I was reading a few articles today and yesterday concerning Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, releasing soon in the US for the PS3 and it got me to thinking.  Why bother?  It’s clear to me that Polyphony Digital really has issues getting games out the door and this seems almost like a cash grab until they can deliver the real thing.  I mean, look at the history of Gran Turismo…every games (at least since GT2) has experienced harsh delays.

-  They finally fired GT2 out the door on Christmas Eve, if I remember correctly, and it was ridden with bugs.  Essentially, there was a catastrophic bug in the game which prevented players from getting 100% completion, only to produce a “fixed” version later on.

- GT3 A-Spec had fantastic graphics, but several months late.  I *think* I remember picking it up in the summer after the PS2 was released, something along the lines of 8 or 9 months into the PS2’s life, when it was promised much earlier.

- GT4 took a whopping 4 more years to come out, by that time, Forza Motorsport had already caught the eyes of “Real Driving Simulator” fans.  It also had online play, which was stripped from GT4’s originally promised feature set.

- GT Mobile (PSP)…I pretty count on this one NEVER seeing the light of day.  When Sony announced the PSP, the UMD for Gran Turismo was what they showed alongside it in the press photo package.  Here we are, a solid 3 years into the PSP’s life and a whole hardware revision later and still not even a screenshot of GT PSP.  What a joke…and I read an article today that Polyphony claims it’s still coming.  Right.

Now I get to GT5 Prologue.  I understand there’s an immense amount of work that goes into producing a game, especially a “simulator”, but honestly, what’s the point of GT5 Prologue?  It’s being marketed as the 50% complete point for a full-fledged GT5 intended to let players enjoy what’s coming in the full product.  In my humble opinion, it’s one of a few scenarios:

1) It’s a cash grab…OR…

2) They need to secure more funding for finishing GT5 because they are wasting time/money on its development…OR…

3) They are pushing SOMETHING out the door to keep from looking like idiots, because we probably won’t see a finished GT5 for 2 more years (if ever).

From what I know about industry (which isn’t much), it’s probably a little of all 3.  I say “if ever” to the 3rd bullet point because I see them using GT5 Prologue as a trojan horse for a pay-to-play pricing structure.  Maybe they’ll just add on to the game in an al a carte style instead of releasing a real-live product (like we deserve).

Either way, I just think to myself “why bother” with GT5 Prologue.  Just finish the real game, already.  Will I buy it when it’s available?  Probably…but I won’t be happy about it.