Atari promises Test Drive DLC

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 July, 2006

And a nice low price on 360.

Atari's planning to release downloadable car packs for Test Drive Unlimited on Xbox 360, starting six weeks after launch.

There won't just be cars in them either - there'll be new genre-specific radio stations, dealing in "Rock, Blues, Electronic, R&B, Jazz, Latin etc." with between 10 and 20 songs each.

Atari had originally planned to allow players to tune the game to actual radio stations, but this had to be dropped from the 360 version - though it may reappear on the PC.

Test Drive Unlimited is currently due out on September 8th, so we can expect downloadable content to start turning up getting on towards the end of October.

Atari also announced plans to release TDU for just $39.95 in the US - the same price as Rockstar Games' budget-style Table Tennis.

Whether that means we can expect the game to cost less here is another matter though, apparently - an Atari rep, having pointed out that the US and Europe are "different markets", told us to expect an announcement soon.

Still, with Atari boss Bruno Bonnell claiming, "Innovation should be available to everyone, not a privilege for those can afford high price tags," we'll be expecting a low-low price.

As well as the 360 Test Drive Unlimited, which is due out first, the game is also set to appear on PC, PS2 and PSP in October.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • octo #1 6 years ago

    Doesn't the low price point connotate a perceived lack of value? Rockstars table tennis had a low price point because it was going to be hard selling a game about table tennis. But this is an established genre with a big name behind it.

  • jaxon58 #2 6 years ago

    But then how would games ever get cheaper?

  • octo #3 6 years ago

    Over time as the market saturates and retail competition intensifies.

  • M_Diggitty #4 6 years ago

    Is it simply a sign that the game's not very good?

  • peterfll #5 6 years ago

    Well, I wouldn't pay £29.95 for it unless it's significantly better that the Live demo, which I was very disappointed with.

    The idea of the cheaper price-point is sound though.
    Edited by 1 at 21/07/06 @ 13:25

  • Prophet_Hero #6 6 years ago

    I guess the cheaper price could suggest premium pricing for the DLC?

  • Fatnick #7 6 years ago

    "Well, I wouldn't pay £29.95 for it unless it's significantly better that the Live demo, which I was very disappointed with. "

    You can sure it'll be £50 here - different markets an' all ;)

  • Grim... #8 6 years ago

    Downloadable content?

    I thought TDU was going to let you 'buy' the cars with game cash in the game.

  • alimokrane #9 6 years ago

    Here we go again. releasing the game at a lower price with content less than the one intended so that they can overcharge for it over live .... Nicely done Atari, a nice way to make up for the financial troubles you're currently in!

  • Darren #10 6 years ago

    If Test Drive Unlimited is released at £50 RRP in the UK then it will be an outrage given its low US price point. However a £40 RRP or less price point could lead to the onset of cheaper Xbox 360 games hopefully and about time too given that 85% of 360 games are lazy ports from other formats that in no way justify the extra £10-£20 cost over the other versions.

    I haven't bought one single game from a shop since the 360 launched mainly because I think £50 is a disgusting amount to pay for a game and so I pre-order them from Gameplay.com for a more bearable £38 with a 5% discount code.

  • Mr_Whacker #11 6 years ago

    And don't forget Play-Asia but check its region free and includes English language. Unless you are clever and speak a variety of foreign.

    Yeah, the demo for this was....poo.

  • cyber_nicco #12 6 years ago

    I really don't know about this game, and haven't been a huge fan of the TD series (although I love driving games), but the lower price-point is a good thing.

    I remember a couple years back when Sega reduced all of it's sport titles from $50 list down to $20 so they could gain market share. Their reasoning was it was so cheap that even if someone was a Madden fan, they would likely be willing to shell out $20 more to have another (American) football title. As their football title was superior, they hoped to convert some Madden die-hards.

    Well, it must have had some success, as EA soon thereafter lowered the price on Madden (but not nearly as much). It might have backfired a little, however, as the following year EA spent many millions to get the exclusive NFL licence - effectively driving everyone else out of competition.

    Anyway, lower prices should not be viewed with so much skepticism.