We're deep into the second console generation where this mentality has largely been moot. Sony has to deal with the same market realities that Microsoft does no matter how many rakes Phil Spencer steps on. The (non-Nintendo) console market is stagnant, development costs are ever increasing and customer resistance to higher prices gets louder and louder no matter how often Geoff Keighley tries to run interference about inflation. Sony has neither the desire nor the ability to take it to the extent Microsoft has, but the change in perspective for how much they want you to buy a box with Sony on it to buy their games in just the past five years has been dramatic.
I don't think it will pan out for GT7 because of how long it has already been on sale and it also being a PS4 game, but there should be no surprise from everyone if the next Gran Turismo game falls under Sony's specifically stated PC release cadence for live service games. Sony doesn't get any money from people buying copies of Windows and they probably really wish they didn't have to give Valve any money, but they (just like Microsoft does) still get lots of money from game sales and microtransactions from the gaming market which actually is growing and actually does have people who wouldn't buy Playstation games otherwise.
It's not 2010 anymore. Playstation is no longer a Japanese entity, Polyphony Digital is no longer Sony's main tastemaker and Gran Turismo is far removed from being the notable juggernaut system selling cornerstone franchise that it was before Naughty Dog/Insomniac/Sucker Punch all stopped making 3D platformers. I can't think of any reason Gran Turismo games exist as an anomaly on the market for increasing development costs vs stagnant returns (even ignoring that the way to make the most money with a live service game is to have it on as many platforms as possible), nor any reason to think it is is sacred when the various prestige Sad Dad single player games that Sony in 2024 actually considers their Mario or Sonic have been being ported to PC to good sales for a while now.
Agree with most of this. Business is a constant shell game of shifting landscapes and so so so much propaganda by those who benefit from the facade. Gran Turismo has the real world licensed cars though and this is in fact a huge draw, forza, need for speed and a tiny few others have a small set as well, but grand theft auto and other sims have replicas and "race cars" which are not verifiably correct by 99.99999999% of folks and so their quality can be meh or assumed to be anywhere in between. There is still a huge draw globally for Gran Turismo, which continues to be in the top trending sales charts each month, heck it even has numerous folks "switching" to it (including me) due to others (forza) being absolutely deaf and daft to the community, though the lack of car culture like during the peak in the 90s, is a big part of the shifting landscape.
When Gran Turismo showed up in the late 90s, it was on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Additionally, back then tuned civics could compete with the exotic cars of the time. Tuning was a viable way to go equivalently fast, with the exception of the magnificent McLaren F1. Nowadays the ultra cars that only the 0.0001% of folks can afford and are rarely if ever able to be seen or even sat in, let alone driven, are the new car culture. $130,000 BMW M cars are the new "starting" point for tuning. The economic disparity is so extreme that it has literally broken markets and communities thoroughly.
The literal only way to ever have the chance to "experience" these multi million dollar cars that are the tuning car culture focus is virtually. I never would have believed that nearly 30 years ago rolling along side a McLaren F1 on a public street, that it would likely be the last sort of experience for a lifetime. Maybe some nights in Monaco you might get something similar these days, but things have changed dramatically with ever growing gaps between the haves and have nots.
With folks financing $50,000 economy cars ( for 84+ months, smfh), the PS5 pro price doesn't seem anything but reasonable, but the reality is, that less than a game console generation ago, the bang for the buck was like the NOS equipped 4G63 AWD ride that would eat vettes costing two to three times as much, and now you are being shackled to a proprietary eco system where you will never own your game, and when it gets turned off, you have no recourse, and even when you are allowed to use the product you purchase it is overly restricted by arbitrary rules and online restrictions manufactured to waste your time like without the ability to use your own storage for unlimited replays, liveries, photos. It really is a mess of their own making from these now ginormous corporations, especially in inexcusable "restrictions".
The Stop Killing Games movement needs to catch bigly fire to get the apathetic and acquiescing to exploitation folks to wake up or fall under the bus asleep and lose all their coin fare.
If folks give their money and accept the low quality nonsense and unwanted "improvements" in return, it will only continue that way. Demand more and wait till they deliver on the deal, or pay far far more over time. You'll own nothing and be happy is a choice that can be refused.