The Power of Progression: How Real Racing 3 Capitalizes on Player’s Patience and Desires

Article adapted from a YouTube video I made on the topic in 2021.

Introduction

Real Racing 3 is just as the name suggests. It is a mobile, car racing game that allows players to drive on real tracks with real branded cars. Players can play through a progression system where new cars can be unlocked, as well as events to win cars and drive against other players.

With all of this content given to players for free and minimal intrusive ads, there has to be some catch. In this article, I want to go over the strategies that EA uses to convince players to pay, often much more than a single price game.

Currency

There are primarily 2 types of currencies in Real Racing 3 (we will ignore M$ in this article). Racing dollars (R$), which is mostly gained through completing races and events, and gold, either gained by leveling up, series milestones, and other special events. Gold is much more difficult to gain than R$ and is required for purchasing new cars, which becomes an important factor in RR3’s monetary strategy.

These currencies can be bought with real money, often coming in bulk like this or in “deal packs” with R$, gold, and at times even a car, where the value of a car is used to justify the price.

Progression

RR3 has a play to unlock feature, meaning players have to complete races to unlock the next ones. These races will also sometimes unlock new cars and series, which is the main goal of players. To get through these races however, players have to upgrade their cars to a certain performance rating (PR), and each series has a unique set of cars you must use. This way, RR3 encourages you to buy and upgrade multiple cars for each series to get through them.

While players may be able to get through 70% of a series and move on to the next, completion of a series is often satisfying and gives some rewards, so players have to get all the cars in each series and upgrade the best one a substantial amount to finish the series. Upgrades are optimized to be a combination of spending R$ and gold, which takes away from the gold supply needed for new cars.

Additionally in many cases, a car could be fully upgraded to enter an exclusive series. While this is very inequitable, it is a way to convince players to spend the required gold and R$ to satisfy their completionist desires, and can sometimes be useful when competing in time trials, covered later.

Money Making…

While it is true that some races, particularly long ones, can be lucrative, these races are usually locked in the progression timeline and saved for more end-game players. While this makes sense, these events are so far locked that players must spend insane amounts to go through all the series, then spend more to buy and upgrade a car that is eligible to race in such an event.

Even with these unlocked, doing these races still aren’t close to enough to keep up with all the new cars added. When new cars are introduced to the game, they can often be obtained through limited time events, and while having upgrade requirements, are still much cheaper than buying it directly. However to win these cars, you always need to have gold on hand. To have this amount of gold available, you can either spend your life watching ads, doing the same race again and again, or you have to do well in time trials.

An example of a series in RR3. Here, at the very end of all the series, contains one of the most lucrative races.

Time Trials

Time trials are weekly events where players try to set the fastest lap time with the eligible cars. Most of the time, players won’t have the best car, fully upgraded to have a competing chance at the lucrative gold rewards. Essentially, there is a large gap between normal players and rich players, and with RR3’s smart progression system, these normal players are inclined to jump the gap with real money to be able to get the cars they want and continue their progression.

The Time Factor

RR3 is also very good at using time to incentivize players to spend more gold. When it’s not spending gold by servicing a car, buying upgrades or a new car, a timer is placed on each transaction, becoming longer the more expensive it is (some upgrades can take 2 days). Of course, these wait times can be skipped or accelerated, but only by watching ads or spending gold.

Another aspect of time used is the limited time events and time trials. By having these available for only a short while, players that get close to obtaining the rewards but don’t have enough time to actually get them may want to spend the little bit of real money to achieve. After the events are gone, it may be months to years before they come back. This is becoming a common monetization mechanic, and we see it lots in new and successful games, like Genshin Impact.

Conclusion

Through careful optimization, the team behind Real Racing 3 has struck a balance of playability and profit, and while controversial to some players, continues to be a success by keeping players in with their visually stunning graphics and gameplay. This, with the advantage of being early to the mobile racing game scene, has allowed them to continue their leadership in the space for years to come.