Why is there not a new car or new track every day?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beppesignori
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I know that modeling is not easy, but this is still down to wether the whole thing is economically viable or not. If a car takes a month in man hours to complete, 30 designers would be able to "complete" one every day. A track takes a lot of research, but 2,5 months to complete a track with a sizable team is not unrealistic. All the design tools and driving engine are in place, it's just down to man hours. Regarding the rights, I am sure you could even be paid to publish. If Brands Hatch gave permission to be published, and Snetterton didn't, it would be a lost opportunity of free advertisement. Imagine as well, that the same day you read about a car in EVO magazine, you can go and test it on the PS. Fantastic publicity opportunity. The VW cars and the Corvette prototype I am sure are paid in full by VW and GM...
 
I love DLC talks...

There's two sides to every story.

On one side, No one wants DLC saying, "Just a bunch of money whores.... Why wasn't it included in the game in the first place?"

Then, you have this side. "But they should keep the game fresh with content that I need to waste my money on".
 
APXCaramel
I love DLC talks...

There's two sides to every story.

On one side, No one wants DLC saying, "Just a bunch of money whores.... Why wasn't it included in the game in the first place?"
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To be honest I'm quite neutral about this. I think that game developers are only game whores when about half of the game is hidden away in paid DLC making you pay more than you really have to enjoy the game. PD are not money whores, well at least in my opinion. DLC is a chance for game developers are given a chance to add things that maybe they forgot to add during production or maybe the community suggested something for their game that they really wanted them to add.
APXCaramel
Then, you have this side. "But they should keep the game fresh with content that I need to waste my money on".
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That's a little bit extreme, don't you think. No one in a sane state of mind would deliberately want to waste their hard earned money, especially if they don't have a lot of it.
 
Bacon
Load times are already long enough so with a new track and car everyday for over 2 years would result in ridiculous loading times that would render the game unplayable.
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Beppesignori
I know that modeling is not easy, but this is still down to wether the whole thing is economically viable or not. If a car takes a month in man hours to complete, 30 designers would be able to "complete" one every day. A track takes a lot of research, but 2,5 months to complete a track with a sizable team is not unrealistic. All the design tools and driving engine are in place, it's just down to man hours. Regarding the rights, I am sure you could even be paid to publish. If Brands Hatch gave permission to be published, and Snetterton didn't, it would be a lost opportunity of free advertisement. Imagine as well, that the same day you read about a car in EVO magazine, you can go and test it on the PS. Fantastic publicity opportunity. The VW cars and the Corvette prototype I am sure are paid in full by VW and GM...
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I can create a track in 5 minutes with the Track Creator. All PD has to do is take a basic track creator track, stick in some generic buildings, guardrails, trees, plants, bridges, signs, mountians in the background etc. , maybe tweak the course a little bit here and there to remove the huge front straight, and voila, new track. One guy could pump out tracks continuously this way...I don't think it's that difficult.

As far as cars go, what's to stop PD from designing their own car, and just superimposing the handling model of an existing car, tweaked slightly for individuality? Karts all look the same, why not throw out a fantasy 150CC kart with a 6 speed gearbox? How about an open wheel car based on the FGT, detuned in handling, downforce and power? How about adding RM versions of popular cars? I don't think this stuff is that difficult. Not free of course, but not like climbing Mt. Everest either.:)
 
Johnnypenso
Forget the every day part...I'm sure it was an exaggeration. But to say they need to massively expand their operations to add a couple of new cars a month and 4 or 5 tracks a year is baloney. It should have been done just to maintain interest in the franchise. It's a lost opportunity.
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Or they simply would rather focus their effort and money on developing new games instead.
 
Broseph
Or they simply would rather focus their effort and money on developing new games instead.
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This may be a revelation to some, but businesses can do more than one thing at a time. You can service your existing platform, and work on the new one at the same time. Revolutionary I know, but it does happen..:sly:
 
True, but if you're going to create something, putting all your effort into just that will yield a finished product sooner than taking away a portion of that effort to do something else.

The alternative being they spend more money than they had set out to do so that they can put that full effort into the new game AND some effort into content for the old game.

Either way they are somewhat compromising themselves.
 
I think Johnny Penso should go into game developing, come back and then explain to us his reason why it's easy as pie to make new DLC.

Reading your comments makes think your a person who knows nothing but criticizes everything.

If PD wanted to create sub par tracks they could but since it's a Driving Simulator they would have to go do the whole process of getting a real life track into the computer then into the game, same as the cars.
 
Instant
I think Johnny Penso should go into game developing, come back and then explain to us his reason why it's easy as pie to make new DLC.

Reading your comments makes think your a person who knows nothing but criticizes everything.

If PD wanted to create sub par tracks they could but since it's a Driving Simulator they would have to go do the whole process of getting a real life track into the computer then into the game, same as the cars.
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Sorry to burst your bubble, but we're expressing opinions here, that's the purpose of this forum. If you don't like it, express an alternate opinion or choice, no need to make it personal, this is where the big boys and girls come to exchange views. If the only people allowed to talk about a subject were experts, the forums would be empty wouldn't they?:sly:.
 
Johnnypenso
Sorry to burst your bubble, but we're expressing opinions here, that's the purpose of this forum. If you don't like it, express an alternate opinion or choice, no need to make it personal, this is where the big boys and girls come to exchange views. If the only people allowed to talk about a subject were experts, the forums would be empty wouldn't they?:sly:.
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Agreed.

This is a free country, innit? Opinion matters :)
 
@Brosph
Why would separate development take away resources from the development of a new game, if it was a separate division or an outsourced project? The developed projects would be paid for, and in such would not take anything away from future developments of the New Game.
Anyway, I had just hoped there was an easy explanation for this issue, since I am getting a bit bored with the choice of cars, the lack of new material, and choice of Tracks...guess I will just have to wait it out until the new game arrives( and judging by the delays of GT5, my guess is 2015). Wouldn't it be great if they conducted a survey amongst their users as to which cars and tracks they would like to see in the new game, instead of the endless stream of boring city-cars, and Japanese touring cars in a thousand different liveries...( and such a survey would of course show if I am alone in that opinion, or if there are others like me:))
 
One reason could be that PD have had stuff on their hands with the earthquake and tsunami, also having to move HQ, and all that that entails.

I'm led to understand that Japan has a lot of financial trouble to deal with, like much of the rest of the world. Could be that PD have had tax issues, and so limitations on staffing and budget...

The fact that with almost every update something goes wrong could be an indication of their not having a grip on their ability to maintain their product well.

Then there's the development of GT6...
 
GBRC tyrrell
One reason could be that PD have had stuff on their hands with the earthquake and tsunami, also having to move HQ, and all that that entails.

I'm led to understand that Japan has a lot of financial trouble to deal with, like much of the rest of the world. Could be that PD have had tax issues, and so limitations on staffing and budget...

The fact that with almost every update something goes wrong could be an indication of their not having a grip on their ability to maintain their product well.

Then there's the development of GT6...
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I'd agree that the Earthquake may have had an effect later on, but I think PD missed the boat from the beginning. There should have been a campaign of DLC from the beginning of the game, with regular, predicatable release dates and advance promotion to keep the faithful excited. The marketing of this game and communication with customers blows quite frankly, it's amateurish and seems haphazard and unplanned at best. Don't get me wrong, I love the franchise, I just think that it could have been so much more at very little cost, and in 2010-2013 there's just no excuse for the shoddy way the franchise has been handled since release.
 
I wouldn't go as far to say that there should be content every month, but I do see Johnny's point. GT has always been a big part of the PS library. Some forethought to the development, especially in light of having Prologue to see where things could go, would have served the game better as a whole.

It does take a lot of effort to design content, but had it been part of the original plan, it would have been in development from the very start, maybe even during the Prologue days.

I don't buy much DLC content myself. I don't buy Apps and Ringtones and crap for my phone either. I lean slightly in the, "why wasn't this in the game in the first place", or the , "it doesn't really add much to the game and really isn't worth the added cost" camp most of the time. Street Fighter IV is a perfect example. I bought SFIV and Super SFIV and now there's an Arcade SSFIV that costs another $25 (or so) that adds about 4 characters and changes some of the menus. Really? I already spent $120 on this game. No thanks, Capcom. That said, I did spend money on the extra cars and tracks for GT5.

There are quite a few tracks from the previous GT games that could have been reworked for GT5. Any of them would sell as DLC. As far as cars go, I'm sure that there are a few that could be an added bonus to GT5, but honestly I can't really name anything that I couldn't live without at this point.

The fact is that a game like this could have generated a lot of revenue from DLC, but I don't think that they were thinking about this from the get-go. A little more planning from the beginning would have made both Sony & PD a lot more money and would have kept this game at a higher level of popularity. It's not unpopular, but it's not up where it could have been.
 
There is always a downside though. If a company puts out enough paid DLC for a game, people will start to view them as bad or money hungry, and it gives the company/developers a bad stigma in the eyes of the consumer. It's happened with developers in the past. And, IMO, I think too much DLC has more potential to hurt them than not enough DLC. They have to be smart about it and find the balancing point between the two, and that's not an easy thing to do I would think.
 
Yes, it is always a balancing act.

My example above of Capcom is a great way to look at it. Ever since the early '90s they have been milking their fighting games for all they are worth.

Sure, not everyone buys every single version, but sheesh, it's insane to have 7 versions of the same game.

It might be hard to find that fine line, but I doubt there are many players who don't want the so-called "missing tracks" for GT5.
 
PD dropped the ball big time on DLC content. I remember reading Kaz wanted more time to develope and "tweak" GT5 but Sony wanted it to be released. What happened? Kaz had opportunities to offer extra stuff he wanted as DLC.

GT5 was really almost outdated as soon as it was released. Its way outdated now considering some cars are already on there second redesign since GT5 was released. They've done a great job keeping GTR/Skylines updated, why not any thing else?

We have the 2009-2010 Audi R10 as the newest "highend" race car in the game but yet theres four newer models out there Audi R15, R15+, R18 Ultra, R18 Hybrid. Kaz jumped on offering the GTRs from the Academy series but no LMP2 car that they raced in? Potential for those guys racing the Delta Wing but seems like Kaz came across in the interview as not even remotely interested in it.

What about the tracks in GT4 thats not in GT5. Big missed opportunity to upconvert them and port them over to GT5 as DLC, Motegi was just a fancy ported verison of the GT4 track.

I really think PD needs a new director, someone who understands the current gaming culture and who doesn't seem like they are stuck in 1999. New blood, someone with a different way of thinking and doing things.

I would have though there would have been much more effort put into Sony's Flagship title for the PS3. Leaves me wondering if GT6 isn't much better how more times will we hear just wait till the next game, just wait till the next one, and the next. I think they will really have to deliver a up to date high quality game in order for them to continue on.
 
With that said, maybe Kaz should not focus on having every single variant of every single year of every single car that he has an affinity for. Maybe spending the time on other things might be a better use of said time. :D hehe

I'd rather be driving on Apricot Hill than to have 300 different Skyline's/Etc.'s in sitting in my garage collecting dust. How many of those do people actually drive? I doubt that even a fourth of them get used.
 
Actually what we need is a competitor against GT, for PlayStation. Something better and more democratic, and not so Japan-centric (or Kaz-centric...?), something more relevant to the rest of the world.
 
I understand what you mean. I will say that most countries and car makers are represented, but there is definitely a focus on certain cars and certain makers that seems a bit much.

It should be balanced a bit more, especially since it's a racing game. Do we really need low HP putt-putt mobiles in here? :yuck:

The only thing those are good for is hopping in one from the garage and handing the controller to a friend to irritate them. I supposed demolition derby online might work too, but not really something that needs to be in this game.
 
IvanOffalich
It should be balanced a bit more, especially since it's a racing game. Do we really need low HP putt-putt mobiles in here? :yuck:

The only thing those are good for is hopping in one from the garage and handing the controller to a friend to irritate them. I supposed demolition derby online might work too, but not really something that needs to be in this game.
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+1

One thing that really confuses me is that during the 24 Hour of Le Man weekend, PD adds a season of slow slow French cars to drive around Le Sarth. Since when does Le Man weekend mean old slow French cars, what does that have to do with racing?

Why not a Group C race, Jaguar XJR-9, Mazda 787B, Merc C9, Nissan R89/92, Toyota Minolta, Peugoet 905 ect... Or open top LMP/GTP, BMW V12 LMR, Audi R8/R10, Courages, Toyota GT-One, Bentley EXP Speed 8ect....

It just confuses the hell out of me the silly oddball things they do with the game that I would think some developers would jump on. PD seems to just turn there nose at it. They either don't care or they just lost all creative ideas. They really need a competitor to push them to do much better.
 
Johnnypenso
I agree, PD missed the boat. Good quality DLC should have been well planned, included tracks, and been flowing from the beginning. Were I in Kaz's shoes I'd be happy to be breaking even on the deal, just to keep interest peaked and focus on the franchise. They missed out on a huge opportunity and anyone that doesn't understand that doesn't know a lot about business.
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That is not a problem. I read that GT5 cracked the top 30 in sales worldwide just recently despite being over 2 years old.

Plenty of people still buying GT5 and plenty of people will buy GT6.👍
 

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