Gran Turismo 7 Was One of the Most Downloaded PlayStation 5 Games of 2022

[breyzipp]

You can look at it this way: On the last two years, Sony has sold a lot more PS5s than they have PS4s. People who bought a console recently are more likely to purchase and play games on it than people who had it for ages and already lost interest in the platform, or had their console break, or just stopped gaming altogether.

Again looking at my own example here, I bought my PS4 Pro for Horizon Zero Dawn, that was early 2017. We’re now early 2023, that’s 6 years later. And last year (5 years after I bought my PS4 Pro) I did buy the cross gen version of GT7.

I think your assumption that people don’t buy new games for their console anymore if that console is not current gen anymore is very wrong. Especially now in the modern day that games are much more backwards compatible than in the past. One of the reasons I bought the PS4/PS5 Deluxe Exition of GT7 for my PS4 Pro was in fact because of this future proof PS5 compatibility.

However I do agree that the percentage of non-operational or neglected PS4 consoles is higher than that of the PS5 consoles. Note that in my previous post I already deducted a whopping 30 million units out of that 117 million PS4 numbers sold to take this into account. I’m sure the reality is different and many PS5 owners have sold their old PS4 on the second hand market, people who just bought these old used PS4 consoles will for sure be actively using them as well (why else buy them?)

 

[Artremis]

Again looking at my own example here, I bought my PS4 Pro for Horizon Zero Dawn, that was early 2017. We’re now early 2023, that’s 6 years later. And last year (5 years after I bought my PS4 Pro) I did buy the cross gen version of GT7.

I think your assumption that people don’t buy new games for their console anymore if that console is not current gen anymore is very wrong. Especially now in the modern day that games are much more backwards compatible than in the past. One of the reasons I bought the PS4/PS5 Deluxe Exition of GT7 for my PS4 Pro was in fact because of this future proof PS5 compatibility.

However I do agree that the percentage of non-operational or neglected PS4 consoles is higher than that of the PS5 consoles. Note that in my previous post I already deducted a whopping 30 million units out of that 117 million PS4 numbers sold to take this into account. I’m sure the reality is different and many PS5 owners have sold their old PS4 on the second hand market, people who just bought these old used PS4 consoles will for sure be actively using them as well (why else buy them?)

PS4 players trend towards mostly purchasing discounted games on PS4 != No PS4 players purchase games day 1. I played Horizon, GT7 and God of War Ragnarok on PS4 too before finally getting a PS5 last month, I'm not saying there's absolutely nobody buying them, but every single time we get sales charts the same pattern emerges for crossgen games: PS5 makes up the majority of the sales, and the games that chart on PS4 are the ones that had major discounts. In fact, look at those specific games I mentioned and how they sold in the UK during their first week:

• Horizon: Despite the PS4 version having a free upgrade and being $10 cheaper than the physical PS5 release, 68% of the sales were for the PS5 version with the remaining 32% on PS4.
• Gran Turismo 7: This one didn't have a free upgrade, and the physical PS5 release made up for 76% of the sales, with PS4 having the remaining 24%.
• God of War Ragnarok. Again no free upgrade, and physical PS5 made for 82% of the sales, with PS4 having the remaining 18%.

For GT7 in Japan, the PS5 version is currently at 260k with the PS4 version being at slightly under 100k. That's a 72:28 ratio on the only country where PS4 and PS5 sales are still comparable. This is also ignoring the fact that PS4 players can later upgrade their copies to PS5 too, which is something I did for example.

 

[MonoTonouS]

You’re making completely wrong assumptions. According to the news article in this thread, in the EU for example GT7 was at the nr. 6 spot of the top 20 of most downloaded PS5 games of 2022. It was also at the nr.19 spot of the top 20 of most downloaded PS4 games of 2022. What does that say about the raw numbers and relation of how many players play GT7 on PS5 compared to PS4? Absolutely nothing at all.

Again, if you claim 90% of the GT7 player base is on PS5 then I ask you again if you have any data or sources to back that up. In between the chip shortage, the PS5 scalping prices, an economical recession and barely any true next gen game for the first 2-3 years of the PS5’s lifespan, I would strongly doubt that 90% of GT7’s players are on PS5. I would honestly believe the GT7 player base is more 50-50% spread, if not leaning more towards the PS4.

My source will be every first party game sony has released on both consoles , virtually all of them are 90% ps5 and 10% ps4 . Why would GT be an outlier. GT6 would have sold better if it was on the ps4 despite the ps3 having a larger install base , the install base assumes every single person who bought a ps3 over a 7 year period still games but the few ps4's sold at the time were almost guaranteed to be active players AND a good chunk of active ps3 players probably bought a ps4 within a year . I always wait 3 years to upgrade but I would be lying to you if i told you 90% of my friends list who was on daily didn't upgrade to ps4 during the first two years. Same with ps5, My brother bought a ps4 in 2014. He owns a PC now. Assuming the ps4 player base is larger based on console sales is just wrong , sales of games > sales of consoles.

 

[Imari]

GT6 would have sold better if it was on the ps4 despite the ps3 having a larger install base...

I get where you're going, but I'm not sure that particular example holds up at all. GT6 sold poorly in large part because it was a bad game that at release was arguably worse than GT5 SpecII. Had it been released on PS4 it might have looked better (at least in terms of framerate and resolution), but it would be generous to assume than it wouldn't have lost even more features considering what the first PS4 GT game actually ended up looking like.

I don't think a prettier GT6 released on the PS4 would have gone down well at all. I think people would have ripped it to shreds. Remember, the game still had Standard cars. It had no Course Maker or other standout feature to make up for the problems at release. On PS3 they got away with it being a more advanced version of GT5, but on PS4 it would have been a joke.

GT6 was on PS3 because they didn't think the timeline through at the start of development, and by the time it came to put the game out it was too late. That game could not have been released on PS4 without catastrophic damage to Polyphony's reputation.

They made the right choice to put it out on PS3, even if it was the wrong choice to build the game that way in the first place.