PlayStation South Africa is Saying Strange Things About GT Sport

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Unless you call a particularly large chunk of Earth that you reside under “home”, you’ve by now heard that Gran Turismo Sport has been delayed to 2017. The news meant players looking forward to experiencing the first current-gen GT game this holiday season would miss out, but word out of Johannesburg suggests the wait may be a comparatively short one in the world of Gran Turismo delays.

NAG Online got some seat time with GT Sport this past weekend at rAge 2016, the largest gaming convention in South Africa. Contributor Wesley Fick had both positive and negative impressions of the game — impressed by the menus and sense of speed, less so by the ‘dumb’ AI — but far away the most interesting aspect of the article is the release window. According to NAG, Gran Turismo Sport will be arriving on shelves this coming January.

The big reveal comes care of Sony reps at the event, according to Fick right here on the GTPlanet forums. If true, this is quite the surprise for a number of reasons. January is only two months after the original mid-November release: surely that would have been a better announcement than the vague 2017 statement we received at the end of summer.

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It should be noted that January is also a rather untraditional month to release an AAA-level game. Missing that lucrative holiday retail window is unfortunate enough, but Sony must have a reason for launching so closely to it instead of waiting for the more usual early spring period.

If GT Sport really is coming in the first month of 2017, we should expect the game’s marketing push to restart quite soon to begin occupying important real estate in gamers’ minds. It definitely makes us wonder what may be in store from Polyphony at December’s PlayStation Experience in California.

Encouragingly, NAG also reports GT Sport will launch with day one support for both the PS4 Pro and PlayStation VR. Sony (briefly) showed off the game in the PSVR launch trailer, so perhaps that experience too is closer than we may have originally thought.

We’re very curious to see if/how Sony responds to this news. Keep an eye on the ‘Planet as the story develops.

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Comments (38)

  1. mikronimo

    I’m not closely following all that GTs thing (gameplay, menus, car list, etc.), but, given that the “s” in GTs means “sport”, I would have thought “they” would have given us a really good AI… instead i have just read about a “dumb AI”… why? What, that ALL others game makers can do, Polyphony is not able to understand/do? I’m quite concerned and disappointed…

    1. mikronimo

      @bloodyboyblue: ok, you got the point, but if they are faster, are even more difficult to beat, aren’t they? So, in some way, the race experience is better than start as last one and in one lap or so, beat them all… PD has had a lot of years to give us an interactive AI; i prefer to race against, we say, 6 opponents, worsening from the first to six, than have a lot of mobile obstacles… i know, this is an old issue, but precisely because it’s old, i would wish was, in some manner, solved. As i can see, no way.

    2. TomBrady

      PD has done good AI before. GT PSP and GT5p had the best AI racing in the series. Funny coincidence that they’re also the 2 games in the series without upgradeable cars. GT Sport doesn’t have upgradeable cars either so most likely the AI racing will be better than ever. Especially since they’re giving difficulty levels for once.

    3. Johnnypenso

      Anyone who thinks that the AI in other games is simply the same as Gran Turismo but faster, has no idea what they’re talking about.

  2. RaceFuchs

    I think its worth noticing that the PSVR packaging features a large GTSport picture on its back side. Obviously this could become Sonys biggest VR title so far, so they might want to release it as soon as possible aka January…

  3. SolidSnake7735

    There’s only ONE feature that truly matters to me. After the ludicrously long wait for Course Creator on GT6, and after buying a decent tablet just to take advantage of the feature, they better not even think about leaving it out of GT:Sport.

    When you consider that this upcoming title is essentially a reboot to the series (you can deny it all you want and hold your breath for GT7, but trust me, you’ll turn purple before Kaz even mentions the number ‘7’ after the words Gran Turismo), it would be a massive disservice to the community to leave that out of the next game after it was so highly anticipated.

    Oh, and livery editor is cool, too, I guess.

    1. Johnnypenso

      There’s been no mention of the course creator at all this time around and with a focus on online racing it’s no surprise that this feature is not on the radar as far as we know.

  4. smilerftm

    Most intersting part for me is the ‘dumb’ AI comment. Dont think I’ll bother with the game if it has, massively disappointing if the series still has crap AI and sounds. It’s as if they dont want to actually progress the actual gameplay and just want pretty cars on overly clean and over exposed tracks. Despite this lack of actual progress it still takes them years to release what is in essence a bloody small demo.

  5. Rubencho

    I went back to Xbox, got an amazon deal that included a One S with a free copy of Horizon 3, 4 Forza titles have already been released for XBone (5 if you include the original Horizon with backwards compatibility) and PD is still struggling to release a demo.

    1. bf3

      Chrisw265 – PD is so far behind in all aspects,including quality,that there is no chance of them coming even close to Turn10.
      Besides,Turn10 smart enough to use more man power,which is incredibly still lacking at PD.
      GT lives only because of fans,as a racing franchise its quite dead and absolutely boring.
      Forza Horizon 3 is such a joy to play,even tho im not really into such type of games.
      So yes – Forza has both – quality and quantity

    2. RaceFuchs

      Bf3, GT is still huge. Like it or not, there is nothing quite like it. The automotive press doesnt care at all about Forza, but they are thrilled by GT Vision. GT is a huge name in motorsports, people know this brand and the GT academy. And there are SO many people who will buy GTSports at release because they always played GT and no other racing game. And it isnt smart to compare this game to FHorizon 3, because they are completly diffrent types of racing games. By the way, Polyphony has far more man power then you might think.

    3. Rubencho

      To be fair, Turn 10 developed 2 games and Playground other 2; Driveclub could be the answer to Horizon but unfortunately things didn’t go well.

      From a gamer perspective, it sucks to have such a poor choice of sim-racing games available in PS, titles like PCars and Assetto are other beast in PC due to mods and more raw power.

      After a day of work I just want to chill a bit and have some minutes playing a fun game, at the end, that’s the sole purpose of this.

    4. RaceFuchs

      In all honesty, PS4 is great for racing games. PCars is still impressive – with up to 42 cars on track, dynamic daytime and weather and good performance. Assetto Corsa is just fine on console, too. PC always gives you something extra, but you need power. Assetto Corsa looks and runs better on my PS4 then on my PC, so yeah. I would rather buy PSVR or PS4Pro or Scorpio then upgrade my PC. But i guess thats a matter of preferences and personal tastes. In any case, you can play Dirt Rally and F1 on your console, and GTSport is the big exclusive Sony is missing, now.

    5. ImaRobot

      There’s nothing like GT?
      For comparable GTS titles we have Pcars, and Assetto Corsa
      For comparable GT titles of old, we have Forza Motorsport and it’s sister brand Forza Horizon. Less of the latter because it’s open world, but it’s still very much a car collecting game much like GT was.

      As for the rest of your comment, making up things on the spot doesn’t really support your cause.

    6. ImaRobot

      No I didn’t miss your point, at all. If you think I did, than please address it.

      And yes you did make up things, because Forza has been used as an Automotive advertisement in the digital world for so long. That’s how they’re able to release free content from packs ranging to all Honda’s to the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge. Just because they aren’t making fantasy cars that will never see the light of day does not mean they are ignored.

      GT may have a presence in motorsports, but outside of slapping a banner over some cars, what do they actually do within it? What are they doing with this FIA aspect? The whole racing license thing is cool, but you still have to use your own money to do anything with it, something that can be done on your own time.

      The type of people that stick to GT like a religion and ignore all others are the type of people that usually downplay other games even though they have no experience in it. If you do or not, I don’t know, but they’re both great games so it’s odd that you approach it with such hostility. That you don’t like Forza doesn’t mean that it’s bad, that GT sells more because of brand recognition also doesn’t mean that it’s any better. Stating that people will buy GT because they know nothing else is in no way a compliment to the series. Sony may have man power, but they haven’t seem to accomplished much with it lately, which is a shame, because this was supposed to be the game to get my to finally purchase a PS4.

      As for PS4, multi-console games shouldn’t really be counted into the exclusive racing titles in my opinion. Those are available to both, so to say that its good because it has those is not true. Right now, all it HAD was Driveclub, and its a shame that it got shut down, because if they would have continued with that, then that would have been a great exclusive.

    7. RaceFuchs

      Okay, you took your time to answer, so i want to do that as well. I dont hate Forza at all. In fact, i own every single Forza game released so far. I spend 300 hours+ with Forza 6. A couple of months back i would have shared your thoughts and your opinion. But after 300 hours, Forza became just a bit stale for me. It does many things in a great way, but in terms of physics and simulation, its simply no match for AC or PCars. I played GT Sport at gamescom this year for 20 minutes at least, the game felt good to me.

      My point was, that GT is more than a racing game, its a huge franchise. Even if the latest games had many flaws, its still relevant and important. We will see how the whole FIA thing turns out, but at least its a visionary idea. There is potential. We dont know how it will work out in the end.

      GT cant catch up with Forza anymore when it comes to features,sounds, brands, cars, DLC and continuing support by its developer and publisher. Turn 10 are years ahead. However. What i really like about the concept of GT Sport is the fact that Polyphony isnt trying to do that huge game that we all expected GT7 to be. They are rebooting the GT franchise. They try to do something different this time, on a smaller scale with a clear focus. Maybe Forza 6 will remain the better videogame, but if GT Sport turns out to be the better simulation, i’m fine with it.

      There is still some passion left within Poyphony. With great physics, good VR support and the best car-porn-photo-mode we have seen so far in any game, GT Sport could become a hit after all. Don’t you agree?

    8. ImaRobot

      Understandable, I get the same way with the Forza series, much more so with Horizon. However, you coupling it up with AC and PCars would be an error on your part, it was never supposed to be in that same catagory, it fits more along the simplified physics that we see in GT-prior. As for how it feels, I wont find out until it releases unfortunately, but I’ve seen a trusted source comment that while there is an upgrade, it’s not a substantial one. I’ll have to just wait to see on my own.

      It’s importance is that it was the backbone of racing games in the past, but they’ve seem to be falling slowly from that title with every release of all these current games. They’ve seem to be falling short on delivery in the past, as well as now, but they have a humongous fan base that, like you said, will buy it regardless. The same goes for Forza, but it just wasn’t around the time of the 90’s to be able to get it’s foot in the door, it came into the game a whole decade later, so it has a bit of a time difference. I don’t feel it would have been any different had Forza been the one that came out at that time. There may be potential, but I haven’t really seen much from what we’ve learned so far. Although, we possibly have a while until we know anyways.

      I disagree, I think that GT absolutely could match Forza. Like you said, they have the manpower, and they also have the money. It’s just that they make certain design choices that pull other aspects of the game under. I have no problem with a reboot, I’ve survived FM5 lol, but it’s just the amount of time with the general lack of what’s going on that seems odd. The amount of time they’ve had to get where they are right now seems like a bit too much, but like you said, we wont know until we try it.

      I love photomodes in pretty much all games, so what I saw was great, it’s just a shame that it’s a digital car plastered onto a photo. That gives it a lot of opportunity to look a lot more beautiful in photomode then much out there, but also very much restricts creativity and originality within it. In-race photomode is going to be vastly different, and that’s what bothers me a bit. As for VR, I believe it a waste of time, in any scenario. I think it’ll be a hit regardless if it’s good or not, just based off the shear amount of sales its going to get because of brand recognition, but GT of old is what I’d prefer.

  6. MustangCobra95

    Not sure if already talked about, but when I went into GameStop Wednesday to preserve PSVR, I saw GT Sport cases on display in their own little display structure.

  7. RaceFuchs

    January is possible. Even Resident Evil 7 comes out next January, thats a AAA title, too. But i wouldnt bet money on it. Its been a little too quite recently.

    1. ImaRobot

      While true, this is a console exclusive, and a system seller. So push for the holidays seems to make more sense.

  8. celtiscorpion73

    All retailers show a slowing of sales after the new year. It’s not surprising that they would try to boost sales in one of the slowest months of the year.

  9. Toysuprahot

    “Dumb AI” sounds promising, but confirms all of the footage we have that there hasn’t been any showcasing fast AI. Another GT that is going to be a failure because of wise decisions (no careers, high number of VGT, mixed class racing again but even worse with VGT’s, destruction of every premiums, dynamic lighting and weather to trash, no new ground-breaking sounds and etc..)
    I’m very excited to see GT Sport fail miserably.

    1. jm79

      @TS040 & @ArR29 – you’re obviously not much into sport haha – I’m regularly willing other teams to fail ;)

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