Something New

  • Thread starter Thread starter jflomario
  • 6 comments
  • 761 views
jflomario

jflomario

Premium
Messages
227
United States
Connecticut
Messages
jflomario
For some time Sony had us believe the Playstation 4 was going to be called Orbis. This is partially because the number 4 in Japanese means death(or something like that). Also because after a certain number of iterations people get sick of a franchise(usually around 3 or so).

So any thoughts on how this affects GT? I mean, this is the sixth installment after all.
 
There are countless Japanese franchises with numbers higher than 3. Many higher than 6.
 
Gran Turismo 4 was, and probably still is, my favourite of the series so far. Just sayin'...

I think people are bored or disappointed with GT6 because, for the most part, it isn't up to par with previous GT's. Not because the series has gone beyond a certain number of titles.
 
Last edited:
Samus
There are countless Japanese franchises with numbers higher than 3. Many higher than 6.
Click to expand...
Final Fantasy... Going for the 15th and then there are those wich are seguiments and etc...
 
jflomario
This is partially because the number 4 in Japanese means death(or something like that).
Click to expand...

The number four in Japanese is pronounced either as "shi" or "yon". "Shi" happens to also be the pronunciation for the word death, albeit it's an entirely different kanji when written. Similarly, the number three, "san", is pronounced the same as a word for birth. So you're not likely to see a room 43 in a Japanese maternity ward (even though the word for stillbirth is pronounced "shizan").

That said, I don't suspect it was going to stop them from naming it the PS4. For one, it's not like they would have said the number four as either "shi" or "yon"... just as PS3 wasn't spoken as "Pureiisuteiishon san ban" or anything like that. Final Fantasy 7 in Japan, the 7 is "sebun", i.e. neither of the actual Japanese pronunciations of 7 (not that there's anything unlucky about 7 or its pronunciations in Japanese... on the contrary, 7 is a lucky number in Japan).

Nor are PD going to worry about the GT name going on for too long or anything of that sort. The GT brand has been built up over years and so far three generations of consoles. They're not going to abandon that brand just for the sake of supposedly freshening things up with a new name.
 
As far Final Fantasy goes, it wouldn't make sense to change the name for advertisements. Everytime they release a game it would be "from the studio that brought you Final Fantasy", etc. I also wouldn't see it fit for Square Enix to change the name seeing as each installment has new characters even though all its stories are about love or whatever.

They did change True Crime to Sleeping Dogs strangely enough. Maybe it was for legal purposes. I don't know.
 
Back