An Example of Formula 1 Not Working in the United States

I am an American Formula 1 fan. Life-long. I have attended 4 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Been two years since I heard an F1 engine in person. The season just over. My PS3 collecting dust as it waits for Gran Turismo 5 and F1 2010. And I got the itch. To buy Formula One Championship Edition. Only, it didn’t happen.

I live within 10 miles of a Wal-Mart and a Meijer. Checked a Gamestop across town. None have Formula One Championship Edition in stock for the Playstation 3. New or Used.

Granted, it’s based on the 2006 F1 Season, but c’mon here! Nothing?! Really??

So what do I do? I check to see if there is a playable demo available, via Sony’s Playstation Network.

Why look at that! It sure says there is!

Formula 1 Championship Edition Demo Information Page.

As you can see here, the Playstation Network for downloadable demos is alphabetically categorized.

Selecting D-G brings up this…

And it should be located between Folklore Sneak Preview Demo and Fracture Demo, yet it is nowhere to be found.

And when I did a search…

Nothing.

It’s the only product you’ve got available for sale to the current market, and you aren’t even pushing it, Mr. Ecclestone. I don’t care if this is Sony’s fault or not. I don’t care if sales are shit. THEY ARE GOING TO BE FOR AWHILE. GET OVER IT. MAYBE EVEN TAKE IT AS A LOSS, AND LOOK AT IS AS A MARKETING INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE FORMULA 1 FANS OF AMERICA AND FOR THE SPORT. WHO KNOWS, IF WE STILL HAD A RACE HERE, THE MANUFACTURERS MIGHT NOT OF LEFT.

/rant

The bottom line is this: Formula 1 wants into America. The people responsible for handling the video game sector to make this push happen have failed to correctly do their jobs. And Bernie entrusted these people, so long as they wrote him a fat check for the rights. And somewhere in there,  I can’t buy, nor can I play a demo of the sport I love. So I blame you, Bernie.

As F1 2009 is released for the Wii and PSP (neither of which I have), Bernie has this to say:

“Codemasters has a great heritage when it comes to racing games and their reputation is second to none.  We’re working very closely together on the upcoming FORMULA ONE titles and are very impressed with what we have seen.”

That helps me in no way.

No one has been able to simulate the fastest growing star in the world, Lewis Hamilton. Yet, I still have a chance to simulate Button and Honda as world champions. Or, I *should* have. But I don’t.