From the moment that Gran Turismo 6 was first outed by Sony execs, the biggest question surrounding the recently announced racing simulator was if Polyphony Digital was planning to launch it for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, or on both consoles as a split-gen release. At the game’s reveal yesterday the answer to that question seemed to be the PS3 exclusive route, however, we are now getting word that a PS4 version is being “considered” by Sony.
Speaking to GameSpot, Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi revealed that the studio is kicking around the idea of developing a PlayStation 4 version of the racer at some point in the distant future.
“We have a PS4 version in mind for the future, but for this holiday season we thought that it would be best for users to release the PS3 version. I thought the best scenario would be for the game to come out, and we’re planning to have new content, and DLC every few months.”
“Once the players have thoroughly played out the game, if the PlayStation 4 version just came out naturally in the process, we think that would be the best scenario for the game,”
It is a little unclear exactly what Polyphony Digital has in mind, but Yamauchi’s comments seem to suggest the possibility of a PlayStation 4 “Game of the Year” version of Gran Turismo 6, which would contain all of the PS3 downloadable content along with the game on a single disc.
Yamauchi also stated that there would “probably” be a good chance that any game saves from the original PlayStation 3 version of Gran Turismo 6 would carry over to the next-gen PS4 version. That is to say, if there ever is a next-gen PS4 version of GT 6.
The decision to release Gran Turismo 6 for the PlayStation 3 made a lot of sense to me, due to the larger install base. With that said, I do not understand why they would spend a single second re-developing the game for the PS4, when Gran Turismo 7 would be a much better option. On top of that, the fact that they are tossing out the idea now (before the launch of GT 6 this Holiday season) boggles the mind. To me, this knowledge can only hurt potential sales of the game, as anyone picking up a PS4 would simply opt to wait for the game to make the jump to next-gen.