The appearance of the hugely popular Gran Turismo series on PlayStation is inevitable, and with news yesterday that Nissan driver, Lucas Ordonez, has allegedly confirmed that Polyphony Digital’s racer is in “full production” it got us thinking: when will Sony release Gran Turismo 6?
Many rumours suggest that the PlayStation 4 will arrive sometime between Q4 2013 and Q1 2014, but with games such as Beyond: Two Souls and The Last Of Us only just being announced, and the appearance of different coloured PlayStation 3 models, rumours that stock levels are still high, and the imminent arrival of new SKUs, it seems there’s plenty of life in the PS3 yet.
Looking at past evidence, Gran Turismo has had two outings on each of the PlayStation platforms, with Gran Turismo 1 and 2 appearing on PSOne and 3 and 4 appearing on PlayStation 2. Gran Turismo 5 was then released on PS3, so if you follow that logical sequence, it’s safe to speculate that Polyphony will sneak in Gran Turismo 6 before the end of the PS3 life cycle.
But, is it really worth the developer releasing the game near the back-end of the PS3’s life-cycle? We think not.
There’s another factor to take into account that now affects the development of the next GT game: PlayStation Vita. We’ve no doubt that a port of Gran Turismo 6, or a slimmed-down version with a different title that allows players to race again against each other cross-platform will be released. By planning the release of GT6 to coincide with a PS Vita release too, Polyphony could really help shift those Vita units. Sony will definitely want that.
If Polyphony and Sony want to gain maximum impact, it would actually be silly for them to release GT6 on PS3. As we predicted some time ago, we believe that Gran Turismo 6 will be planned as a PS4 launch title with Vita cross-platform play.
After the news spilled that GT6 was in development we asked our community members what they thought, posing the question: Should Gran Turismo 6 be on PS3 or PS4? The majority of posters also believe that it should be a PS4 title. AaronSoldier sums up our sentiments perfectly by posting: “PS4, GT5 is being patched and getting plenty of DLC, which is better than releasing a $60 entry every year.”
Academy Edition includes DLC car packs
With Gran Turismo 5: Academy Edition only just announced, and a large fan base still whizzing around the tracks, there’s no need for Gran Turismo 6 to arrive on PS3. Polyphony should take its time, build a game that harnesses the power of the PS4 and blow us all away when Sony’s next-gen console launches.