The Effect GT Gran Tourismo 2010

The first real demonstration of Gran Turismo 5 has left the public cold. While trying to find out whether or not a final version, users highlight the importance of providing a quality product as evidence of fire before disbursing € 60 for a title.

How many referendums are necessary so that the developers are aware of the importance of dealing with a demonstration launch of a title (especially a triple A) shortly before it sees the light in the market? Users have spoken in a recent survey shows once again what we have been repeating in this weekly podcast home for active and passive: the 'demos', trial versions that allow us an idea about the look that will look particular security in question should be a prerequisite of any game that appears on the market. When the job is done well, community feedback is immediate. It puts in motion the machinery of mouth to mouth I taste, I like, and when the opportunity arises, I invite people around me to share in my discovery.

But what happens when it does not follow this line of work? When a developer, whether for the reasons whatsoever (internal pressure, speed in production, massive demand from fans ...) and offers the user a trial that generated more questions from those addresses. Konami he lived a few months ago with the presentation of PES2010 reviled, ground with a stick from all sides to bypass 50% of the news that was supposed to include the franchise this season. A Square Enix was happening the same with the first minutes of Final Fantasy XIII in Japan. Now it is the turn of one of the heavyweights of the industry, Sony's right hand, a great ally of the kind of driving, it was reinvented a decade ago to the delight of lovers of the four wheels: Polyphony.

The demonstration of Gran Turismo 5 has left an unimaginable shock a few days before that was done their appearance in the official official Sony Store. Within hours, the bazaar was totally collapsed, flooded with hundreds of thousands of fans who rushed ready to prove the supposed "first final" driving simulator. Days later, with little time to calmly analyze the quality that holds the show, are beginning to shuffle the reasons why Polyphony made available to its community of fans spoiled only the Nissan 370Z at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Certainly very austere, even for a test contralerroj as being organized for GT Academy.

First, you can not expect much more of a package of barely 300mb, a size that seems a little low for the technical power, that we have been enjoying in the international book fairs is highlighted. Secondly, it is clear that the physics engine, collisions, damage and many other basic features of any simulator is not integrated in its entirety. Third (though no less important), both the number of cars and circuits that we have access to less ridiculous is when to perform a review with feet and head, as it has wanted to do certain sectors of industry . Eye, may not understand these words as an uncompromising defense of the title of Polyphony, but an appeal for reflection on the consequences that may result in throwing a show like this a few months after Gran Turismo hits the shelves worldwide.

Going a little further one could say with confidence that this move by Polyphony has all the earmarks of being a term of Sony, a call to raise expectations about the imminent release of the game. We understand from the outset that a show does not necessarily represent the final quality of the title in question but, if so, in this case, why include a message that gives the opposite to start playing? Or one or the other: what ever do is play with the players generate impressions after trying a game. Not only bad for the fans, who do not know what to expect from the final version, also for the binomial publisher / developer. This leads to a sad conclusion: no win, neither party gets its target, which in business terms is defined as a failure.

We have reached a point where it almost does not matter what title is talking about when it comes to analyzing what gives a demonstration. The effect is usually always the same among the public. In Batman: Arkham Asylum live a totally different situation: Eidos hopes to have the title ready to then provide a petit avis of what is to come. It is the basic concept has always bear in mind when posting a trial version that does not convince. Create a bad show is what comes to be throwing stones on the roof of your own home, as we say in day to day: what you're doing bad yourself. It seems an easy concept to understand, so obvious, that does not explain how some companies are still sinning constantly commit the same error. It is time that things start to change, the user is taken as an integral part of the game and not simply as an obstacle before enriching their pockets at the expense of others.

Let's be sensible: the price of a game is too high to require a demonstration (in fact, has been that many users maintain a strict policy based on rent a game before buying it to prevent fraud, which represents a significant change in the psyche of the consumer), and even more for having to face situations such as that caused in this case the first contact with Gran Turismo 5, the title for many (so wrong) and has become the biggest fiasco next season. This is what is called the effect GT: poor management of your resources can ostracizing less twinkling of an eye. You'd better to Sony, and the other companies in general, begin to value more and better the effect may involve a mistake like this.

If it is really a failure or a mistake: we know that many times the counter-advertising works better than traditional sales methods, but this, of course, is another matter sand.

This column reflects only the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of PCGameTrek.