VRS Sim Racing Wheel Base full torque locked behind paywall
The company VRS, known for selling sim racing equipment, has launched a product, the uDFP20 Wheel Base, which is readily capable of certain performance, but this performance is locked under an addtionnal software purchase.
Background
In the Sim Racing market, there are a lot of different options when it comes to wheel bases. Most of the time, the consumer will choose an option based on budget to performance of the wheel base.
The performance of a wheel base is more often than not tied to its peak torque capacity. Of course, the force feedback of the base also matters, but the choice factor in this most generally comes down to how much power the wheel base is able to make.
[Incident]
Here, VRS sells you a wheel base that is fully capable of a 20Nm torque output for 449€.
For this price though, the base will be software locked to 6 Nm. If you want to enable the higher torque, that your base is fully capable of, you need to purchase a software unlock code.
If you'd like to use the full 20 Nm of the same wheel base you already have, you'd have to pay an additionnal 400€. Almost double the price.
But wait, it gets worse.
You are currently forced to buy the wheel base on a lower torque setting than its max rated power of 20 Nm.
Then, and only then, after you purchased the wheel base, you will be able to purchase the unlock key to "access" the 20 Nm.
References