Is there any reason PD shouldn't do a worldwide release?

[Wazz]

It always get me thinking why some games, GT included, takes some more months to release in Europe/North America after releasing in Japan. Maybe the translation, but i seriously doubt. Let's see how long GT games took to release in Europe and NA.

GT: Japan (23/12/97) - NA (12/05/98) - EU (08/05/98)
5 1/2 months later in NA/EU.

GT2: Japan (11/12/99) - NA (23/12/99) - EU (28/01/00)
12 days later in NA, 1 1/2 month later in EU.

GT3: Japan (28/04/01) - NA (10/07/01) - EU (20/07/01)
2 1/2 months later in NA, 3 months later in EU.

GT4: Japan (28/12/04) - NA (22/02/05) - EU (09/03/05)
3 months later in NA, 3 1/2 months later in EU.

GT5P: Japan (13/12/07) - NA (15/04/08) - EU (28/03/08)
5 months later in NA, 4 1/2 months in EU.

GTPSP: Simultaneous worldwide release!


I think it would be really good if GT5 released simultaneously worldwide, and i don't see a damn reason why not!

What do you have to say?

 

[Northstar]

Other than the language barrier of course. Not to mention a simultaneous release is extremely hard compared to a regional release.

 

[hardvibes]

I remind you that Yamauchi already stated the japanese and european version will be ready at the same time. No language barrier.
http://www.n4g.com/ps3/News-407937.aspx

 

[AleksandarSRB]

I don't see, why we would not have worldwide release date!!! Only problem could be Sony marketing/financial reasons...

 

[addyjones1234]

they've had enough time to translate it

 

[Devedander]

Often it comes down to distribution, manufacturing and licensing.

Licensing can take longer in some regions than others, so once your code is gold, it has to get approved in each region, no reasont to hold up one region because another is slower.

Manufacturing is an issue too, if you can only crank out few hundred thousand in a short period, better to release a fully stocked region than shortages everywhere. Same with distribution, concentrate on one area, get it launched right, then move on.

Also can make it easier to tackle any unforseen issues that pop up if the release is limited to a region.

People tend to forget that games are a business and reasons for any number of things exist outside of simply coding a game.

 

[Fredzy]

If NA doesn't get GT5 within 4 weeks of Japan I'll be irate.

 

[SrRd RacinG]

The creator of this thread stole my post that I've posted many times in the past weeks!

Gran Turismo (Japan): December 23rd, 1997

1 year, 11 months, 18 days later....

Gran Turismo 2 (Japan): December 11th, 1999

1 year, 4 months, 18 days later....

Gran Turismo 3 (Japan): April 28th, 2001

3 years, 8 months later....

Gran Turismo 4 (Japan): December 28th, 2004

5 years, 1 month, 16 days and counting.....

Gran Turismo 5: TBA

The trend, can you see it?

 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Wow! Stereo spamming. How cool is that!

 

[RAVELLRON]

the reason about japanese version nda is 100% for worldwide release...

 

[AleksandarSRB]

The creator of this thread stole my post that I've posted many times in the past weeks!

Gran Turismo (Japan): December 23rd, 1997

1 year, 11 months, 18 days later....

Gran Turismo 2 (Japan): December 11th, 1999

1 year, 4 months, 18 days later....

Gran Turismo 3 (Japan): April 28th, 2001

3 years, 8 months later....

Gran Turismo 4 (Japan): December 28th, 2004

5 years, 1 month, 16 days and counting.....

Gran Turismo 5: TBA

The trend, can you see it?

Should we call police to arrest him???? 💡

 

[Vince_Fiero]

My preference: If you can organize sufficient availability everywhere, no issue. However do you have to slow down one region 👎 , to solve issues in an other region?

All depends on your marketing evaluation and decision:
* Sell twice e.g. a Japanese and PAL version to the real addicts?
* Unified world wide public announcements
* More online activity from day one 👍
* Get a big bang effect on your revenues or spread the influence over a longer period.
* Do you have expiring products to replace in a certain timeframe.
* Differences in world demographics that make spending at premium price is in different periods in different regions.
* Competitors moves are different in different markets
* Make it difficult to get = more exclusive = more fidelity to the product

This is not science, it is a lot of feeling based on statistics, corporate goals and vision ...

 

[Tenacious D]

To add to what Devedander said, one more item is content specific to each region. Like a ton of videos for instance, as well as dealing with soundtrack issues from artists and labels from different regions. If every copy is like a collectors edition that comes on three Blu-ray discs, this might require some extra work on the business side to nail down content for each region.

At the same time, GT5 has taken so long to produce, I'd hope that much of this work has been done already. Every song and video doesn't have to be produced in 2010.