What comes after gt6? Gt7, right?
So, we all know that GT7 was started after GT5. GT6 has components of it (the renderer, the physics core, etc). Many expected that GT6 would be PS4, but that woudl have left PS3 with only 1 GT title and more life left in it.
Gt League, by everything I have seen, is the next iteration of a Gt single player. It's far easier to call it something like "league" and plug it in when it's ready.
Having the developer known for long dev cycles and missed dates somehow manage to scramble and create something completely new to appease players, even within a single year, seem extremely unlikely (unbelievable to me), not to mention the idea that it's a reaction to "poor" sales. I say that with quotes because we don't really know what the full sales numbers are. The only thing I found so far is vg charts which quotes 1.19mil world wide after the first week, but that usually doesn't include PS Store sales or Bundles.
What else got cut? I don't know. Where are the SEMA cars? Where are all the GT5 and 6 premium cars when so many of the GTS cars are just carry overs? I do know that it is FAR FAR FAR easier to hold content back than to add content that never existed before. Decisions on games like this take a long time, never mind the actual work.
I think we are all in for a lot of surprises and content over the next few years. As word spreads for what's happening with this game, sales will grow. And, really, as long as I have people to play with, I don't care how much it sells. People go on about PCars, but according to VGchartz it only sold 220,000 copies total.
You don’t develop a single player game mode in one month after release. Your argument is ********.
The developer already had it planned. They didn’t wait for the game to be released, read these forums, look at your post and go “OH No we better make a single player GT mode in the next month!”
That’s not how game development works.
Speculation is good but I suspect we will never know.....
I could come up with 2 other scenarios easily:
• Contractually GTS had to launch with an online focus to meet FIA requirements. Move to include greater offline content required negotiation with FIA....
• In between initial vision discussions with FIA the concept changed as the environment changed.... I remember discussions that the three major races series DTM/Super GT etc were going to have common rules which is now stillborn ... Forza have now signed a contract with US racing organisation IMSA - was that a defensive move etc.
Either of these would mean that contingency plans and changes were needed as development proceeded which is normal in any project that takes 3-4 years. I do think FIA involvement seems lower than expected for instance.
It seems like absolute madness doesn't it? One does not simply release and create new content in a hurry. Or completely backflip on their original idea due to "backlash" from players. Game development doesn't work like that at all. Nothing can be created in a jiffy. I don't even know why people would even think that this a knee-jerk reaction.
(Apologies for lumping you all together, I'm sure you don't all share the exact same thoughts on this, but...)
This was
Kaz at the Launch Event:
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"Yamauchi told Driving that all the elements of GT Mode are in fact still in the game, but it has been re-packaged to suit a new generation of gamers.
“In a narrow sense, the part that was the
GT Mode in the past is now called Mission Challenge,” he said. “It’s single player, there are various different types of races, from the very short to the very long, with different regulations, and you can tune up the cars that you purchased to participate in those races.”
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https://www.driving.co.uk/news/gran-turismo-boss-says-removed-gt-mode-gamers-losing-automotive-know/
That
was the contingency - to add events to Mission Challenge. There is no ambiguity in what he says there. Indeed he doubles down, with:
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“When people are talking about there’s no campaign mode, or no GT Mode anymore, that’s not quite true,” Yamauchi told us. “It’s just a change to the UI (user interface). All the things that you were able to do in the past in those modes are in the game.”
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Again, no ambiguity. He's talking in present tense about the game launching that day.
GT League is a U-turn. And having read that interview, I'm sure it happened since launch. Absolutely as a result of the backlash. There is no other way to interpret what we do know that makes any sense whatsoever.
Of course with only two months (plus whatever delay) it's going to be a pale imitation of the GT Mode of old (regardless of what you all thought of the old).
Slightly off topic but interesting you mention Human Race advertising This was first shown at E3 in Los Angeles and my impression is it seemed to get more exposure in NA than elsewhere.
Launch Advertising in other regions had a slightly different focus - don't believe Human Race approach was used in the UK TV advertising nor was it a focus for Amazon Uk and I'm sure we all remember the quirky Japanese based social/commentator approach !
Nor should we forget the effective social media campaign where non affiliated companies were advertising their liveries on GTS vehicles !
(these being reasons why I have some sympathy with not everyone knowing how much of a radical departure GTS was going to be apparently.....)
Personally I think the Human race angle was aimed at the US as that market is known to have declining interest in cars etc but high online use so it was hoped this would have resonance but again thats speculation....
TBH I can't even remember the UK TV advert at all! The Japanese one may not have used the slogan (does it work, linguistically?), but was certainly highlighting the 7-77 multiplayer
The core single player gameplay on-track has been stale since the series moved to PlayStation 3. They’ve never invested in improving the single player experience and GT League will be a regurgitation of that stale ‘racing’.
Well I think it will be even worse than that, with no Tuning Shop, no PP system, etc. The PP system was pretty crap, but at least you could try to make the races a challenge by seeing just how under-PP-ed you could get.
You're right about it becoming stale for us, after many times of seeing the same recipe. And way too easy for us. But after seeing some of the DR=D types driving online, I think they still might find it the AI challenging enough.
I think many people are not content playing a game where actually coming in first may be a rare commodity. Most can beat the AI pretty easily but online it is a totally different ball game. They try a few races find out they are ending up in 12th place or worse and quit racing online.
More serious racing fans or followers understand that gaining 5 positions from 15th to 10th can be considered a win in a way and walk away content, casual gamer's not so much so.
Very true. I'm glad that they changed the finish screen to show your result rather than just the winner, and included whatever positives there where about your race (positions gained, clean races run). That sort of thing helps, a bit.