Gran Turismo 7

[baldgye]

It may be able to, but that's not for certain.

They have to manage much larger servers to account for more players, they have much higher overheads, they will almost certainly have much larger revenue expectations and they have a significantly larger shortfall to make up if they were to stop making a main title and move to a service only model.

But if the content they are producing is only tracks, cars and general bug fixes/minor features... for the annual price of a new game, isn't that a better investment in a whole new product? Especially when historically those new products have been very similar

 

[Scaff]

But if the content they are producing is only tracks, cars and general bug fixes/minor features... for the annual price of a new game, isn't that a better investment in a whole new product? Especially when historically those new products have been very similar

If your providing a game as a service you can't get away with just working on tracks, cars and general bug fixes/minor features.

Take a look at any title that operates as a 'service' and you will see the ones that are successful are re-inventing themselves over the years in the same way a series release title would be. The best example of this would be Warframe, which has arguable found the best balance around in terms of micro-transaction balance, additional content and redeveloping the title over the years and as a result has a massive player base (65 million registered users).

http://www.gamesradar.com/warframe-free-to-play-still-worth-fighting/

However keep in mind that FRP as a service don't have to worry about licencing those pesky (and often expensive) cars and tracks.

 

[Tekku]

Yeah true, but with GT Sport, people are already having to pay for the server upkeep via PS+

To compare it to another 'service' game, Destiny seems to have worked pretty well. The base game (Destiny 1) was criticised for having little content, but they where still able to produce three (?) DLC packs and numerous patches.

If they can say, ok after 2018, we are doing yearly season passes, $60 for the year or $30 each and there will be 3 updates giving us new cars and tracks, that would be a big increase in return, potentially for the GT series, given that GT5 and 6 took almost a decade to produce and put out.

I don't see why they couldn't do something like Destiny is doing, tie it into the online FIA stuff...




I don't think that is really the case, if they support GT Sport with enough cars and tracks, by the next generation they should have enough decent assets to be able to improve them for the next generation of hardware. Granted it might not be the 1,500 cars of GT5, but if they could do 600-700 cars that would still be pretty good and a solid way for them to launch on new hardware.

Tracks and cars will of course be added with new iterations. But I don't think the classic career mode structure will return.

 

[baldgye]

If your providing a game as a service you can't get away with just working on tracks, cars and general bug fixes/minor features.

Take a look at any title that operates as a 'service' and you will see the ones that are successful are re-inventing themselves over the years in the same way a series release title would be. The best example of this would be Warframe, which has arguable found the best balance around in terms of micro-transaction balance, additional content and redeveloping the title over the years and as a result has a massive player base (65 million registered users).

http://www.gamesradar.com/warframe-free-to-play-still-worth-fighting/

Yeah I agree, but other than iRacing, there isn't really a similar racing game. Which is a pretty big deal.
Also, while Warframe is a good example, it also isn't a massive first party title (essentially). Warframe won't ever get the advertising budget GT Sport has gotten and so has to do those things in order to drive new players to try it out. All GT Sport would have to do is push a decent update and boom, you have it.
Blizzard are doing a similar thing with Starcraft 2, any new update that gets (even pretty minor) and it gets press coverage.

PD could easily spend next year adding cars and tracks, and then a BRAND NEW Challenge mode, that uses those, push it to press and it could be made to look like a brand new mode for GT Sport! Game of the Year edition only $50!

I mean, if I was PD that's how I would have structured GT Sport, use it as a framework in order to set up a service model where I could charge customers for annual updates.

Tracks and cars will of course be added with new iterations. But I don't think the classic career mode structure will return.

I don't see why not. Use GT Sport as the groundwork for building properly high resolution and high poly cars and tracks, and then spend a year wrapping those assets around a basic career mode and you've got it. GT5 and GT6 didn't have much of a narrative.

 

[Scaff]

Yeah I agree, but other than iRacing, there isn't really a similar racing game. Which is a pretty big deal.
Also, while Warframe is a good example, it also isn't a massive first party title (essentially). Warframe won't ever get the advertising budget GT Sport has gotten and so has to do those things in order to drive new players to try it out. All GT Sport would have to do is push a decent update and boom, you have it.
Blizzard are doing a similar thing with Starcraft 2, any new update that gets (even pretty minor) and it gets press coverage.

PD could easily spend next year adding cars and tracks, and then a BRAND NEW Challenge mode, that uses those, push it to press and it could be made to look like a brand new mode for GT Sport! Game of the Year edition only $50!

I mean, if I was PD that's how I would have structured GT Sport, use it as a framework in order to set up a service model where I could charge customers for annual updates.

The issue is that PD have a less than stellar track record when it comes to updates and DLC, as such I'm not convinced that they would be in a position to support a game as service. Its totally counter to everything they have done in the past and the way in which they are geared up to work.

I don't see why not. Use GT Sport as the groundwork for building properly high resolution and high poly cars and tracks, and then spend a year wrapping those assets around a basic career mode and you've got it. GT5 and GT6 didn't have much of a narrative.

Regardless of what they may have planned I think they may have to do it anyway (which will potentially impact on the game as a service idea as well), given the way in which a similar move by Street Fighter V ended up.

A very big language warning, but this is representative of how SFV came across in a similar change to its product as GTS has carried out.

https://lastlifeclub.com/2017/01/06/hell-happened-street-fighter-5-characters/

The result wasn't pretty in the long run and they are still trying to fix it to make both parties (casual and hardcore fans) happy.

 

[baldgye]

The issue is that PD have a less than stellar track record when it comes to updates and DLC, as such I'm not convinced that they would be in a position to support a game as service. Its totally counter to everything they have done in the past and the way in which they are geared up to work.



Regardless of what they may have planned I think they may have to do it anyway (which will potentially impact on the game as a service idea as well), given the way in which a similar move by Street Fighter V ended up.

A very big language warning, but this is representative of how SFV came across in a similar change to its product as GTS has carried out.

https://lastlifeclub.com/2017/01/06/hell-happened-street-fighter-5-characters/

The result wasn't pretty in the long run and they are still trying to fix it to make both parties (casual and hardcore fans) happy.

Yeah I hadn’t heard that the community wasn’t happy with that game too much, but then to be fair, Capcom didn’t push out like 4 versions of SF4 before that and a couple of versions of MvC3.

This is the only GT title on current gen systems and it’s been a fair while since GT6.

I guess time will tell how it will work out, but given how sales of GTS seem to be doing alright, despite everything I think it looks to be a bit more promising than SFV was.


I think it’s also worth noting, that with the exception of Final Fantasy, when you start making sequels and the number gets close to double digits it can devalue the product, like oh great ANOTHER of X game. I can see them wanting to give the GT# brand some time and then when GT7 does launch they can really push it and drive sales hard. Just my thoughts anyway ^^

 

[Tekku]

Yeah I agree, but other than iRacing, there isn't really a similar racing game. Which is a pretty big deal.
Also, while Warframe is a good example, it also isn't a massive first party title (essentially). Warframe won't ever get the advertising budget GT Sport has gotten and so has to do those things in order to drive new players to try it out. All GT Sport would have to do is push a decent update and boom, you have it.
Blizzard are doing a similar thing with Starcraft 2, any new update that gets (even pretty minor) and it gets press coverage.

PD could easily spend next year adding cars and tracks, and then a BRAND NEW Challenge mode, that uses those, push it to press and it could be made to look like a brand new mode for GT Sport! Game of the Year edition only $50!

I mean, if I was PD that's how I would have structured GT Sport, use it as a framework in order to set up a service model where I could charge customers for annual updates.



I don't see why not. Use GT Sport as the groundwork for building properly high resolution and high poly cars and tracks, and then spend a year wrapping those assets around a basic career mode and you've got it. GT5 and GT6 didn't have much of a narrative.

They have no interest in the old career mode, so it's not an issue of resources. If anything there will be a campaign mode just like the current one, but expanded into more tiers of tutorials and challenges.

 

[Scaff]

Yeah I hadn’t heard that the community wasn’t happy with that game too much, but then to be fair, Capcom didn’t push out like 4 versions of SF4 before that and a couple of versions of MvC3.

This is the only GT title on current gen systems and it’s been a fair while since GT6.

I guess time will tell how it will work out, but given how sales of GTS seem to be doing alright, despite everything I think it looks to be a bit more promising than SFV was.


I think it’s also worth noting, that with the exception of Final Fantasy, when you start making sequels and the number gets close to double digits it can devalue the product, like oh great ANOTHER of X game. I can see them wanting to give the GT# brand some time and then when GT7 does launch they can really push it and drive sales hard. Just my thoughts anyway ^^

Sales are doing alright in comparison to GT6, one of the worst selling (for first week) of all GT titles. In comparison to the first GT title on either the PS2 or PS3 its not as alright.

However first week sales tell us very little about how the tail will go on for sales, nor how quickly it will or will not get discounted.

 

[GBalao888]

Expect it during the PS4's final year, say 2020.

Traditionally every PS console with a Gran Turismo on it spans two games, and GT Sport is well part of the main series, but it's GT6.5, redesigned as a rebirth of the series. We may have to wait another three or four years for GT7 with all the cars, tracks, features and technologies we may need, and by then it could be possible for a PS5 to arrive in the horizon, and therefore, GT7's sales may not be as good as the other games in the process, just like how GT6 did it (only five million copies as opposed to the over ten million of the other mainline games). So yes, probably around the 2020's we could expect GT7

 

[baldgye]

Sales are doing alright in comparison to GT6, one of the worst selling (for first week) of all GT titles. In comparison to the first GT title on either the PS2 or PS3 its not as alright.

However first week sales tell us very little about how the tail will go on for sales, nor how quickly it will or will not get discounted.

The biggest problem with sales numbers like the one that was put out, is that it says nothing about digital sales, which are on the up and up, especially this generation.

 

[Haulin_Hebrew]

So basically never?

Bro where have you been? This was reported back in 2016.