Test Drive Unlimited drives home for $40 @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 20, 2006

News: Atari's hope for the future just became a "budget" title.

Atari has been pushing Test Drive Unlimited as "the future" for months now and their latest move looks to cause a big splash: Test Drive Unlimited will sport a retail price of $39.99.

Atari plans to complement TDU with monthly Xbox Live content packs that will feature additional cars and music. The first pack is planned to roll off the assembly line in late October/early November.

Each pack will include six or more cars and 10-20 songs all based around a specific genre of music (i.e. Rock, Blues, Electronic, R&B, Jazz, Latin, etc.). The cars will feature a mix of makes and models.

"Innovation should be available to everyone, not a privilege for those can afford high price tags," said Bruno Bonnell, Chairman, CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Atari. "Our GamersFirst program demonstrated the positive impact of flexibility in pricing. We believe it is our mission to deliver triple-A games that are accessible to the masses. As such, we are offering Test Drive Unlimited - a game that is being positively touted and recognized by the media - for $39.95, and furthermore, will continue users' experiences past launch by featuring new cars and free music for download."

Of course, there's always the worry that Atari plans to sell an imcomplete game at retail and then force gamers to purchase the rest of it through Live. But Atari has promised that the retail game will include "90 vehicles, one thousand plus miles of open roads and a host of online options".

Test Drive Unlimited will ship for the Xbox 360 in September.