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Free-to-play Ridge Racer Driftopia servers shuttering in August
Less than a year after launching its beta on PC and PlayStation 3, Bandai Namco has announced its plan to shut down servers for its free-to-play race, Ridge Racer Driftopia, by August 15. A statement from the publisher, acquired by Eurogamer, thanked players for support and promised: "all the feedbacks will be taken into account for the upcoming projects." It's unclear if the game will live beyond the beta server shutdown. Joystiq has contacted Bandai Namco for additional information. Driftopia was the follow-up to Ridge Racer Unbounded, from developer Bugbear Entertainment. Recent feedback on the game's Steam forum has focused on server connection issues and the game's microtransaction-heavy business model. Driftopia entered beta in August 2013 before launching as a free-to-play Early Access game in September. A beta for the game is available on PS3 in Europe. Still experimenting with the business model attached to its biggest franchises, Bandai Namco has released Soulcalibur: Lost Swords and Tekken Revolution over the last year alongside Driftopia. [Image: Bandai Namco]
Ridge Racer Driftopia enters Steam Early Access
Drifters and powersliders alike may now partake in Namco Bandai's free-to-play PC racing game, Ridge Racer Driftopia, which launched today as part of Steam's Early Access program. Developed by Ridge Racer Unbounded creator Bugbear Entertainment, Driftopia focuses on asynchronous online competition, challenging players to beat their friends' best times on 10 included racetracks. Players can also equip bonuses and stat boosts before each race, evening the odds in the global leaderboards. A public beta for the PlayStation 3 version of Driftopia recently kicked off in Europe, and a release is slated for later this year.
Green flag waves for F2P Ridge Racer Driftopia PC beta
Ridge Racer is drifting into the free-to-play lane this week with the launch of Ridge Racer Driftopia's PC beta. Cars, repair kits and XP can be purchased by players looking for an immediate advantage over their competition. You can sign up for the beta here.
Ridge Racer Driftopia is 'free-2-drift' on PS3 and PC
Ridge Racer usually breaks ground by being a launch game on ... pretty much every platform ever. Now it's innovating by adopting a new model, free-to-play, and bringing it to a new level of silly nomenclature by calling it "free-2-drift."Ridge Racer Driftopia, developed by Ridge Racer Unbounded's Bugbear Entertainment, is a racing game in which you can buy cars, "repair kits," and XP packs. Namco previously experimented with a similar business model with Ridge Racer for Vita, which shipped with a small number of cars and courses, and sold the rest as DLC. Of course, that game had a $30 MSRP. So this is progress! It's due out this year, Namco says.
