundle for SP Owners BUNDLE ?
2) Automobilista 2 All-Inclusive Bundle BUNDLE
I'm new to the game - only have vanilla.

For some reason the SP-Owners is more expensive a bit.
Does it mean it has more stuff in it?? (very unclear)
(to be clear - I don't have SP right now)

Also it's not clear:
Will I GET any future new DLC - free of charge when they becomes available?
Or will I still have to purchase it? (and if so - at which price?)

Finally:
Will the ALL ICLUSIVE deal be any different after August 4th?

 

Nice to see this DLC restructure, during my pre paddock days, i often would be scratching my head when perusing steam for ams2 dlc as i hadnt bought any season passes as i didnt want all the content at the time.
The rest is history as they say.

 

If you're new to the game, buy the cheaper Automobilista 2 All-Inclusive Bundle.
No, you won't get any future DLC for free, you're buying only the DLC that's currently released in it. But future DLC will be added to the bundle when it releases (supposedly) so you'll be able to get it slightly cheaper than buying it separately (if you've bought the bundle).

 

The cheaper one - they're the same if you only have the game already.

Same content packaged up differently, price difference seems to be because of how Steam calculates discounts for bundles.

You will not get future DLC free of change. You will be able to purchase it at whatever price it is priced at when it is released.

P.S. This is exactly why the DLC is being restructured

 

This is a really good idea, the dlc list was needlessly complicated and something needed to be done about it. Will the “All Inclusive Bundle for SP Owners” and “All Inclusive Bundle” also be tweaked as these two bundles alone led to 90% of the confusion.

While this change is all good news for new players I do feel like the individual USA expansion packs should stay listed. After this change If you were only missing USA part 3 you would need to pay twice as much as the current non sale price.
The Premium track pack also suffers from this issue but the delta to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya‘s non sale price is only about 6aud.