I can only hope this is not true

Manlove is my forte · 21 Sep 2006 at 11:16

It is a bad sign for the gaming indusrty as a whole if this works out to be true.

I hope this is just a dodgy rumour

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153775 said:
Gran Turismo HD: Two Versions, Tons Microtransactions
Famitsu reports a brand new model for Gran Turismo on PS3.
by Luke Smith, 09/20/2006
46 of 46 users recommend this story.
There's horse armor and then there's the kind of microtransactions that Famitsu is reporting (via: Beyond3D and the vitriolic NeoGAF). According to the Famitsu inteview with Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo HD will have two SKUs on the PS3. One of these games will ship with no cars, all of them will be purchased via microtransactions.
The other, Gran Turismo HD: Premium, will ship with two courses and 30 cars, with an additional 30 cars and an additional two courses online at a later date. The Premium game is being considered a prologue to the PS3's eventual Gran Turismo 5.

The microtransaction-focused game, Gran Turismo HD: Classic will be the online-focused entrant into the GT-series. In this game, players will (reportedly) start with no cars or courses available to them. Instead, they will need to purchase their stable of cars and courses to race on. The pricing reported in the Famitsu piece indicated that cars would cost between 50-100 yen ($0.43-$0.85) and courses between 200-500 yen ($1.71-$4.26). There are approximiately 750 cars and 50 tracks available for purchase in the GT: HD Classic. Let's do the math:

750 cars for $0.50-$1.00 (Sony will round-up, don't you think?)
50 tracks for $1.50-$4.50
A complete copy of the game will cost gamers somewhere between $426.50 and $975, and that's without factoring in whatever Sony decides to charge for the menus (since that's all you'll get with GT HD: Classic).

Does this sound a little familiar? It should. Phil Harrison alluded to a possible future like this one last June in OPM.

I'll give you an example; Kazunori [Yamauchi, producer of the Gran Turismo series] would kill me for this: Imagine Gran Turismo shipping on a disc with one car and one track. And then you can browse, online, a dynamic circuit of vehicles that's growing every day because either the car manufacturers are adding new vehicles or we're adding new vehicles. And you can see a specific-type car that's being called up and say, "I think I'll play with that one. Let me download and play it." Maybe the business model allows you to play it for a day; maybe the business model allows you to own it forever. But that content is now yours on your hard drive. Or [maybe you could download] new tracks, new music, whole games.
Now, is it possible that the game will be a full-priced title with a built-in download system that allows users to download cars and tracks equal to the number of the game's retail price? We hope the model ends up similar to this. However, right now, details are extremely sparse, and Sony has to have an answer to these questions -- most of the people who can answer are over in Tokyo, we'll update if we hear back.

Welcome to next-gen.

Nismo · 21 Sep 2006 at 11:20

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17629338

DeFrEaTs · 21 Sep 2006 at 11:22

I have seen gaming going in this direction. I can only hope its not true as it would be a downhill slope and a hobby for the rich if this is even remotely true.

A £10 expansion for a £50 game (GRAW) was bad enough... this is just ludicrous.

Manlove is my forte · 21 Sep 2006 at 11:44

Nismo said:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17629338

***Hangs head in shame***

Dark_Angel · 21 Sep 2006 at 11:55

DeFrEaTs said:
I have seen gaming going in this direction. I can only hope its not true as it would be a downhill slope and a hobby for the rich if this is even remotely true.

A £10 expansion for a £50 game (GRAW) was bad enough... this is just ludicrous.

I dont think its that bad a price (I have not played chapter 2, so cant comment on the content truthfully) if it does expand the game a LOT.

Manlove is my forte · 21 Sep 2006 at 12:00

Dark_Angel said:
I dont think its that bad a price (I have not played chapter 2, so cant comment on the content truthfully) if it does expand the game a LOT.

It expands the game a bit.

TBH I think these new GRAW levels are amoungst the best levels in the game but it was still a little overpriced. If any further expantions are made I hope they are sold significantly cheaper.

GuruJockStrap · 21 Sep 2006 at 12:09

I don't like the way things are heading either.

Game developers will now push a half finished product out for retail and then charge the punter for content that should've shipped with the original game.

Psyk · 21 Sep 2006 at 12:48

Regardless of what addons are available, a game really should ship in a playable state. I smell bs on this one. This Gran Turismo HD: Classic game is ridiculous. It can't be a game if it has no content. Unless it is a free download, which you then pay for the content after you have downloaded the game's framework, I can't see it happening.

NokkonWud · 21 Sep 2006 at 12:52

DeFrEaTs said:
A £10 expansion for a £50 game (GRAW) was bad enough... this is just ludicrous.

I didn't think that was too bad. I mean, the expansion had LOADS of stuff to it, it's when they add 2-3 levels and 2-3 guns that expansions become jokes.

UKflames · 21 Sep 2006 at 13:01

Does this effectively turn the game that is shipped into a live training manual and to play the real game you have to go live :eek:

FTM · 21 Sep 2006 at 13:30

it will only work if people buy into it

if all the punters turned their backs on it and said 'no' it wouldnt make any money and they would have to rethink the way they do business

davetherave2 · 21 Sep 2006 at 13:54

Surely this expansion business is nothing new primarily since developers have been doing it on the pc for years. Take BF2 for example in the past year or so there has been 3 expansion packs varying for £7 to £20 pounds so had you brought the game at full price £29.99 + £19.99 for Special Forces + £7 each for Armoured Fury and Euro Forces.

As long as the expansion is there to enhance the game then it surely can't be a bad thing. Remember you don't need to buy the expansion pack if you wish to play. If sony make this a trend then it certainly will be an interesting time.

NokkonWud · 21 Sep 2006 at 13:59

You do realise that this is why Mark Rein of Epic Games spoke out against 'Episodic content'.
Mark Rein
It's basically the same thing. You make the customer pay more and more and more to finish a game.

oweneades · 21 Sep 2006 at 14:01

davetherave2 said:
Surely this expansion business is nothing new primarily since developers have been doing it on the pc for years. Take BF2 for example in the past year or so there has been 3 expansion packs varying for £7 to £20 pounds so had you brought the game at full price £29.99 + £19.99 for Special Forces + £7 each for Armoured Fury and Euro Forces.

As long as the expansion is there to enhance the game then it surely can't be a bad thing. Remember you don't need to buy the expansion pack if you wish to play. If sony make this a trend then it certainly will be an interesting time.

I think the problem with this game in partular is that you get nothing to start off with and have to pay to download all of the cars you want. Whereas with BF2 add ons you basically got a complete new game in some respects just using the engine from the current version.

They should do it more like PGR3 whereby you have the game with certain carsd and then you can choose to download extra ones if you want at a small charge.