Users will be able to “lay out their [custom] tracks freely” in an area of over 100 square kilometers. (Note: the exact quote from the translator is “100 kilometers by 100 kilometers”. However, this would be 10,000 square kilometers, an unreasonably large size and most likely a mistranslation.
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's Kaz giving direct information about a feature to be coming to GT6
during a dedicated press event for GT6.
It tells us two tangible pieces of data regarding the feature:
- Being able to lay out custom tracks to our desire, supposedly in comparison to the random track generator that GT5 had.
- The amount of space able to be utilized by the player in using the course maker.
“I said, ‘that is humungous, that is unbelievable, nobody is believing this on the forums, everybody is having a big discussion about it.’ He [Translator-san] turned to Kazunori, and told him this story – he laughed, and it actually got confirmed. Kazunori said at this point right now, they are not 100% sure that it is going to be 100 by 100 by kilometers, maybe it’s going to be 50 by 50 kilometers, but that’s still humungous as well,” reported Andreas.
Kazunori also went on to say “you’d be able to fit the Nurburgring ten times into this area.”
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's Kaz
directly confirming (albeit allowing the possibility of things changing) his statements from the prior day were not a result of a mistake by his translator at the event; which was important after the heavy skepticism of the original claim.
That tells us two tangible pieces of data regarding the feature:
- The amount of space able to be utilized by the player in using the course maker.
- The amount of space might have to be lowered based on constraints the development team might run into.
Going by the latest info I’m getting from our development staff, it might end up being closer to 20×20. That is still very large – the Nurburgring is about 5×5 kilometers in the game, so it is quite a lot of space.
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's Kaz giving a clear statement that the course maker isn't going to be as large as was initially promised, but was still going to be large enough fit the entire Nurburgring into the area 4 times over.
In regards to the course maker, it is cutting it really close as to whether or not it will make it in time for day one or not for GT6. It’s definitely going to be there, but whether or not it will be available from day one I’m just not really sure right now.
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's Kaz giving a clear statement that the course maker is close enough to completion that there is a chance that it might even make it in the game by the day that it ships; and furthermore bringing up the potential release date by his own volition since
that wasn't even what he was asked.
This tells us two tangible pieces of data regarding the feature:
- The adjusted amount of space able to be utilized by the player in using the course maker.
- A potential timetable for when to expect the feature to be patched into the game.
And the implication of:
- The course creator might be nearing completion.
This feature, available at a later stage through an update, will allow you to create your own custom tracks that can be driven in the game. Additionally, in another update we will add the possibility to generate a track by capturing the GPS coordinate data of a mobile app while you are driving that course. This GPS-generated tracks will be available in the game as playable content.
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's a direct explanation of the functionality of the course maker feature
as advertised on the GT6 website,
first put up only a couple of weeks before GT6's release.
This tells us two tangible pieces of data regarding the feature:
- The ability to use GPS data to create your own track in GT6.
- That the GPS data functionality will come sometime after the "regular" course maker does.
the Beta version [of the Track Maker] is already working and in my hands now. When we can deliver it to users is still up in the air.
That's not "Kaz giving a vague mention when asked." That's Kaz
giving a direct assurance that the track maker had been in continued development even after PD sank into a complete black hole regarding information about what they were working on for the game.
Assuming Kaz was using the term "Beta" correctly, this tells one piece of tangible information:
- PD has a working version of the course maker, presumably in its final form of development, going through its final level of polish to make sure it works properly
And the implication of:
- The course creator might be nearing completion.
So, ignoring the obviously now irrelevant information regarding timetables and theoretical release dates, that leaves us four tangible pieces of information regarding the feature, all of which were brought up in the run to the game's release and some of which were done so repeatedly and which haven't been recanted or changed since:
- Being able to lay out custom tracks to our desire, supposedly in comparison to the random track generator that GT5 had.
- The amount of space able to be utilized by the player in using the course maker.
- The ability to use GPS data to create your own track in GT6.
- That the GPS data functionality will come sometime after the "regular" course maker does.
And all of which are completely reasonable expectations for the feature to have when (or if) it releases. And I honestly haven't seen much, if any, people expecting something amazing above and beyond those already impressive four things. If anything, the amount of people legitimately expecting PD to include all of those four things seems pretty low even though pretty much everything else promised before launch has (eventually) been put in.
So in my mind there are two extreme positions that apply for your initial statement here:
Course maker was not "hyped up", we've never even been teased by it, ethics of the fact it is an advertised feature aside for a moment... anybody who has high expectations for this has constructed them themselves... and if it sucks and they go into a butt-hurt-pocalypse, it's their fault.
Either you are so ignorant of the announced, confirmed and occasionally even reconfirmed official information regarding the functionality of the course maker that you honestly felt the people talking about said officially claimed course maker functionality were talking out of their ass and thus deserve to have their "butt-hurt-pocalypse"; or you are so desperate to give PD a pass on including functionality they in one case still have advertised on the GT6 website that you are deliberately trying to redefine what the concept of "hype" is to fit an extremely narrow criteria that conveniently leaves out developer interviews, game website updates, international game expo press sessions and developer Q&A sessions (all picked up and spread across the web as the official information that they were) but conveniently includes things that PD never presented about the feature.
Now, certainly, I'd hope a member of your status on this site wouldn't make such a wide sweeping statement as the one you did above over something you knew nothing about; but even moreso I'd hope a member of your status on this site wouldn't be so deliberately and transparently misleading to try to claim that game functionality that was absolutely discussed multiple times in official capacities don't count as proof of what to expect for functionality because you didn't see a screenshot of it or something (as amusing as such a thing would be, given PD's history of releasing mockup screens of what functionality
could look like, like they did with the GT5 B-Spec) when those statements and interviews and game expo press events were
still widely reported as news for the game every time they happened. So I can only hope, really, that you fall somewhere in between the two; realizing that Kaz might have made yet another faux pas of overpromising what PD can deliver but unable to really blame him for doing so so long as they get
something released. And I think "apologist" is a pretty apt descriptor for such an act, but you were the one who first said it. Had you not tried to frame yourself as some sort of one sane man regarding what to expect with the feature and tried to pass that off as pessimism with a sarcastic kicker at the end, I never would have put a label on what your post came off as. Simply would have debated the merits of your claims regarding false expectations.
Though I also suppose it's possible that you've been privy to some sort of widespread unrealistic expectations of what to want for the course maker that weren't announced, confirmed and then confirmed a second time; at which point I'll gladly take back all of the above two paragraphs if you can reasonably show this sort of widespread behavior to that effect. But
usually (admitting that I know of a couple big exceptions) when people on GTP talk about "unrealistic expectations" in response to people being disappointed with what PD deliver what they
really mean is "you shouldn't have so closely believed the thing you were directly told about what to expect."
Hell, maybe you're so loaded up with your "naturally pessimistic outlook" that you've automatically started seeing all claims that came from Kaz's mouth (or the GT website, or Sony press releases, or other Sony executives' statements) with complete and dominating cynicism, which is a
perfectly understandable outlook to have, but certainly a depressing one.
And on another note:
You don't need tv commercials.
I still find it so curious, and more than a little ominous, that the TV commercial that Sony
did have created for exactly that purpose never aired until the company that made it simply released it to YouTube.