The most prominent rumors we’ve been hearing about the release date of “Gran Turismo 7” claimed that the game should be ready for a 2017 release. And while some fans were apparently more than happy to wait until then if it meant getting a properly polished, exciting experience, others were disappointed that they would have to wait that long and wanted to see the game sooner.
And it now turns out that the wishes of the latter group might come true – according to the most recent claims by the game’s creator Kazunori Yamauchi, it could actually be ready at some point during the next year. Apparently, the studio has been evaluating the situation on the market and they aren’t very fond of the idea of letting the franchise go without a sequel for that long, and they don’t want to lose the momentum in popularity that they already have from the previous games.
However, would that really make sense? This is a question that many critics have been asking since this announcement was made. Sure, a move like that could allow the studio to benefit from getting more popularity for the game once it comes out with relatively little effort. They won’t really have to do any marketing at all to ensure that they get all the exposure that they need, as people are already anticipating “Gran Turismo 7” quite a lot.
On the other hand, a long-known truth in the gaming industry is that a rushed release can be catastrophic, for a studio and for a franchise alike. Many studios with less experience tend to be under the impression that it’s acceptable to rush a game to meet some superficial deadline and patch the problems later, but what they don’t realize is that the initial wave of reviews that floods the market will be based on that very first version, with all its bugs and rough edges.
So even though most problems in a typical game can be patched relatively easily after the release, players tend to not be very impressed with games that are released in such a manner, and this negativity usually sticks with the title for quite a long time. It may even leave a permanent scar on the franchise, especially after what we saw from “Gran Turismo 6”.
Some players still have a sour aftertaste from that game, and the studio must be particularly careful not to repeat their previous mistake. They really only have one chance to undo the damage that was caused by the last game. And while their previous problems were reportedly due to issues with the technology they had to work with, they don’t really have that excuse now.
Quite on the contrary, we’ve been hearing reports that the game’s development has been going quite well in terms of technological progress, and the studio has been handling their current engine and assets very well. There should be no glitches or poorly developed aspects of the title stemming from a poor understanding of the toolset or platform.
But then, if they want to rush it in order to benefit from its popularity, that could negate those positive developments and make the studio’s effort worth practically nothing. It doesn’t take much to give players a negative impression of a game, especially in a case where their trust has already been shaken up a bit. Hopefully we aren’t going to see “Gran Turismo” falling into such a trap.