Boy, isn't that the truth.
And again, agree with just about everything. I was thinking that GT6 would sell like all GTs do, in the ten-plus million mark, but I overestimated two things you pointed out so well.
One, PS3 really is antiquated in just about every sense. This is the first seven year console generation ever, and more than a year ago, gamers were grumbling that the average laptop at Newegg smoked PS3 in just about every way, and PS4 was overdue. And this alone is enough to discourage gamers from being enthused about new PS3 games other than GTA, damn that thing to Hell. Then really squash interest by releasing the next gen on top of a really old console. This hurt GT6 more than I thought.
Second is that magic/cursed word to developers, "casuals." These are the guys you mention that are drawn to new tech like flies to honey. The people who make Apple rich buying expensive iPhones and Pods because it's the cool thing to get. PS4 has their attention, and some of them gobbled it up just to be an early adopter and be cool, even when maybe all they got were the free PSN games for it. "PS3... whatever, that thing's a doorstop. GT6? That's coming out on PS4, right? They wouldn't be that stupid to release it for PS3, would they?" I knew people were uninformed and fickle, but I'm constantly learning how much.
So from your essays, especially as a developer guy yourself, your posts are very enlightening. SONY dumping PS3, and possibly GT6, is quite surprising, until you explain corporate thinking, nuts and bolts. I have to admit that I'm with the casuals who want GT7, and excited for it, but that still leaves me with a GT6 that now I have to ponder the future of. If online gets a boost, will gamers have fled to greener race tracks earlier, leaving mostly empty servers? Will Kaz have any incentive to bless it with much more content than we got in GT5, working like mad to make sure GT7 doesn't end up as shortsheeted as 6? I have to say I have no clue in this environment, it could go either way.
So here we sit waiting for Monday to crawl along, fortunately an hour earlier thanks to DST stealing my time from me. This next update will be telling. If it has just a taste of what we're expecting, I'll be pondering a PS4 purchase instead of my music DAW PC first. If it's something good, we can breathe easier, but we'll never feel comfortable because... you know, SONY.
I guess we'll see in a few hours.
One more thing about Gran Turismo. I know that a crowd of people here throw fits at me when I talk about how Gran Turismo has something special about it. I'll get challenged to say what in discreet terms, and that's a hard thing to do. Because, as you say, it's kind of a spirit thing, an experience, a flavor, an emotional reaction to some gestalt quality that just doesn't exist in other racers. Even with the physics having imperfections, there's some kind of tangible "realness" that the fans like me connect with, and that flavor just isn't there in other racers. You mentioned Codies, and I played Dirt 3 last weekend for a couple of hours, having forgotten that I even had it - oh dear.
But, I quit, and fled back to GT6 because... ya know, Kaz, Polyphony... Gran Turismo. It has that cool panache that us fans just have to have. It's weird, but what can I say? We're weirdoes.
Well, one more thing about PS4. DANG!! That thing is seriously hot, a beefy gaming PC-like console for $400, and no Windoze to fight. This is the one time that PC gamers have looked at a system and went, "Crap, that's not bad."
