Yamauchi’s presence at CES 2010 provided quite a bit of media access and interviews. I’ve already covered the best ones, but there’s a few more small quotes which are also worth mentioning:
“We had maybe 300 polygons in a car in the first game. Now we have about 500,000 polygons in each car.”
“It is about the same for the PS 3, about 80 percent of the processing power. The PS 3 hardware has a very high peak performance.”
“We have tried to create a new standard and format for a racing game. We can’t tell too much detail yet.”
“I am usually pretty frustrated when a version comes out. Right after the release, I think we should have done this or should have done that. A game release is not a very happy time for me. When a new title comes out, I look to the next one to fix it. Yeah, I’m usually pretty angry after the release of the title.”
MotorTrend Interview
Discussed here.
TechCrunch Intreview
Discussed here.
“About 90% of [Gran Turismo 5] is done. We are just working on the last 10% and polishing up everything.”
With the high profile of the USA Today article, many other media outlets are getting caught up in the “90%” remark. However, it is being cited by many popular gaming sites (VG247, PSU, Play.tm, etc.) as the reason for the Japanese delay, despite the fact there is no evidence to suggest that. In addition to the points I raised in my own analysis, the 90% figure does far more to support the game would be ready for March.
Simple math shows why: at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony provided press members with a pamphlet outlining the development status of all the company’s major titles, and GT5 was listed at 65% complete as of September 23, 2009. Yamauchi mentions 90% in an article published on January 14, 2010. So, in 113 days, 25% of the game was completed, or approximately .221% per day. Assuming this same rate of progress, GT5 would have been completed in approximately 45 days, on February 28, 2010 – just in time for a late March release in Japan.
Yes, I know the estimated percentages provide an extremely rough estimate of the game’s progress. However, when you also consider the 90% figure was mentioned by Yamauchi only two days before Sony announced the delay, even a generous margin of error further suggests the game was postponed for marketing – not production – reasons.
See more articles on CES 2010.
As someone that works in Planning and Progress, I know for a fact that the last 5% will take far longer than 5% at the beginning of a project.
I’d say a fourth quarter release for this game.
it’s really unfair to let us wait and wait, givin’ us only senseless informations – 90% … and how long will you need for the rest – 3, 4 or 5 month or another 5 years?
asking my oracle gives me more information … i’m so unhappy with the situation and the communication/marketing by KY/PD and Sony
sry for whining, but i can’t hold it back anymore
You forget that in software development that writing and debugging the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the entire time of the project. :) I’m just kidding, but in all seriousness that rule mostly applies to poorly planned projects or amateur programmers. In Polyphony Digital’s case, I also agree that an argument can be made for a March release in Japan and a summer release here in the United States.
90% of is done,E3 unveiling…..release 2010 Q4.
Interesting.
Just tell us a date ANY DATE ( its not needed to be the release date just a date from KY or SONY )
Still no real news…………………:(((( I agree with vampire63, this isnt news for me
NEWS WOULD BE LIKE:
1.Car and Track List (It would be fair if PD would add 10 cars every day on the gran turismo site
2.New Screenshots of the game
3.Precentage ??????? WTF?????
But still,I am preety sure that PD will realease it just fine :))
90% huh? i just wish they had released the game already instead of adding all these features. it’s driving us fans nuts and 360 fanboys are LAUGHING at us
Why the hell is Kaz angry after a release of a game?
Sony will have to push this dude even single minute, because this is taking too long.
PD is a very good studio, but Kaz is the wrong man over there. Stop driving cars all day long and get your ass back to work mister Yamauchi.
percentage calculations? I know its just for the sake of argument but seriously – “90 percent” is often somewhat a figure of speech – ie. “we’re very nearly done, just finishing and polishing up” :P
Lovin that top gear idea, how sweet would that be!!
@ vampire63
C’mon man…
And still no NEWS (i don’t count pics and small talk about percents for news )
News are: release date ( if ever happens )
new cars
new in game features
and everything that is connected with the game ( not making the game )
90% in dev terms generally means that the only work left to do is bug fixing or the tying up of likeness.
Which would mean that there isn’t much contradiction between this statement and the ‘We can release the game any time’ (or whatever it was) one.
Especially when you consider how horrendously buggy the likes of NFS:Shift are.
On the other hand, even with bug fixing and licencing contracts, you can usually set a firm cut off date without too much difficulty.
My guess is that the time trial demo got a poor reception, so they’ve panicked and are currently trying to ‘paper over the cracks’.
Guys, always remember that games are never develop linearly! If you can recall from TGS, GOW III was also at 65% completion, and oh, it’s releasing in March. Final Fantasy XIII (90%?), and released in December. R&C (80%), released in November (or October, not sure).
So no, it’s not simple linear, algebraic math. With all the codes pretty much set though, I think it wouldn’t be too far off estimating in a linear fashion from now on, so I agree with Jordan here. Delay must’ve been due to marketing reason. I don’t think Kaz himself was even aware of the delay during CES, till the breaking news.
I think they will try to tie it into an episode of top gear for the release in the UK. I also think that if the top gear track makes an appearence in GT5 im pretty sure we will be able to race the stig round the top gear track everytime he posts a new top gear laptime with a new car. now that we know about the GPS track day unit. GT5 is going to blow us away with many unexpected features such as this one. obviously this is just a little speculation on my part but it would make perfect sense as KY is a massive top gear fan.
10% done, 90% remainin :D! jk…
man….the game will finish after 2012!!! :((((
we’ll all be dead in 2012!
in case gt5 wont be made by then, ill just get GT5P’s bluray case as my grave stone and write on it
“Died waitin for GT5”
:'((((
April please April
I think the game was done in september but the fans are not happy about the damage that 35 procent is full damage, physx , weather , polishing
Yeah. It’s 10% to complete. That means the game is ready and in copy mode at the publisher facilities and awaiting the decision of the Sony financial department to be released.
This is very approximate percentages.You can spend 2 years to just build an game engine and what percentage of completeness you will have? 0% or 30%, maybe 50% for small game…That’s all approximate values.VERY SUBJECTIVE!!!
All that new standard talk is reassuring. Makes me feel at ease.
Yes I agree, with you on cars and tracks and even GT5P, but virtually the %s are useless. You can say it’s 65% in September, but at E3 what was it, 50%? The working time frames aren’t consistent with the actual development process, but I doubt it’s really at 90.
Overall I would like to see a compiled start to current list of the complete process to find out a more accurate percentage, but that would take to much time out of actually finishing up the game.
Corey, it should be blatantly obvious that a game is not developed at a constant rate of a percentage per day. The final 10% of the product will be easier to complete because the base of the game has been built and they are literally putting the finishing touches on.
gran turismo 5 is taking a long time to be released and game got pushed back many times meaning dat each time they were about to release it they had some promotion issue cuz kazanuris excuse of the game isnt finished it has been used MANY TIMES its gettin old just release it already
like kaz said in one interview, they have a physics model now that all they do is input the data from the car into the game, if the car is good in real life, it will show in gt5.
the amount of code and database needed to set that up properly, to be able to adjust for road cars to race cars, nascars and the like must have taken alot of man hours.
and i’m pretty sure its still not an easy task to simply input data from a car.
the last 5 years were made tampering with GT5P, a new online system and the refining the new code they had written for GT5 because they wrote off the GT4 legacy code.
Once there was a proper understanding of the CELL processor and an effective Graphics engine, GT5P was released in late 2007. Now they worked on updated physics and the graphics engine had to be completed. All this tedious framework had to be done, which really doesn’t account for that much of the percentage of the game. Just because the game engines are done, it means a small fraction of the game is done. The rest is through modeling of cars and tracks, etc. 10% left ~~~ if we can even trust KY should be polishing kinks and adding any new cars like the LFA or the FT-86G
disgruntled fans aside, it’d be nice if Polyphony Digital took a leaf out of Turn 10’s book of marketing and released a few details every now and then in the run up to the game’s release. for example, a vehicle list would be nice, along with a track list. even if it’s just releasing details of 5 cars a day, that still leaves you with more than 200 days to polish your game.
i understand that the list may not be finalised, but it’d keep fans informed and may stimulate pre-orders – for example, if people knew that their favourite races were in the game (e.g. the Le Mans 24hr event (with save points at every pit stop pretty please)) they’ be more inclined to secure their copy of the game….maybe
@demonblade, agree totally.
Agree with Corey. You could say it’s taken 5 years to get to 90% so at that rate of development we should expect it to take another 6 months to finish it! Even ‘release dates’ mean nothing anymore as far is GT5 is concerned. Won’t believe anything PD or Sony say anymore till I’m holding a copy.
@Corey: Obviously, that rate of development has not been constant over the past 5 years. From Yamauchi’s remarks in interviews over the years, I get the impression that the majority of the development time is consumed creating the 3D models of the cars and tracks.
Making 1000 cars??
If they completed 25% in just 4 months, what the hell happened the last 5 years?!?!1 At the rate of .221% GT5 shouldn’t been completed in just 1 year and 73 days total.
“It is about the same for the PS 3, about 80 percent of the processing power. The PS 3 hardware has a very high peak performance.”
Well Uncharted 2 uses over 90% of the Cell’s processor and uses 25GB of a single Blu-ray Disc. Will GT5 use only one Blu ray Disc?
I have a feeling that the delay could all be to do with the GT Academy. It takes place at the end of February and start of March. It will be filmed for TV. It would air possibly a month later. If this is on TV constantly promoting the ‘GT’ name, it would be perfect for a release for Gran Turismo 5 to come as the series finishes.
I don’t believe until I get GT5 in my hand…
gt5 the best game ever!
I’d say the 90% is a number KY thought would satisfy the masses, that it’s almost out the door.. I bet there’s no serious maths or development problems behind the delay.
Look at all the mis-interpreted information we’ve already waded through.
My money is on marketing chumps getting something wrong.
I like to see them announcing additional manufacturers like they said they would.
Interesting.