Bummer: Gran Turismo Sport Delayed Until 2017
It sucks to start the day off with not great news but its been announced that Gran Turismo Sport, which will be the first game in the franchise for PlayStation 4, has been delayed until 2017. No specific date has been given, just “2017”. Why the delay? Well in an update posted on the official Gran Turismo website, Producer Kazunori Yamauchi stated:
“We realize we need more time to perfect GT Sport, which we’ve already directed so much effort towards since announcing the title. We do not want to compromise the experience in anyway.”
Anyone who has followed Kazunori (“Kaz” as he is sometimes called) Yamauchi’s career knows that he has a reputation for being a perfectionist which is why at times it can seem that the development cycles of Gran Turismo games are so long. That being said, while I am bummed that the game is being delayed, his reasoning as to why frankly does not surprise me in the least.
However, there is one part of his statement that really stands out to me and may possibly provide a clue into deeper reasoning behind this delay. He specifically mentions that he does “not want to compromise the experience in anyway.” While I’m no video game developer myself I’ve spoken to enough of them to know that “compromises” usually come as a result of some type of technical limitation.
Could GT Sport be so technically ambitious that not even the notably powerful PlayStation 4 can manage it? Back in the PlayStation One days it wasn’t uncommon for very large games to occupy two discs. Gran Turismo has done that in the past. Even Forza Motorsport took that approach on the Xbox 360. Maybe GT Sport will need two blu-ray discs?
Does the rumored “PlayStation 4 Neo” have anything to do with this delay? During my interview with Kazunori-san he claimed to not know much about it, however perhaps the possibility of what could be done with GT Sport on a more powerful PS4 has compelled him to hold off on releasing the game until he can figure out how GT Sport can utilize the new hardware?
Obviously, this is all just speculation and theory. However, the build shown at E3 (while a bit buggy) was still at a build level one would expect for a game to be released within 3 to 4 months so it just seems that perhaps there is more to this story than just what’s on the surface; Or maybe not? I guess we’ll never really know.
I’m just bummed I won’t get to play GT Sport this year as I was really looking forward to it. Heck, I was pretty much going to buy a PlayStation 4 just for that game!
What do you think? Were you surprised by this announcement? Or did you expect this to happen? Have you already pre-ordered the game? Let us know your thoughts, theories, rants, and opinions in the comments or tweet them to us at @MotorworldHype.
[Source: Gran-Turismo.com]