Explain it to me then.
I think there are far worse developer situations out there right now and PD's biggest issue is failure to communicate. Look at DICE and Battlefield - they supposedly stopped DLC development to address their game breaking issues like server crashes, save data erased if the game crashes, sound cutting out completely, rubberbanding making online a horrible experience and then there comes the DLC right on schedule and most of there issues still present. Look at Arkham Origins which has game breaking bugs and the developer announced no more patches to fix issues, we are working solely on paid DLC. PD on the other hand are working of fixing issues, working on announced features, adding free content, and paid DLC. Could they do better at communicating, sure. Could they push the updates out quicker? Probably but I also don't have insight into their development process or issues they are running across and I won't pretend to. I actually think it's unfair for a member of the industry to criticize this situation without knowing details, and that's aimed directly @
Lawndart
I am very away of battle field, as I worked on a product using Frostbite 2, I know the DICE guys well. Also the Simcity debacle, and we might as well add Rome total war 2 to the list, along with a few others. Sure, some developers stop updating for reasons they won't admit, generally to do with funding.
But in each of those, there was communication. Whether we liked what was communicated or not, and the results, is a different story.
PD will update GT 6 again, I'm certain of that. But most games don't have a lifetime value beyond 3 months... Or rather, after 3 months most of you're users have moved on. How much you communicate and update can reduce that attrition.
And this attrition is what forces publishers to make larger decisions as the minority of players is so small it doesn't really matter how load they get.
GT is what we call an "evergreen" title. One that keeps selling long after release... But more than ever before there are distractions like new consoles, PC games on the rise (happens every console transition), and loads of new games not to mention an 8 year back catalogue of great games... And it's that back catalogue that drives sales of old consoles.
GT 6 has all the hallmarks of an abandoned product... Is it though? No, and this is the only benefit of being an age old studio that has vision ahead of customer expectation.
You know what they say, if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all. Companies follow this religiously. And Japanese companies have a lot of pride... Just admiring fault is shameful. But I speculate this as even I can't find enough logic beyond PD just limping through this cycle intentionally with all their eggs in GT 7's basket.
Those of us that played every GT game thoroughly know GT 6 is not up to par in comparison to any other version, nearly a blight on the franchise.
What does any other developer do when they know they just produced the runt of the litter? Either double down risking financial ruin or simply move on... No communication is the first indication of the later.
