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Sony drops online from Gran Turismo 4 News
PlayStation 2 News by Games Industry.biz
Polyphony Digital's long-awaited PS2 racing title Gran Turismo 4 is on track to meet worldwide release dates in early December - but at the cost of online play, which has been removed from the game.
At a press conference at the Tokyo Game Show today, Sony representatives confirmed that the game will launch in Japan on December 3rd, followed by a launch in the USA and Europe around December 14th (which probably means Friday December 17th in Europe).
However, the title will now be an offline game only, in a surprising move for the company - which had previously vaunted online play as being one of the key selling points for the new game.
The plan is now to launch Gran Turismo 4 with offline play this year, while a new Gran Turismo game with online play is provisionally scheduled for 2005 at some point. We don't know much about the new title as yet, although we'd speculate that it might be a budget-priced release, similar to the post-GT3 Gran Turismo Concept.
Strong rumours from within Sony and Polyphony Digital had suggested that online problems were the primary cause of the delay to Gran Turismo 4, with the team encountering serious difficulty in getting the online racing modes up to scratch.
It seems likely that Sony took a decision to simply drop that functionality entirely from the game in order to ensure that it hit its Christmas release date.
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martyngates
24/09/04 @ 10:25
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any news on any link up play? since they have removed i.link ports from ps2 and the pstwo can u play over network?
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MonkeyMatters
24/09/04 @ 10:31
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Digital Polyphony?
no wonder they can't get the game out in working order. what happened to the original team? ;-) i was suspecting all along that it was due to their online ambitions which caused such delay to the game. Im not happy to buy two versions of the game, they better have some sort of rebate in for the online version to bring it down to just the cost of packaging for owners of the original version. this isnt good. |
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looking at the release-dates, it looks like sony have pretty much forced polyphony to get it out before christmas.
While online play isnt a big loss for 99% of us, i suspect they've also had to cut out some unfinished tracks/cars/features.. no doubt they'll be bundled as 'added extras' in the later online enabled release (which i'll be waiting for).
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most recently on 24/09/04 @ 11:38
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This is why I usually got annoyed when the game got delayed, because of the stupid online play. I kept thinking i don't care about online so please just release the damn thing.
So, finally they decide to scrap online play and release it just in time for Christmas. Finally! Oh, by the way, according to GameSpot, the game will come with a mode called B-Spec. GameSpot has no info on it yet but let's hope it's something interesting, eh?
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most recently on 24/09/04 @ 11:40
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To be honest, i could not give a monkeys about the online aspect of the game. I just wanted them to focus on the game itself. al this faffing about online this and online that.... did my bloody head in. So at last the game will be released this year. can't wait for the nurburgring. and it does not surprise me in the least that sony/polyphony failed to get it online smoothly. IT IS GRAN TURISMO remember!!! roll on December!!!!
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Surprised ?
This time last year Polyphony Digital were saying that online play was causing them BIG problems. One year on and they still ain't cracked it. I know zilch about programming, but I'm guessing that if Polyphony digital can't crack it, no one could. Whatever happens the GT fans loose - and if the online version is finally released (and my money is it won't), then we can all look forward to seeing Sony make their users pay for one games worth of content three times over. Okay, so Burnout 3 has online problems - but at least EA didn't try this trick.
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most recently on 24/09/04 @ 12:11
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gamingdave
24/09/04 @ 11:36
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i went and go play that damn burn out and decided to go back and play GT3, fuck is GT3 boring as hell. its a different world, aint it.
GT4 needs car damage and crash sequences for me to play it.. i need a real experience from a racing game, and this aint it. wtf? (again) yes its a different world, its totaly different type of game, like comparing halo and splinter cell. So you will not play it unless the cars explode and wheels fly off everywhere? Yes GT should have car damage IMO but saying you want a real experience from a racer AND you want GT to be more like burnout is a contradiction. |
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Rumpy Stumpy
24/09/04 @ 11:52
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Forza Motorsport!
Online - check Car Damage - check Good AI - check GT4 Online - erm maybe Car Damage - nope Good AI - LMAO
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most recently on 24/09/04 @ 12:54
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Rumpy Stumpy
24/09/04 @ 12:08
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Ah so you've played the completed Forza have you Rumpy?
Idiot. Played the latest build! Twat. |
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I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting crashes in GT. Ok, so it's never going to be Burnout, but crashes are a part of real racing. Games like TOCA 2 manage to combine realistic racing with convincing crashes and physics, so why can't we ask the same of GT? Afaik, the lack of crashes in GT is down to licensing issues, rather than any desire for realism or otherwise.
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Rumpy Stumpy
24/09/04 @ 12:12
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Nope but prologue was a steeming pile of old camel piss.
Same game different clothes. |
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online play was working two years ago, i remember it being a bit jumpy but they hadn't got around to optimising the protocols or coding any lag countermeasures (like predicted movement).
Im guessing the problem isnt the online play, but rather the lobbying functions and sonys server infrastructure, i haven't seen the latest SDK but last time i checked PS2 developers had to pretty much do it all themselves, with xbox live you get all the ready-made tools with the SDK so you can implement lobbys, searchs etc in a few days. Polyphony have probably been waiting for sony to pull their finger out and get an online system working, which hasn't happened. and as a result have decided to delay the online release while they code it themselves. |
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"Nope but prologue was a steeming pile of old camel piss.
Same game different clothes. " Hmmmm, not according to the things I've read. That above statement should read "Not played it, played the money spinning demo, and obviously don't pay attention to certain articles regarding the final version which isn't even finished yet......" ;-) |
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>Just goes to prove that SONY were caught with their pants down with regard to online play for this generation of consoles.
Yep... And it will probably happen again next gen.. Sony is a marketing company... not a software company. Anway.. GT4 not online is a bit of a letdown, but the online fanatics probably have other games that interest them more (PGR, Burnoout,...). GT4 would be a bit of a boring online game IMHO.
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most recently on 24/09/04 @ 15:39
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Royal Fool
24/09/04 @ 14:40
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Forza sadly doesn't have many famous car manufacturer licenses - Sony got them exclusive. But Forza is going to be natively supported through Live from the get-go... if PGR2 was any indication of what online racers are capable of, wait until you see Forza with it's integrated Live functions.
I don't have an online adapter for PS2 (Bought one but never bothered to take it out of the box and eventually returned it) so I don't give a rat's behind about GT4 being online or not, but it is rather pathetic to see them flaunting this feature all this time and now claim that they have removed it. Pfft. |
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Tippytappy
24/09/04 @ 14:52
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2-6 players on LAN connections, we'll just have to see if Xlink is up to the job of producing lag free racing. Come December - January we'll find out for sure. But the new features they've added sound great...
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gamingdave
24/09/04 @ 15:09
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Dizzy, I never said anything about "being better"
I simply said it will sell more, which it will. I doubt that being offline online will have any real impact on the actual sales. Yes people are upset it isnt online, as they either have or planed on getting the BB adapter. Yes it would have been nice to have online options, but to the vast majority of people its a non issue. For me id rather see AI improved, damage, and proper collision (with trackside objects) before I see online in the GT series. Theyre good, but not great. |
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Tippytappy
24/09/04 @ 16:28
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How many copies has GT3 sold to date? i think you'll find it quite a lot really.
------------------------------ 12 million seems a lot to me, the best selling game on PS2 with GTA VC lingering in 2nd. |
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deathgibbon
24/09/04 @ 18:09
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"The Nürburgring Nordschleife track alone is worth the price." valli
But PGR2 had that last November. And online play and car damage. |
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