I think that PD had to take a different perspective for the development of the project(GT5),if you look back we got the following figures:
GT4 release 2005/
GT5 development 2006(probably)
GTHD release 2006(1 track Eiger Nordwand with 10 cars and the first practical experiment on how the engine will behave,the elements that could be added,resolution to be set and element for the cell processor)
GT5 prologue(mass production of the product with 75 cars and five tracks with the initial adjustments for online racing infrastructure and physics engine for 16 cars)2007
GT5 academy 2010(showing Indy)
since then has been almost three years of development,its not a mathematical formula is just the time that has gone pass,now when we saw the first trailers from the cgs back in 2009 we found new features on the game engine and of course the first track(Tokyo r246).
but then the development had to be shift into GTpsp,what they did was 1+ track for the series and a remake of 90% of the tracks from GT4,and render/optimize 800 cars for GTPSP,therefore the whole GT5 development had to be stopped to complete GTPSP for the franchise,once finish in October 2009.
then PD shifted mayor attention on the development for GT5,by October 2009 to the date we have seen all the mayor features that GT5 has to offer,by March we have seen dates for the release of the product,whereas rumours of being launch were true or false are unknown,but what we have seen so far is a real time replication of the tracks,lets take for a basic example the top gear test tracks,since its an airport its digitalization its quite easy because the lack of complex elements and mayor landmark buildings and so on,take for the crew attending that task about 5 to 6 days(just to take the basic information of track to be digitalized) another group has the task of making a night day transition shadow rendering and takes for another team to take photos of another tracks/locations to be put in the game,another team takes the job of making cars,so the cars have to be scan,then they have to be render and use the development tools to be put in the game,now since we have seen in 2009 the first actual images of car damage,that meant that they had the new engine(different of the GT prologue one because it had to be suited to handle car crashes)working until 2009.
since then there is unknown where the development went,we know that nurburgring,le mans,tuscany(although is fictional it had to be investigated and taken from real world locations)Tokyo,Rome,TG test track,indy track,and the other locations are being developed and integrated into the game engine,since that it has to be say that the weather changes and the day/night transitions had to be adapted to each track,a group of 150 people could not handle this job on the schedule release dates,and the cars(of superb quality) cannot be made by another party company,so they had to render,scan and recreate the cars by themselves,and by the quality of the product they using an great amount of human resources(remember these games are made by something call people)make it more sensible to delays and changes.
as for myself I'm fine with the 200 cars premium because is better to take your group of people and render all the old GT cars to work on the new engine so there will be more variety on the game,and probably there are being pushed by the delays of the game itself,we know by hand that they put attention to the community and try to make them all happy its not easy.
we also know by hand that the development of this game is quite different from others,in racing sim game the engine is design to work with a generic programming(in example windows and C+)so the OS knows how to make it integrate for the hardware components,the same goes for xbox 360 that make its programming simple so the games get develop from an artistic point of view not technical,but since PS3 uses multi core tasking and it doesn't have a clear programming language it development gets hard,but when a good development its made the results are pretty astonishing like what we have seen on uncharted 2 or metal gear solid 4,those things make the strong and the weak on the PS3 system,since GT series has been made in the PS they have to change according to the times.
and in this particular case I will bring the Forza case because it causes debate,if you see two pictures of a premium car and a car in FM3(obviously the forza fan will say that in FM3 looks better)but it doesn't and the same goes for the interior,you find that GT take the whole cockpit(I bet M5 premium will have back seats)you can see everything,the whole 360degree angle view of the cockpit,while Forza design the 60% of the cockpit,and from the exteriors the same happens,better shadowing,better rendering,better detail, etc,by PD.
so now the great discuss goes for:the "standard "cars look better than a FM3 car? I will say I don't think so its pretty obvious that the forza models will look better(mostly because they taking models from old games forza 1 and 2(like the pagani zonda,the zondas in forza are the same models from 2000,you can check that,they are the same model from FM1,and the case of the Lamborghini gallardo,they put the superleggera in the VIP section to be paid and its the 2005 model while in GT5 we're getting the new gallardo with the new tail lights and the reventon style nose)but there are people saying that they will put the same models from GT4,they will but with the rendering and the shadowing techniques used for premium cars,since its all used in the same engine and no further details will put,they probably will re-render and re build the new cars,this will keeping debate until new screnshots will be shown,and knowing PD they will not let the same low quality models run into the new game engine and graphical standards.
while FM3 keeps repeating the formula(same track development and graphics for nuburgring in all forzas,as well for laguna seca and more)PD takes a more realistic approach, I say this because I used to own a xbox 360(I just sold it before it breaks)and I know the quality of most forza games so i just change for ps3,now i regreet of not doing this before(at least it didn't get the stupid RRD)and while turn 10 keeps taking shorcuts on development(I don't blame them development cost have to be cut somehow) I do blame the fact that the show almost 70 to 80 brand new cars(while 320 of them are past cars from forza game they should update the cars.
I will get back to the Lamborghini gallardo,the lambo had an update in 2008,with the new tail light and the reventon style nose,when I bought FM3 I expecting updated versions of a lot of cars(GT-R,lambo gallardo,ferrari 458 italia(replacement from 430))
but they will not be featured or they came in a dlc version,which really annoy me,sure I got masseratis and the new audis but all the new aston martin came in a dlc version,so what is the point of the game while I have to buy each pack just to play with the premium car that I want.
so in around up people just keep in mind that games are made by humans,not computers and while its uncertain why we getting fewer cars than forza,i can bet that is because they put new stuff to the environments and that make it worth it(even more if they put 1000 cars for all those tracks 👍)
people chill out and enjoy the game, don't compare it,if you do ,please be reasonable not a red neck,and if you are a forza fanboy have a go on the last generation GT4 then play GT5 prologue and then forza,see the difference...
(by the way sorry about the spelling mistakes English is my third language
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Update:
and I almost forgot to mention that PD also participated in the development of this,once FM3 guys makes a car,a real concept car they will get my respect,that is what makes different a Ferrari from a corvette and what makes difference GT from Forza.
rologue and GT4 itself. I bought an xbox for the on-line features (MotoGP etc). I bought Forza to try and make up for the loss of the GT series. It was just never the same, not even the excellent on-line could save it (I preferred MotoGp on-line).
