Why Gran Turismo 6 was not as successful as GT5 and GT4?

[doflamingo13]

According to sales number, GT4 was the best selling GT series all the time, followed closely by GT5. However, the number of GT6 sales plunged and only slightly increased on GTS, despite the physics got improved on every new series. Why is that? Because there are more people going to Forza or other simracing games?

 

[Thematic]

GT4 was a hit, because GT3 was still very similar to GT2, so a game that was using the Playstation 2 to its potential was interesting. The same goes for GT5, especially considering that the visuals are in fact, more important to the audience than the simulationary aspects.

 

[CBH]

Because GT6 was a rushed game.

 

[eran0004]

GT6 was released on an old console.

GT Sport focused on online competition.

So if you just wanted a casual racing game for your new console, Gran Turismo wasn’t really an option.

 

[GBalao888]

Because GT6 was a rushed game.

Not to mention a few things:

• GT6 has the worst Arcade Mode in the entire series, where it has only 20 rental cars (where they could have allowed every car in the game to be used as a rental car instead), and that you can only use other cars outside of these rental cars if you use the car you're currently driving or those registered under Favorites (which means we were very limited to what Garage cars we can use, and have to change them from time to time), all of which promotes excessive grinding and tedious re-arranging of cars.
• The career mode was not very well thought out, and somehow shorter than GT5 itself.
• Above all else, the game released a month after the PS4's launch.

That was usually the Gran Turismo tradition to release two titles on a single Playstation console (with GT Sport having broken that tradition). Not to mention Kaz himself said that developing the game on PS3 was absolute hell on Earth.

 

[doflamingo13]

Not to mention a few things:

• GT6 has the worst Arcade Mode in the entire series, where it has only 20 rental cars (where they could have allowed every car in the game to be used as a rental car instead), and that you can only use other cars outside of these rental cars if you use the car you're currently driving or those registered under Favorites (which means we were very limited to what Garage cars we can use, and have to change them from time to time), all of which promotes excessive grinding and tedious re-arranging of cars.
• The career mode was not very well thought out, and somehow shorter than GT5 itself.
• Above all else, the game released a month after the PS4's launch.

That was usually the Gran Turismo tradition to release two titles on a single Playstation console (with GT Sport having broken that tradition). Not to mention Kaz himself said that developing the game on PS3 was absolute hell on Earth.

Sounds like polyphony just ruined GT on GT6..

GT6 was released on an old console.

GT Sport focused on online competition.

So if you just wanted a casual racing game for your new console, Gran Turismo wasn’t really an option.

Maybe this is why people would rather choose FH4 than GTS then

 

[Tornado]

Because it was a worse game than the Gran Turismo game that Sony expected you to replace with it and poor word of mouth got out about it really fast; and when faced with people wondering whether to invest in a game, making unbelievable promises about a ton of content eventually coming at some point after release when your game already is coming out after new consoles released isn't much of a selling point when you can't play it on the new console at all.

 

[GTPVenomZombie]

Not to mention a few things:

• GT6 has the worst Arcade Mode in the entire series, where it has only 20 rental cars (where they could have allowed every car in the game to be used as a rental car instead), and that you can only use other cars outside of these rental cars if you use the car you're currently driving or those registered under Favorites (which means we were very limited to what Garage cars we can use, and have to change them from time to time), all of which promotes excessive grinding and tedious re-arranging of cars.
• The career mode was not very well thought out, and somehow shorter than GT5 itself.
• Above all else, the game released a month after the PS4's launch.

That was usually the Gran Turismo tradition to release two titles on a single Playstation console (with GT Sport having broken that tradition). Not to mention Kaz himself said that developing the game on PS3 was absolute hell on Earth.

It was also the worst game for collecting cars. They got rid of the Used dealership, and you could only have 500 cars in your garage at a time. Of course there was the stockyard, but from personal experience I hated that feature. About 1200+ cars (correct me if I'm wrong) in the game, and we could only have 500 cars in our garage...

May not be a big deal for some, but I love collecting cars and upgrading them. Always been one of my favorite factors of the Gran Turismo games. It was ruined in GT6. Once my garage filled up to 500, there was no need to buy more cars just to put them in the stockyard. Just pointless in my opinion. GT6 just gathers dust now, while I quite often still play GT5.

 

[Marcus Garvey]

Because it was a worse game than the Gran Turismo game that Sony expected you to replace with it and poor word of mouth got out about it really fast; and when faced with people wondering whether to invest in a game, making unbelievable promises about a ton of content eventually coming at some point after release when your game already is coming out after new consoles released isn't much of a selling point when you can't play it on the new console at all.

Yes. And if they hadn't announced so quickly (early January iirc, about a month after GT6 was released) they were shutting down the GT5 servers, all the while in the middle of a whole lot of network issues on GT6 often rendering nigh unplayable online, they might not have lost as many players to other franchises and platforms. I recall a lot of series suffering huge turnout losses in moving to GT6 with those issues, that ended up going to iracing, etc never to return. Had they been able to continue to host on GT5 until GT6 was reliable, I believe many would have continued playing GT5 rather than jump ship. However, in their hasty and arrogant move to push more to adopt GT6 right away, they shut down the GT5 servers with the conceited notion that those players would not look elsewhere. They had the data from players counts online to see that the player migration to the new game wasn't on par with forecasts, and figured they would 'help it along' with a heavy hand.

A heavy hand that sent people right out the door. Their monopoly on quality road racing games was over, and their security over feared competition with iracing due to the barriers that exist between console and PC gaming was dwindling as access and proliferation of PC gaming continued to grow. And their king of offline play status was no longer as relevant in a world where online gaming ruled, making or breaking games. They forgot all of that and took their playerbase for granted.

Gamers, and sim racers in particular, are like drug addicts. Once they're hooked, they're not going to take a month or two off until you get your 🤬 together. If you take a month 'off' because your servers are 🤬 they will look elsewhere. And when that lands them going back to the previous game...and you take that away...they're really going to look elsewhere.

Then there's me who took years 'off,' came back, and feel on the precipice of another long hiatus. So maybe we're not all addicts.

 

[doflamingo13]

Yes. And if they hadn't announced so quickly (early January iirc, about a month after GT6 was released) they were shutting down the GT5 servers, all the while in the middle of a whole lot of network issues on GT6 often rendering nigh unplayable online, they might not have lost as many players to other franchises and platforms. I recall a lot of series suffering huge turnout losses in moving to GT6 with those issues, that ended up going to iracing, etc never to return. Had they been able to continue to host on GT5 until GT6 was reliable, I believe many would have continued playing GT5 rather than jump ship. However, in their hasty and arrogant move to push more to adopt GT6 right away, they shut down the GT5 servers with the conceited notion that those players would not look elsewhere. They had the data from players counts online to see that the player migration to the new game wasn't on par with forecasts, and figured they would 'help it along' with a heavy hand.

A heavy hand that sent people right out the door. Their monopoly on quality road racing games was over, and their security over feared competition with iracing due to the barriers that exist between console and PC gaming was dwindling as access and proliferation of PC gaming continued to grow. And their king of offline play status was no longer as relevant in a world where online gaming ruled, making or breaking games. They forgot all of that and took their playerbase for granted.

Gamers, and sim racers in particular, are like drug addicts. Once they're hooked, they're not going to take a month or two off until you get your 🤬 together. If you take a month 'off' because your servers are 🤬 they will look elsewhere. And when that lands them going back to the previous game...and you take that away...they're really going to look elsewhere.

Then there's me who took years 'off,' came back, and feel on the precipice of another long hiatus. So maybe we're not all addicts.

One day polyphony will learn the lesson like microsoft did with forza. Allow it to PC

 

[CBH]

One day polyphony will learn the lesson like microsoft did with forza. Allow it to PC

If PD put Gran Turismo games on pc I will never play them, because I like consoles even though I have a good pc and a very good wheel for the latest console and pc.

The only complaint I got with Sony which I am not happy about, is that the latest console should have been backwards compatible with all previous playstation console games, and now I have PS2, PS3, PS4 and a PS5 console which is kind of silly.

 

[BoDarville]

When profit through microtransactions for game developers becomes more important than the gaming experience for consumers through a lump sum, the games as a whole also become worse. Grand Turismo, GTA Online does not matter, they are all based on the same greed at the expense of quality.

 

[Codemastersk]

Unlike most, I dont miss the Used Car Dealership and I dont think it was one driving factor for its failure. The simple reason is that it was released too little too late. All even numbered releases sold less than their odd numbered counterparts because they were released later on the console life, that is why I think Polyphony will not ever make two big games on the same console, like how PS4 users were stuck on Sport instead of a traditional numbered release, they take too long to develop and the effort doesnt pay off in the end. Personally I like 2, 4 and 6 more than 1, 5 and especially the most beloved 3.
I accepted it on previous entries and even found it a bit cool on 4, with the rare black cars and such, but on 5 it was simply the worst implementation ever made, making some cars necessary to certain events only obtainable through UCD, the utter trash that was B-Spec Career (it could be so much better implemented) or renting from a friend.

The career mode was not very well thought out, and somehow shorter than GT5 itself.

I dont think it was a design failure, but a intentional design choice (which I do dislike too), all games were progressively being tailored for online experiences until GT Sport which is the Kaz obsession with online modes in its purest form. GT5 had seasonal events, but 6 was supposed to give more spotlight to them, to make the game feel longer with these timed events.
Even then I find GT6 career more enjoyable because the tracks are varied. GT5 most of the events on the beginning take place on Tsukuba which I loathe to death, when it start to get more varied, the progression halts because of the leveling up system and the cars required to progress. Even with only 6 tracks, I had more fun with the mission structure on GT5 Prologue than the full release.