My fellow Ridge Racing elite, how are you? Those of you that have been following along on the PlayStation Blog know that we at NAMCO BANDAI Games have been very active here with updates on our titles for the PlayStation Vita, including Touch My Katamari and Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen. But, as many of you have been asking me, what’s up with RIDGE RACER? It’s out in Japan, and my friends in Europe are already racing… but when are we finally going to get behind the wheel, and when exactly in the ‘Launch Window’ are we going to hit the road with Reiko again? WHAT’S THE DEAL!?
We know, we know. Launch days and RIDGE RACER usually are one and the same, and while our friends abroad are already racing, the teams have been taking every ounce of feedback into consideration for a full-throttle launch in North America. Thankfully, today we can confirm that the game will officially become available in on March 13th for $29.99 at retail and $24.99 for digital download from the PlayStation Store.
As a token of appreciation for our most dedicated fans of RIDGE RACER’s classic beauty and blistering speed, NAMCO BANDAI Games America has decided to offer a free DLC pack for everyone picking up the game at launch and while supplies last. Fans who buy the retail version of RIDGE RACER for PS Vita will find a code inside the box for a free ‘RIDGE RACER Gold Pass’ which unlocks a wealth of extra DLC content completely for free. The same Gold Pass is also available for free to all fans who purchase the digital version of the game on PlayStation Network no later than April 30, 2012.
What exactly is in this pack? How about five free additional machines, three courses, and extra pieces of pumping background music to take you across the finish line?
- Five additional machines: PROMESSA, ELENIE, DIGNISTAR, FATALITA and MELTFIRE
- Three additional courses: Old Central, Sunset Heights and Lost Ruins
- Two music tracks: NEW SONGS PACK 01
- One new extended music mix: LONG MIX BGM 01
On top of this, fans worldwide should be happy to hear that upon the North American launch date, RIDGE RACER will be updated with an improved frame rate and crisper graphics for an even faster racing experience than ever before.
That won’t be the end of the expanding world of content on PS Vita for RIDGE RACER either. In April, we’ll be releasing more content in our ‘RIDGE RACER Silver Pass’ which will allow fans to access even more cars and courses at one low price. Stay tuned to this page on our website for details on the dates when all of this content will become available.
Sound easy enough? It is. Landing a boost around a hairpin turn while racing against seven other players from across the globe from a Wi-Fi ready flight headed from London to Las Vegas? Not so easy… but now it’s entirely possible now thanks to the handy work of the team of veterans at Cellius and Namco Bandai Games Inc, along with the power of the PlayStation Vita.
The teams at NAMCO BANDAI Games can’t thank the fans enough for their patience and their feedback, and we look forward to going head to head with all of you on March 13th. We’ll see you on the road on launch day, and I challenge you all to take me down during launch week. Look for me online PSN ID: FilthieRich, and I DARE YOU to take me down. See you on the courses!
I just got my retail copy of Ridge Racer Vita from Amazon yesterday March 8th. It came with a code inside to download 3 additional tracks, 5 additional cars, and additonal BGM. I installed the 1.01 update and then I Tried the code. The code only installed 2 new tracks and 3 new cars. Not 3 new tracks and 5 new cars.
This is what the code installed/downloaded, its missing 1 track and 2 cars:
* Music: The time is now
* Ridge Racer car 03 “DIGNISTAR”
* Ridge Racer car 02 “ELENIE”
* Ridge Racer car 01 “PROMESSA”
* Ridge Racer Course 01 “Old Central”
* Ridge Racer course 02 “Sunset Heights”
* Ridge Racer LONG MIX BGM 01
* Music: Racer’s Delight
So maybe I installed and redeemed the code in the box too soon or an error occurred:
The 1 Race course: Lost Ruins is missing
The 2 Cars: FATALIA and MELTFIRE are missing too.
Does anyone else have this same problem? OR did you get all 3 tracks and 5 cars?
Will the Lost Ruins track and the FATALIA and MELTFIRE cars come on March 13th only? How do we download those? Or did my code just fail or I should have waited until Tuesday to have redeemed it?
Nevermind on the issue with the missing tack and 2 cars, I got an update from Namco Bandai’s support:
“Thank you for contacting Namco Bandai’s Customer Support Department.
The Gold Pass allows users to download additional content that will be released in the upcoming weeks for free.
The following content is currently available for download:
– PROMESSA, ELENIE, and DIGNISTAR machines
– The Old Central and Sunset Heights courses.
– Two music tracks: NEW SONGS PACK 01
– One extended music mix: LONG MIX BGM 01
The rest of the Gold Pass content: The Lost Ruins course, the MELTFIRE, and FATALITA machines will be released in the Playstation Store in the upcoming weeks. If you’ve already redeemed your code, you’ll still be able to download the rest of the content for free once it becomes available in the Playstation Store.
Please feel free to contact us again in the future as the need arises.
Namco Bandai Games America Inc. Customer Support
E-Mail: support@namcobandaigames.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NamcoBandai“
So far this game’s multiplayer is outstanding. Load times and MM are faster than I expected. Now it’s time to catch up with the rest of the world it seems since the rank is based on all players in the world not just region.
OK, forgive me if these questions are handled elsewhere, but….
1) If you buy this today (or online before April 30), and you get the GOLD PASS, does this entitle you to all of the DLC at no additional cost?
2) Will any of the DLC give us a proper “Career Mode” like RR games past?
I’m more interested in my 2nd question. Don’t know where to go to get any clarification. If they were to give us a “Career/Single-player-Story” mode, I would go ahead and buy this today (personally)
Cheers,
Rh0gii
It’s incredible these days at how greedy and downright LAZY companies have gotten about releasing games that are incomplete. It sounds like the dev team had 8 months to slap this game together and they even admitted that they were using an advanced dev kit that made the cycle easier. So, what do the ever-decreasing populace of Ridge Racer fans get in return?Trash, with a side helping of more trash. The game looks great and no one has stated that it plays anything but well….but, only online multiplayer with a forced option that locks you into one team for your entire career??? Oh, and 3 cars/tracks out of the box….??
FANS: do not support this game until Namco feels the burn of horrible sales and realizes that they need a lower price point with more content included (i.e. a single player mode with several options on top of the cars/tracks that should already be there). They had a chance to do well on this one and took a very low road instead. Unfortunate but true.
@#55
Well said and I fully agree.
I went to the namco-bandai website to get an email address to take my questions to. I told them that if they refuse to give us a solid single-player/career mode, that they are welcome to do so with being paid. There is no reason for this other than a flimsy experiment in “how much of your money can I take with out actually giving you any work”. It really is ludicrous.
I hope to get a response from them. Will share if they say anything worth repeating.
Cheers,
Rh0gii
At a minimum you have to add 15 tracks, 30 cars, and world tour mode with something like 150 events
an intro video CGI
and improve the online mode, for example the system of ghosts, to compete with the best ghost friends to beat their records 4 or 8 ghosts of your friends in track, as in Motorstorm RC
Create challenges and championships to online
If you play with these things for a final price of $ 40 or even 50… you would have a great game that would do justice to vita, and would sell what they deserve for all the people I would have like a good option to buy, good reviews and good ratings so definitely a big Ridge Racer and possibly the best release…
To answer #56, unfortunately at time of release there is absolutely no true single player mode. And thanks to #52, we have all learned that the gold pass content isn’t all there (which is just incredible). And bouncing back to a previous comment, this is exactly what they did with Ridge Racer on IOS, and I agree that we Vita users should be treated with more respect. The vita is a pretty slick piece of hardware and we deserve quality games, especially when forking out over $20 (in this case 25-30). It really is pathetic to think that their “tactic” was to release this game thinking people will buy it for the “free” content….should have been included day 1 with a slew of other content to make it an actual game. Out of the box, this thing really is just a very pricey demo….that will get more expensive as they add more features that should already be there.
Way to go Namco, way to go.