rec.autos.simulators

Well, they aren't similar ;)

(I know, I know, just semantics)

--
-- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard>
-- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
-- This announcement is brought to you by the Shimago-Dominguez
Corporation - helping America into the New World...

You're right, no new buyers are available.  Everyone that will ever buy
Nascar 2003 has already bought it.  Since there's no future version of a
Papy Nascar sim all prospective buyers simply pass it on the shelf. ;)

--
Joe M.

I guess economies of scale escapes this group. :)  They'll make
incrementally more "profit" per unit on every unit sold until it's no longer
on the shelves.  They've long since covered costs and now it's all gravy.

Why would they not maintain their market leadership with a patch to ensure
it remains the Nascar product of choice?

--
Joe M.

    Last I heard Papy had losses on N2002 and N2003. Thats
why there isn't a N2004. The fees being paid out in rights
were just too large. EA has kept upping the ante they were willing
to pay until they broke the bank at Sierra. They couldn't beat them
with their product so they did it with the cheque book. :-(

    Pete

You mean they beat them with their marketing.  EA upped the ante because
they are infinitely better marketers than the Papy/Sierra combination and
actually know how to generate enormous revenue and profit from their
franchises.  They simply feed the masses and count the beans.  They also
don't "waste" resources on small "passion projects" like other *** houses
of the past.

This falls right in line with our microwave oven, fake *** culture that
rewards bullshit no talent reality TV, glorified spin-master CEO's who take
credit for pure market inertia (latest example: Grasso of NYSE), and the
general lack of QUALITY that epitomizes the 2000's and the foreseeable
future.  I'm not bitter, just stating the facts. ;)

BTW, we might be lucky given that ISI is behind NT2004 and EA is
surprisingly moving towards more realism (just look at NHL 2004 - huge
changes this year based on the demo).  So while the days of pure simulation
may be over, we're not stuck with ***arcade.

--
Joe M.

    Yes you are absolutely correct. The sad part of the whole thing was
that Papyrus was in bed with EA at one time but jumped ship and went
with Sierra without giving EA a chance to match or better the offer.(Or
so I was told.)
    It would be interesting to imagine what might have been if they had gone
with EA instead.
    Another interesting aside is about a certain software house in Vancouver
that EA bought out years ago.(I can't remember the name from those days
but my company(brokerage firm) did the initial underwriting in the late
70's).
    We ended up getting stuck with the stock in the house account because
the
market took a big dump after we went public with it. We sat on 46% of the
outstanding shares if I recall. And unloaded them a few years later. They
might have made a few bucks on them but nothing like what they were worth
once EA took them over. But hindsight is wonderful.
    Hopefully ISI will update their engine!
    I just quickly tried the demo of NHL2004 and couldn't get the feel for
it.
Perhaps the full version will have some more tuning options. I have every
version of it so I suppose I will get this one as well. :-)

    Pete