Is Gran Turismo Heading in the Wrong Direction?

24 February 2017

A few weeks ago Project CARS 2 was officially revealed via an announcement trailer. The sequel to the surprise hit from 2015 by developer Slightly Mad Studios. The trailer concludes with the game's release window of late 2017. This immediately prompted my outburst of "Where the hell is GT Sport?". We've known about this 7th instalment in the mainline Gran Turismo series since October 2015, but there are still no details on its release other than sometime in 2017.

Therefore with both of these top tier simulation racing games due out this year, it's inevitable to draw comparisons between the two. However before diving into the specific features, look at the development cycles of the two games.

The original Project CARS launched in May 2015. The predecessor to GT Sport, Gran Turismo 6, launched in December 2013 solely on the PS3. Both games have been well supported for over a year after their release, but regardless, it still means Sony's long-running triple-A first party developer, Polyphony Digital, has had ample more time and budget on GT Sport than Slightly Mad Studios have had with Project CARS 2. And yet we still have no idea of which quarter of 2017 (let alone date) will see the launch of the new GT. This is the series that pioneered simulation racing on consoles 20 years ago.

So, moving into some features. Maybe GT Sport is packed with thousands of cars and hundreds of tracks, contributing to its long, delayed development? Nope. GT Sport will contain a mere 140 cars and 15-19 tracks (not officially confirmed yet). Compare this with Gran Turismo 6 which featured over 1,200 cars and 100 track layouts. Project CARS 2 is set to contain over 170 cars and over 70 track layouts. More than GT Sport, which staggers me.

Gran Turismo has always been showcased as a driving simulator. Project CARS is a racing simulator. With GT Sport, Polyphony are clearly aiming towards a racing sim (with 'Sport' in the name) and in some ways trying to copy the successful model that Project CARS has built. This is where I fear for GT. Project CARS 1 is a far superior game to GT6. I know the latter was on the previous console generation, but graphically at the time each game looked stunning, so the hardware is irrelevant. Project CARS gave proper engine tones to cars, featured aggressive A.I. opponents, and gave you a realistic race engineer. It's career mode also gave the player the freedom to start in any race series, from go karts to Le Mans racing. Fundamentally, Slightly Mad Studios know how to make a great racing simulator. GT Sport has to come from such a long way back to even get close to a racing simulator of Project CARS' standard.

Luke Reilly at IGN has a great article showing some of the more specific features where Project CARS 2 can top GT Sport.

This explains why Gran Turismo is potentially heading in the wrong direction. What GT should do is head back towards being "The Real Driving Simulator", it's slogan throughout the series. By this I mean it should include every manufactured car, and every real world track they can can obtain a license for. Gran Turismo 4 is the pinnacle of the series for me, originally released in December 2004 in Japan.

It features 720 cars and 51 tracks, with all cars modelled to the same high quality (not like GT5 and GT6's "Premium" and "Standard" cars). This game also featured the best, most diverse range of cars. Everything from the first automobile, the 1886 Mercedes-Benz Daimler Motor Carriage, to a concept car by Nike predicted to launch in 2022... This game (along with its predecessors) has given me my car knowledge today, and I loved driving as many as possible through it's deep career mode. No other racing game has specific events like Japanese 70's Classics, BMW: Club 'M', or Nissan: Race of the Red 'R' Emblem.

It also taught me the racing lines and overtaking opportunities in so many real world tracks through its License Tests and Driving Missions. The Nurburgring being the most memorable. This is what Gran Turismo should be about. Being the benchmark game for cars and tracks, for other racing games to follow.

However, I do wonder if this is a too niche direction to head towards. Is there a market for the likes of me who wants a driving simulator? Funnily enough the concern behind the original Gran Turismo was that it would be a too niche game. It went on to sell over 10 million copies and become the best selling game on the PS1. Today's racing game players seem to be increasingly multiplayer or eSports focused, which is the whole reason behind GT Sport. Project CARS tapped into this growing market perfectly two years ago, and are now poised to make an even better sequel that will surely be the most realistic racing experience on consoles to date.

Polyphony can't match the pure racing features of Project CARS 2 with GT Sport, which is why I'd love Gran Turismo to head back to its roots - much like the original games in the series. The longer GT Sport is delayed, the closer it will fall into the firing line of Project CARS 2, and fewer copies of the game will sell as a result. Maybe this is the exact lesson for Polyphony to learn, and the next GT game will be Gran Turismo 7, rather than GT Sport 2.