The official launch of EA's Real Racing 3 may still be days away, but the debate over the publisher's decision to take the previously premium franchise free-to-play continues to gather pace.

The latest piece of coal dropped into the fire comes courtesy of sister site 148Apps.com, which has calculated just how much money players will need to spend if they want to use in-app purchases to acquire the game's entire library of cars.

Doing so is a necessity. Each car comes with certain challenges locked to it, meaning completing the game fully requires the player to either buy or unlock in play every one of the 46 cars on offer.

Startlingly, if they opt to open up their wallet, they may find themselves spending in excess of $500 to do so.

Doing the maths

"Our numbers show that it would take over 472 hours to earn enough money to buy all of the cars in the game," details 148Apps.com founder and regular PocketGamer.biz contributor Jeff Scott.

"Or to purchase all of the cars with real money via in-app purchase, it would cost $503.22 at the current best rate."



Scott claims players looking to avoid spending real money would need to finish 6,801 races in an average time of 4 minutes and 10 seconds per race in order to earn R$3,700 a time.

That would take around 472 hours – almost 20 days – of play in order to generate the more than R$25 million required to buy all 46 cars – a figure that doesn't include any cost for repairs, maintenance or upgrades.

A matter of balance

Paying out through in-app purchases, then, would appear to be the most likely option for many players, and while it's possible many would only choose to pay for a portion, those who look to unlock cars instantly will find themselves parting with a small fortune.

Scott notes that, for $503.22, a consumer could purchase a "4GB Xbox 360, Forza Horizon, all of it’s DLC including over 127 cars, and a 22" Vizio flatscreen LED TV, and still have $17.22 left over."

"It seems extreme to think that players have the choice of playing for well over 400 hours or paying over $500 to unlock everything to complete the game," concludes Scott. "Or most likely, some combination of the two."



[source: 148Apps.com]