Ridge Racer: Slipstream in-app purchasing is reasonable, developer insists

Ridge Racer: Slipstream's in-app purchasing format has raised a few questions lately, and now publisher Namco Bandai has responded to the matter, insisting that there's nothing shady going on under the hood.

Essentially, the iOS game's in-app purchasing is used to boost progression. The controversy comes from having to wait a few hours for new cars to be delivered to your garage, even if you unlock them through grinding. You can, naturally, pay to speed the process up. Players can also buy upgraded car parts that are yours to own for good, and finite consumables like nitro bursts.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Alexandre Adjadj, director of mobile sales and strategic development at Namco Bandai Games America stated, "As opposed to many games that have in-app purchases, the difference here is you don't have to spend any money to get the entire game. It plays like any console game. You start the game then you unlock new cars and new tracks."

Adjadj added, "You can get by by paying nothing else than the premium price the game will be at when it's launched. You can finish the game and unlock everything and spend nothing. Additionally, all the updates, the more tracks, cars and game modes we will release in the future will be free."

Concluding, he stressed that the value found in Ridge Racer: Slipstream is, "so much higher than anything else that has been published on portable consoles in the past few years when it comes to Ridge Racer. I think fans of the franchise will be happy and new entrants to the franchise will be quite excited."

The game's out today on iOS.