Unless PD hasn't updated their site they still only have 110 employees.

[Davoxx]

Video games are not office staffing....

It's a copy and past of the entire article that why there is "office staffing".
And most of other points are valid

 

[Davoxx]

Deleted. Sorry double post. Mistake.

 

[eran0004]

I would try and do this myself but I'm just about to leave the house, but I wonder what efficiency figures would be if we calculated days/hours to complete the game against the amount of staff working on the game, and then compared that efficiency figure to other similar titles and see how the GT franchise stacks up.

It would be good to see if PD is as slow as many people seem to think, or if the time they take corrolates perfectly with staffing levels (i.e, half the staff of Forza, twice as long to complete the game compared to Forza). By complete, I also mean an actual finished product as advertised, not just it's release date with the game still missing many key features.

Because at the moment, 200+ staff and still an uncomplete game nearly one year after release sounds bad already, let alone the years they were working on it since GT5 came out and most of the work was already done (tracks, cars, gathering data of tracks and cars).

Updated my post to give an idea on where the people work: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/thre...only-have-110-employees.318743/#post-10176345

200+ staff is basically not of any use unless you know what they're doing. 60 car modellers can't do any work on the sounds or the course maker, or fix any bugs. Tracks and cars is basically half of the workforce.

 

[phosphor112]

...other than their games.

Back to topic: Back in 2009 this source said "over 140 employees".

http://www.worldwidestudios.net/polyphony

Edit: Here's an updated graph with the numbers that I've been able to find:

View attachment 243434
The first two points are from PD's website in 2006 and 2007.
The third point is from an interview with Kazunori Yamauchi in 2008 where he said that 120 people were working on GT5.
The fourth point is from Sony Worldwide studio's website in 2009.
The fifth point is from the move to Fukuoka in 2011, where 50 out of 150 employees moved from Tokyo (and that is likely the source for the information from the article in 2013 that also mentions 150 employees, because it's worded in almost the exact same way).

The sixth and last point is from Wikipedia, an edit that was made in 2014. I'm not sure about the credibility. On one hand there's no source listed, but on the other hand the person making the edit have only made edits on wikipedia relating to statistics about Sony and Gran Turismo. There's a possibility that it's a person with good insight, but there's also a possibility that it's someone who just makes things up.

So the last official number is 150. No one can seem to pinpoint that 271 number.
That is a nice projection chart though. Hopefully they've hit about that.

 

[eran0004]

So the last official number is 150. No one can seem to pinpoint that 271 number.
That is a nice projection chart though. Hopefully they've hit about that.

My theory is that the guy who edited the wikipedia page simply counted the names in the ending credits. Which includes a lot of people who are not employed by PD (such as Sergei Rachmaninov...).

 

[phosphor112]

Nope not agree, outsourcing is the future because when you outsource you can be more focus on your main/core goals, less management and more efficient.
They can outsource cars modeling and just put the final touch (example order cars modeled at 90% and do the other 10% which are details).
Regards results, look at what turn 10 did with FM5 graphically.

Yep. I mean. We can compare the results... Yes. PD's premium models are amazing, but compare the worst of PD's cars ("standard") to the worst of Forza's cars (outsourced)? It's an easy call.

My theory is that the guy who edited the wikipedia page simply counted the names in the ending credits. Which includes a lot of people who are not employed by PD (such as Sergei Rachmaninov...).

Yep.

Either way, GT6 has ~20 modelers.

By the way, great investigative work. I don't have much time to do that stuff. Lol.

 

[eran0004]

Yep. I mean. We can compare the results... Yes. PD's premium models are amazing, but compare the worst of PD's cars ("standard") to the worst of Forza's cars (outsourced)? It's an easy call.


Yeah, that also includes localization staff that's not a part of PD.

Either way, GT6 has ~20 modelers.

GT6 had 30 track modelers and 49 car modelers in the credits. Counting directors as well makes it 35 + 56.

 

[phosphor112]

GT6 had 30 track modelers and 49 car modelers in the credits. Counting directors as well makes it 35 + 56.

Ah! I was thinking of GT5.
Which had 5 modeling directors, 13 modelers, and 1 modeler assistant. (close enough to 20)

 

[eran0004]

Ah! I was thinking of GT5.
Which had 5 modeling directors, 13 modelers, and 1 modeler assistant. (close enough to 20)

It's actually 48 car modellers in the credits for GT5
It's only one less than in GT6. In the GT6 credits they're divided by rank (modelling chief, modelling, modelling assistant) while in the GT5 credits there is no such division.