Pre-ordered mine today. You get quality with Gran Tursimo and it is well worth $40 until GT5 is actually out. At $40 the online will probably still be better than the fully or even budget priced PGR3-4 which both sucked for online. Never played through Forza much but it seemed like a decent xbox replication of the GT series. Didn't have the polish or the amount of cars as is found in Gran Turismo though. Damage? Don't really care about that in my racing games.

Besides, at 40 cars, isn't that basically as many as in the last PGR? :P

DrunkRaba

Demo, Prologue, gimped-game... whatever! Most of us know roughly what to expect from Gran Turismo 5: Prologue; Those that have pre-ordered should too. After all, 1 million think it's worthwhile. I agree that it is alarming that people will pay £25 for a portion of a game but there are few games that would pull this trick off with this level of popularity. Metal Gear Solid 4... and, er, Halo 3 did in a way - didn't enough people buy a mediocre, full-priced GTA clone to get access to the Halo 3 beta?

I just hope Polyphony Digital take full advantage of the 1 million+ 'testers' to improve GT5; hopefully, Prologue adopters will receive a discount. So please, haters, save your breath and stop trying to convince people they're fools for paying a premium for a 'demo'. Like others, I've made my mind up based on the cost and what the package offers. To me, it is worth more than other racers.

Obli

@MrSatan: Think about it for one second, your saying they spend so long on the graphics, I've barely ever seen a game have far improved or even moderately improved graphics from a demo version. Becuase a demo is just part of the game so they're not gonna kill the graphics just cos it's a demo. They would if they could sell them like these guys are doing, what's the difference between selling a demo and a slightly more complete experience? This isn't the full game so it's the exact same as selling part of a game which is what selling a demo would be. They could do if the companies wanted them to, a demo is a DEMO to let you have an experienc of what the game is like so why couldn't this, an incomplete title designed to let you try it early be conceived to be a demo?

-Sigil-

@MrSatan: So it can't be a big demo? Depends on what you consider a demo, I consider any unfinished, half complete trial version of a software to be beta or a demo. This isn't a beta cos it's not testing for bugs or anything so it's an expensive and (so I don't hurt your feeling) weally weally BIG demo.

Your full of shit in my eyes so call it even. I can get it through my head that a title doesn't make it more than a demo.

-Sigil-

God this fucking demo or no demo debate will rage on forever. The truth is the game isn't a fucking demo. Companies don't sell demos, companies don't put large amount of production and assets into demos, companies don't make sure that every last ounce of the game is polished down to the last fine details of polys on the cars, demos don't contain a robust online mode and multiple numbers of offline modes as well.

You guys can call it a demo all you want, but when it comes down to it you are full of shit. It's not full price and they never claimed that it was the full game. You are paying for a PROLOGUE to the new one, I guess most of you jackasses don't understand the english language and can't seem to get it through your head.

MrSatan

@Idree: I'm not whining I'm replying you sad act, I actually stop posting till others post in reply to me.

Actually it doesn't, I bought Diablo 2 for less than that and it's lasted me ages, same with warhammer 40K, disgaea and stuff.

Yeah the single player but since that's a multiplayer centric game then they can both last as long as they interest you. I am not that into racers so a cheap PC game could last me longer than prologue. Longevity wise it's not too bad but that doesn't mean it's not a demo. Someone could create a demo of a game that never stops and it'd still be a demo.

-Sigil-

i haven't pre-ordered it but i am definitely getting it

TheNocturnalSun

Stop whining about prologue not being the full game.
It's 40 bucks and it lasts you longer than any other game for 60 bucks will =="

i mean over 70 cars + online + customization + It's freaking FT!

Will last you longer than 3 playthrough's of Halo 3 xD

Idree

Meant to say can't charge $40 for that, it's called marketing.

-Sigil-

@Garo: They wouldn't call it demo cos they can't charge $40 for marketing but I know when I see an incomplete game and I view that as a demo.

Nah you can STFU if you want but I'm happy voicing my opinion just like you are.

-Sigil-

@-Sigil-:

The title of GT5P is Prologue and not Demo.

"Prologue (Greek πρόλογος prologos, from προ~, pro~ - fore~, and lógos, word), or prolog, is a prefatory piece of writing, usually composed to introduce a drama. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance, embracing any kind of preface, like the Latin praefatio. The prologue is usually in the beginning of a book."

"I just think it's gay to pretend it's not a glorified demo"
WTF? Please STFU

Garo

@deathbunny: Genius. Pure genius.

relin

@BigPete7978: It's the real experience, not the full proper game. It has over 60 cars (not sure how many the final has), quite a few tracks and modes but if you don't want to buy it twice then stick with waiting for the real game.

-Sigil-

@BigPete7978: It's the real thing. It's just that there will be a richer GT5 experience another year later and therefore people are calling it a "glorified demo". It is untrue. The game will offer you every penny's worth. I don't even like car games and I'm nabbing this mofo.

sascha23

@ixalon: Then it'd be a poor sequel cos it would be much smaller than the previous ones, it'd only have graphics to go by. And it'd cost to put that DLC up so they'd probably charge extra for it and if they didn't it's still annoying to have an extra 6gb or whatever fill your hard drive. Best solution is to just release the proper game and have a demo on PSN that they don't charge you for.

-Sigil-

@Garo: How many games do you know called light? Tekken light? Persona 3 light? Halo 3 light? Disgaea light? It doesn't exist, they're selling you a demo and it's a big one but hell if you're gonna buy it then who gives a crap cos that's your choice but I just think it's gay to pretend it's not a glorified demo. And this is merely an incomplete game with half the modes, half the cars, half the features etc. so to me I'd call that a demo not try and put some spin on it.

This is not comparable to those for a few reasons
1) it's better to compare things in there own industry, there is no other games that sell like this but we all know what a demo is.
2) Your comparing one version of Vista to another when they are just sold as different products to those that want what each offers, who would buy prologue when they can get GT5?
and whatever else.

-Sigil-

As far as I can see it's a full-featured game with less content than one might expect from the series. The rest of the content will come later.

If they had only not called it "Prologue" then far fewer people would be calling it a "glorified demo". They could have just released this as GT5 and then released the rest as DLC, once finished or in stages.

ixalon

@-Sigil-:
How about: "Light version"?
A demo is a demo! A demo is free, shows only a level or is timed, it's made to stimulate you to buy the complete game.

I'll repeat:
If GT5P is the demo of GT5 then:
Photoshop Elements is the demo of Photoshop CS
Nero Express is the demo of Nero Burning ROM
Windows Vista is the demo of Windows "Vienna"

Glorified demo? What a nonsense!

Garo

Why the hell is a full priced demo of a game selling so well? You guys want to spend twice as much on GT5 WHY?! It looks great, and I will buy it, but not a crippled demo version just to play it early. Sigh... Oh well, it's your money.

ca$h

@NessD12: No it's a glorified demo, it doesn't matter if the GT series is good or not. It's a glorified demo, a large demo I'll admit but since it's not the full game it's like a beta copy or a demo. How else would you describe it?

-Sigil-

Only GT Series can offer something like this and sell because we're true car enthusiast not just people who play a racing game for the sake of racing. The people who don't like this game will never understand that. The same way I'll never understand why people loves Super Smash Brawl but I'm not going to post my opinion on it when they say it sold over a million.

This so called "demo" is more complete to me than most of the game I paid full price for. Certain games interest certain kind of people and this series interest a lot to the tune of 48 million plus sold GT Series game.

thegunshow

@jrcbandit: This just sets a bad precedence if it sales well.

Why? It's not like this would work for every franchise. I can't imagine halo, mario or even forza fans paying for the first 10th of the new installment. But somehow it works for GT.

I've already been playing the Japanese version and think that was worth what I paid for it. Since the EU (and hopefully that includes Australia) version has extra cars and and extra track, I'll probably buy that too. For some, that's not good value for money. But considering how many cars are in the full release, the amount of play time I've already got out of the Japanese prologue (more than any shooter I've played), and the amount of time I play them for, I think it is.

Doshu

@Garo: what a great way of putting it!

This is definitely NOT a demo. People who say this is a demo simply can't understand how BIG Gran turismo games are.

Anyhoo, Ill be getting this game on day one (next week!). ~£24 is a bargain for the best racing game of the year. (let's face it, even as a 'demo', nothing would seem to come close to GT5P as the sim racer of the year)

cowboyman

I'm suprised no1 did a anti-xbox/nintendo comment yet, in the lines of "Take that!" =]

Anyhow, good job SCEE...

This is wonderful news for them and Polyphony =]

Ofcourse i am one of those who pre-ordered the game!

Idree

Yeah, time for them to open up MGS4 pre-orders, then Fumiaki Tanaka can finally stop having those nightmares in which he's poor.

cheeses

Exactly. It's not a cheap scam to try and convince people to buy it, it's being released because a lot of people complained about the release date being so far off, so the devs said "OK, here's your GT fix til GT5 comes out good and proper" - if anything, it's decent fanservice.

Youlikeyams

GT5P is a demo?
That's like calling Photoshop Elements the demo of Photoshop,
or Nero Express the demo of Nero Burning ROM,
or Windows Vista the demo of Windows "Vienna"...
well never mind :/

Garo

@Lemming To The Sea: Well, if you have such a hard time swallowing the idea that people are just "paying for a racer" as if somehow software is cheaper than hardware to produce, all those millions spent in development is for writing *software* and not manufacturing $5 plastic guitars.

Datheron

GT5P may be a glorified demo to some.. but with the Scuderia Ferrari F200F playable in it, it is worth every cent for me

jBat17

It's the Top Gear.

Clarkson, Hamster and Slow FTW.

Frank

@Lemming To The Sea:

If it's just a demo then I guess a lot of racers before it weren't even games. Look at the features and content -- get serious.

Mongoosekun

@jrcbandit: have you been living under a rock? Gt: Prologue/Concept for years. Its not new. I bet if you were in charge of Sony you'd be selling it to. If you wouldn't then your not much of a businessman are you.

dadeisvenm

@Lemming To The Sea: "....and there's no reason to end such a great relationship. Puts out nightly for as long as I need it to."

Damn, saddest thing I've read here in a long time.

logicaldefense

@DanimalJenkins: you can download the free demo from the japanese psn store. try it out. its much different.

dadeisvenm

@Lemming To The Sea: The fact that its a demo that has sold more copies and grossed more money than most full retail games speaks volumes. Sony knows its good and MILLIONS of people don't mind to pay for an early slice of the game. Rather than pack or mask the game behind some crappy remake or junior varsity dev. game, Sony has the good sense to give it to gamers straight. You like it, buy it. Otherwise sit and hate on something else that makes money... i here Smash bros hasn't had a good heckling. Go have at it.

dadeisvenm

@jrcbandit: Just like DLC sets a bad example of developers leaving out content so they can sell it later. Like it or not, as long as gamers pay for the content, developers are not going give up the chance to recoup development costs.

For me, GT5P will be a first day purchase since it includes more courses and cars than other racing games, online play, and Top Gear. That alone makes it a bargain at $40. If you were to judge GT5P on its own merit or even against Forza instead of the full GT5, you'd see that it is worth the $40.

Kj719

I'm praying that when it finally hits, it doesn't revel in sub-par realism like GT4. I wanted to break that disc in 2 after about 1 hour.

DanimalJenkins

This just sets a bad precedence if it sales well. Let's release a pre-game and sell it for $40 and then 6-8 months later sell the complete game for $60, making nearly double the money!!! The Japanese version was really gimped, the American/European release does hold more value for content, but it is still just a glorified demo in the end. Instead of all the time invested into prepping Prologue for release, why not just put all that effort into getting the final game out sooner (is the final release a 2009 game now ? ;p)

jrcbandit

The money they get from that is gonna help them continue work on the real thing. For all GT fans, its a great way to support Polyphony Digital.

IntelSilver

Paid previews aren't a new concept by any means. It just so happens that $40 is a suitable price point for the amount of content people will be getting vs. how much they are willing to spend, and it'll keep the masses preoccupied until the real thing comes out.

The way I look at it, there are retail games (racing and otherwise) that have less content than GT5P.

xat

Calling GT5 a demo is like calling PGR3 a demo to PGR4.

Prologue can equally be called a release in the series of the games.

Paying $40 for prologue is better then the people who paid $60 to play a short period of the Halo3 beta.

Viet0ne

@Seoulfood: Your last sentence made no sense.

....and there's no reason to end such a great relationship. Puts out nightly for as long as I need it to.

Lemming To The Sea

this doesn't even include people planning on downloading on the psn.

not to mention japan and the us and in store pickups day one. dayum, good work gt team

johnnylineup

This will be a good thing to have while I wait til' the full GT5 comes out, demo or not this should be very satisfying and no one can justify $40 for prologue is a bad deal, because it has top-notch quality and various amounts of vehicles and some other full car games can't even own up to that, and their full price!!! The quality put into Gran Turismo is the equivlant to *A trusted brand* is to *its product* because in the end it's more than likely it will be good no matter what.

KYLE_ELYK

By stating over and over again, that this is just a demo, isn't that a wonderful thing for Sony and Polyphony? If people are so ravenous for just a demo that costs almost as much as a full game, then obviously Sony and Polyphony are doing something right.

"No the argument is that people are stupid!"

who... are you referring to yourself? Why are you so pissed? Go break-up with your videogame console and find a real girlfriend, stupid.

Seoulfood

@zanzibarlegend: I just find it extremely uncomforting that such an awful idea is taking off so well, because I'll be damned if I ever pay for a chunky demo simply to hold me over until the real product comes out. You do realize that then you'll be paying $100 for a single game once it's all said and done, correct? A game... that's just a racer (and no, this is not a knock against GT's quality as the games are always top notch in regards to a sim racer, just all you get is a game no peripherals or anything).

@symphony_of_the_night: 100% is a pretty harsh number, and they only have such great production values because they're held back until they're perfect. If other companies were so willing to do so, I'm sure we'd see other high quality products of the same calibur... just most corporations would not see such a venture as profitable.

@zanzibarlegend: But have you ever spent $40 on Rum and cokes to only receive the rum portion or only the coke portion?

Lemming To The Sea

@UFO: No one's happy on the internet!

DuctTape

@Sweet Tooth: thats what im sayin.

zanzibarlegend

The ONLY issue I have with $40 for the Prologue is reports that the Japanese version (which has been out for awhile) is losing its online support this summer. If the same holds true for Prologue I'm not sure I want to spend $40 for 9mos of online then zip.

But I'm just a cheap Scot.

Most Wanted

@UFO: no...they get forza :P

really, it doesn't matter if this is a demo or not, because it will have more work and production values than 100% of the car games of this new gen..

i can't wait to play this

symphony_of_the_night

@zanzibarlegend: yeah, money is not a problem. I buy like $100 worth of manga every week, so $40 for a beefed-up "demo" is not a problem

Sweet Tooth

Whoa thats a lot! Does that mean one of my trial time, which was ranked no.2672 or something that was actually good (considering theres over a million preorders)!? Am I prodigy!? Ok maybe not, but I think I'm gonna still buy it to get raped online.

igotalottastuff

I dunno what the problem is here.The haters get forza and we get gran turismo.So we`re all happy....right?

UFO

@scarlet:

It's critically acclaimed.

It's commercially well received.

It's come out in a reasonable time frame.

The people that hate everything Sony related need SOMETHING to attack. Since they can't find anything, they go after something they make up.

Strawman, where would the internet be without you?

PapaBear434

@Lemming To The Sea: you knew u were gonna catch flak for what came off as an ignoramus comment. its real simple. if u like buy, if you don't well......dont!

sony is doing something right. 40 bucks for GT5P until next year is cool with me. i have spent 40 bucks alone on drinks in an hour every weekend i got out partying. get over it dude.

zanzibarlegend

Anyone want to educate me on what GT5 itself is going to have over prologue? Or have they not announced it?

DuctTape

no surprise there. Europe Loves Playstation. Europe Loves Gran Turismo. Gran Turismo (with almost 50 million sold) are system sellers. I don't mind GT5: P being a Demo on steroids. also I don't like rendered damage, cars are like a work of art... except the hummer.

Sweet Tooth

@BigPete7978:
Course it's not, it's a demo, a DEMO.

djHEAT

Noo not demo vs. not a demo talk

scarlet

This will surely set an unpleasant precedent.

Does Not Equal

@PapaBear434: The italics make the 2nd "love" become more of a loooooove... making it mean something different, like saying they just straight up "love" it would be an understatement.

Lemming To The Sea

A million preorders in EU alone...That's pretty damn good. Well, time for predictions. I predict that GT5P will sell at least 1 million copies worldwide within its first month of release!

dgonchild

@Morphine16:

Don't try to argue it. People have convinced themselves it's a demo and not an actual fully realized game.

In other news...

Europe don't love Gran Turismo. They love Gran Turismo.

Wait, what? That was so redundant it was practically repeating itself over and over again superfluously.

PapaBear434

With sales like this can we see a GT5 Prologue 2 or even better an GT5 Epilogue? I am amazed at the hunger for this game.

jackal888

@Morphine16: No it's just a giant-sized demo.

Convince yourself it's a prologue all you want, but still it's just a giant fuckin' demo of the full game.

Lemming To The Sea

@DuctTape: 10 million people not enough?

I'll get it, but I end up loathing Gran Turismo

Rockwallaby

@BigPete7978: it's not only because they've done some things differently, and they don't want to get involved in an arguement about whether they should have made the changes or not, or whether it's too arcadey, or not nearly too arcadey enough, or whatever else. In addition, the time their ex-NASA scientists are spending modeling the behavior of a suspension spring at various temperatures and altitudes has left their investors wondering 'wtf' and 'bbq', so I think they've released a first-draft of every car in the entire world throughout the span of human history, and 50 years into the future, when the 2nd coming finally happens, and cars become iron-maiden like coffins for sinners.

you know. Incomplete, but a great morsel to tide us over until they figure out how to deal with the problem of quantum indeterminancy in rare instances of tachyon interceptions within a supercharger. Obviously, this requires hooking a dodge viper up to a SCUBA system, and running it flat out, under 8 million gallons of purified water deep inside the earth. If it turns out that spontaneous proton decay is measurable, and real, then they have to account for that in the performance curve.

deathbunny

Oh man, i cant wait for this game.Even though i play a lot of genuine hardcore race sims on pc, gran turismo has always been an amazingly enjoyable game.So the "its a sim,its not a sim" arguments dont matter to me.
Forget rumble, my G25 awaits!!

UFO

Wasn't there some feature in GT Prologue where users could download episodes of Top Gear? Every British person I know loves that show (and for good reason, it rocks - Mondays on BBC America...). That could account for many purchases, including mine...

boxmyth

@Lemming To The Sea: Over 40 cars, online multiplayer and GT quality on 1080p awesomeness is not a demo, it is a prologue to one of the greatest racing games in history of consoles :p

Morphine16

Wa wa wee wah, I can't wait for GT5

Huxle

Egad... Worth comparing this to the first week sales figures for Brawl ([kotaku.com]). I know they're different continents, but the shear scale of it all says to me that the PS3's install base is less of an issue to software sales than I thought.

DuctTape

@Lemming To The Sea: It might seem sad to you, but if you love something that much then it doesn't seem sad to those that did preorder it. Gimped of the REAL GT game or not.

goldwings

Cue the Environment360 fanboys: Teh Sony is causing global warming with car culture. Frowny face.

hopelesshindu

Wait. I'm confused. I thought this was the real thing. It's not?

BigPete7978

@Lemming To The Sea: Want me to qoute numbers for the number of other gran turismo's sold? It's a bit more than a glorified demo.

NessD12

one million people preordered a glorified demo?

sad.

Lemming To The Sea

And wait till the real thing comes out :P

Morphine16

@-Sigil-: So, if someone were to refer to the game in a different way, as to not fall into what you call a "demo" could you finally admit that this isn't one?

How about you consider this as the FULL VERSION of GT5P? This is all the planned to release for this game (yes, this is it's own game, it has a subtitle, it is not "GT5") Basically GT5P is a whole game. Granted, they will be releasing GT5 in a year or so, including the same content, plus more. But the fact is, unless the game they release in a year is called GT5P and has all that extra content, it's not the same game. So there, it's not a demo, just a smaller version of a normal GT game. Now stop fucking bickering about it.

Nowell