@ Juls : Excellent French, I'm amazed !
You seem to be familiar with economic concepts a bit, so you've got an interesting point. It is true that if VW 'invests' with LFS, it's alternative with NFS (it's opportunity cost) may be extremely high. And it is also true that spending time helping the LFS devs costs money. But relatively to what a company pays for normal marketing campaign, it is a very good opportunity to choose the LFS alternative (which does not take too much time/money to implement, so it can be done aside from a bigger stuff).
Why hasn't the Scirocco been in the NFS series then ? We don't know yet. The franchise is developping three more games with different customer targets. So perhaps it will be in one of those. But choosing LFS over NFS is a profiency in customer targeting. In LFS, the average and median of the player's age should be between 25 and 35, which is a very good target for VW, who sells the Scirocco as a sporty family car, and 25 and 35 is usually the age where people start creating families. On the other hand, the NFS customers are usually younger, and most of them aren't even allowed to drive a car, possibly. This is why that if they sell their license to NFS, NFS are screwed mainly, but if they work with LFS they both gain something : LFS gains a real car, and LFS provides the Scirocco an audience that is perhaps more likely to be interested in the car.
But you have got very good points ! And what is interesting with marketing is that there is no alternative better than another objectively. Each has its pros and cons, and the main decision to engage in a marketing plan is the cost-risk expectations.
@Bandit77 : I'm sorry, I don't wanna seem offensive but I fail to see the logic in your post.
First of all, the VWS will be eaten for sure by the TBOs in LFS (less power, more weight). It will be slightly faster than the XRG/XFG (more torque because of the turbo, and possibly supers), and perhaps on an equal basis, depending on the quality of the locked setup provided to the players.
But for the percentage part, I don't know why you rant. You even agree with your german car example (and I even agree with french cars being totally shitty). Buying and reselling a german car will result in them losing 20% of the value, while in your example the french car will result in something like 95% of loss. Which would you choose then? You might say it is not comparable with the difference in financial value at purchase. But if you put the german car at the same price as the french, the german car will still be a very good alternative. And the % make all sense here.
I agree, sometimes economists overdo the statistic stuff. But when speaking of monetary value, the % and the ratios are the only thing to look on. A firm will not invest only if what they get is above a specific amound of €, $ or £. They will invest if their expected return is 104% or 108%, no matter what the amount is.
About the absolute/relative gain. You are right, with one sell, they will only get 19999e. But if you had to choose between an alternative where it costed 500e per car to advertise it and sell it, and an alternative where it costed 1e, which one would you choose? More absolute value equals higher relative value (obviously). But when thinking in large scales, relative values are more easy to work with and generally more appropriate