Update: Florent "Hylis" Castelnerac, managing director of Ubisoft Nadeo, revealed on Twitter that the "Trackmania Nations" remake is indeed subscription-based, but "it doesn't matter He added, "It doesn't.

"Trackmania allows you to keep the 100 official +365 tracks of the day even after annual access, which is related to more traditional offline game content," he wrote in a message posted on Twitlonger." The question is what is the best model for each online game that can benefit from years of support."

Castelnerac said that, in his opinion, $10 for a year of service and the opportunity to pay $10 for another year makes more sense than paying full price for a game that many people will not play for a year anyway, if not more. Also, for those who remain enthusiastic about the game, this fee structure makes it easier for developers to continue to support new content over time.

This also applies to the high-end tier at $30 per year or $60 for three years." The idea here is that for most engaged players, we don't want them to have to pay on a recurring basis, but to be engaged by the numbers over a longer period of time. If we support a game for three years and they are still there, we hope they are satisfied with our work and renew their subscription," Castelnerac wrote.

"We set a cap because most avid players sometimes spend a lot of money and we want to make sure no one is off course. Of course, that's a lot of money, but we think $20 a year is fine for a top-tier online activity"

Castelnerac said that many of the complaints stem from gamers who want to pay once and own the game "forever." This is because trackmania games tend to be very long-lived.

"I don't think [the complaints] are nothing, because money is very important," he said. But I hope people see that our model is better suited to players' needs than DLC, microtransactions, annual sequels, or monthly subscriptions."

As for why a Ubisoft representative said the new Trackmania would not use a subscription model, Kastelnerak said, "That's the answer someone at the studio wrote in response to another player's question on page 14 of the forum one minute into the day. Welcome to the Internet."

Original story:

Ubisoft announced last week a somewhat unusual fee structure for its upcoming "Trackmania Nations" reboot: the base game is free, but the track editor (Trackmania ) is $10 per year for full access, and $30 per year for full-fledged "club access," which includes admission to special racing leagues, exclusive skins, and more.

Predictably, some of those who were looking forward to the game are unhappy with the scheme. Trackmania fans in this Reddit thread have stated that they want to own the game permanently at full price or are unhappy with subscription-based pricing as a matter of general principle.

In response to the complaints, Ubisoft posted a message on the Maniaplanet forum stating that Trackmania does not use subscription pricing at all.

"In fact, it is not a subscription model, but access to the game for a limited time. One Ubisoft representative wrote. 'When that period ends, you have to buy the game for the period of time you want to access it again.'

It's a very creative way to describe subscriptions without calling them subscriptions, and as expected, things haven't leveled out: several redditors on this thread have responded to EA's description of loot boxes in their 2019 video games by " They equate it with "surprise mechanics". "

However, there seems to be some confusion as to what is and is not included in the free tier. For example, the first post in this thread states that the track editor is only available in the $10 tier, but the FAQ on pricing states that the full editor is included for free.

It is also not clear how access to the server will be restricted. The pricing page states that free players can "try out" the map review server, but players who pay the standard access fee will have "full access". We have emailed Ubisoft for more information and will update if we hear back.

The Trackmania reboot will be released on July 1. More information on the game can be found at trackmania.com.