Gran Turismo 5

[Neon Ignition]

GT5 is now a text book example for poor management skills from Sony's end. It's been clear that the game has been complete for some time now and the endless delays are merely down to pandering to Yamauchi's content obsession. They have zero reason to delay the game given they'd only do all this to justify GT6's existence.

The mechanic of GT are already bordering on the archaic so for me it's really hitting the brick wall that if it doesn't make it out this year then it isn't gonna get bought. I mean, the entire Forza series has been released since GT4 came out. They've done this pandering to him once before and all we got was the PSP game. I agree it looks pretty but thanks to years of exposure and the competition the sheen is starting to wear off. Sony should just pick a date and ship it. Damn straight

[Roddie]

Amen to that.

[Flabio]

It's into a bit of a vicious circle now. It has to do extremely well now to justify the amount of money they've spent on it so far. But to get those sales it looks like they feel that they need to polish it until you can see your face in it.

It'll be a good game, I'm sure of that, but the expectation for it is so high now...

[Malc]

It's into a bit of a vicious circle now. It has to do extremely well now to justify the amount of money they've spent on it so far. But to get those sales it looks like they feel that they need to polish it until you can see your face in it.

But didn't they already recoup most of the development cost from Prologue sales alone?

I don't think Sony are that worried about if it will pull in enough profit, it's just Polyphony's obsessive nature of polishing everything that is causing such a delay, and Sony are happy to let them keep delaying it because they know there will be a nice profit at the end.

That's the loop that I'm seeing here. But they are still getting my money when it comes out!

[Phar]

Yeah I don't think they have to worry about enough sales, the PSP version has sold around 2 million so far and thats on the back of piracy being rife on that system.

[Profit]

It's been clear that the game has been complete for some time now and the endless delays are merely down to pandering to Yamauchi's content obsession.

An example why a developer shouldn't have full control of a project; and why publishers are reluctant to finance those who do.

[JP]

In reference to the release date, it' believed that it was held back in Japan as SCEJ's turnover for the year and it was agreed by Sony Worldwide that a global release at the start of the finacial year who start them off with a nice positive they would have otherwise missed.

I'm not sure if that's true but it certainly wouldn't be the first game to be held back in such a way.

The last three of four builds of the game have seen incremental improvements in the game including a brand new physics model, new lighting model (as shown in this video), real time damage and of course more content. Although they only seem to show it at the moment to selective press the opinion seems to be that what they now have in the game does put it a step ahead of other games of this ilk.

I'm not sure if it's true but Yamauchi has been quite clear that he doesn't want GT5 to be reliant on DLC as some other games have been and although I'd happily pay for decent content it's quite nice that he wants it as a one off release.

In the current environment where games seem to require an obligatory annual release I actually find it refreshing that they're willing to take their time to release the game that tehy want to release rather than feeling they need to release it as early as possible.

Obviously, it's very difficult to know exactly what will be released until we actually have it in our hands but I do enjoy the series and I'm looking forward to it.

As has been mentioned, GTP & GT PSP has esseantially funded the development of GT5 so any profits are essentially just free money for Polyphony. As far a I know the franchise is historivcally a big seller for Sony so I don't think there will eb any issues with the development costs.

I don't know if it's still the same but companise have historically offered to pay to get their cars in this franchise rather than the other way around which seems to be standard so it's not as if there is any risk of them running out of money during development.

[gaz@manc]

I was under the impression that, like the above post mentions, it was Sony publishing who made the decision to delay the game for 'strategic' reasons; either to coincide with their financial calendar, to kick off their end of year retail push in September or to have a product to go head-to-head with Halo Reach.

[Flabio]

As has been mentioned, GTP & GT PSP has esseantially funded the development of GT5

See, this is the point I'm not buying. Is there any proof of it? The sales of those two have been decent, but not stellar, and everything I hear about the cost of dev for GT5 suggests that the sales of those games are a drop in the ocean (also, the PSP game has to pay for it's OWN development too...)

[analog dog]

What's rough guestimate on the Dev costs for GT5 you reckon?

[Brad]

I don't knwo why it's been delayed so long but if we end up with a highly polished, feature rich game then that would certainly be a change from many games that sadly seem to have to be released not quite finished.

[Family Fry]

Worldwide sales from February 2010. Both games were no where near the price of a full PS3 retail title.
Would hate to imagine what GT5s development costs are upto now.

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue= 4,650,000
Gran Turismo PSP= 1,800,000

Will be curious to see how GT5 does against Prologue.
Series figures.

Gran Turismo : 10,850,000
Gran Turismo 2 : 9,370,000
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec : 14,890,000
Gran Turismo Concept Series : 1,560,000
Gran Turismo 4 “Prologue” : 1,350,000
Gran Turismo 4 : 10,980,000
Gran Turismo 5 “Prologue” : 4,650,000
Gran Turismo PSP : 1,800,000
Total : 55,450,000

[Flabio]

Gamasutra quote the developers themselves as saying its over $60 million so far:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25966

[Brad]

Wow, didn't know they'd even mentioned GT6!

[Phar]

I love GT but I'd sooner see them start work on a new Tourist Trophy after this rather than GT6, the original game had a lot of potential as GT with bikes but was flawed, would love to see Polyphony take another crack at that.