14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Eutechnyx says that it made the decision not to launch NASCAR 14 on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 after it was clear that the much bigger Gran Turismo 6 from Polyphony Digital and Sony was only set to arrive on the PlayStation 3.
Ed Martin, an executive vice president at the studio, is quoted by VG247 as saying that, “The nail in the coffin was when a guy from Sony talked about Gran Turismo, and how their new game was launching on PS3. He said something like, ‘Why would we put Gran Turismo on a console that has zero units in the market when there are 150 million PlayStation 3s out there?’”
Eutechnyx ran the numbers and saw that it would cost a lot to port the game to the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4.
The executive adds, “You have to sell an awful lot of copies in order to meet the development costs, on top of all the licensing. There are about 4-5 million worldwide combined units of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, so it just doesn’t add up for us right now. We own the rights, and we absolutely have plans, but it won’t be later this year.”
Eutechnyx says that the computing power available on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 is at the moment sufficient to power a solid simulation of the core NASCAR mechanics.
The coming title is expected to arrive on February 18 and will also be offered on the PC.
Gamers will be able to create their own custom online leagues for the first time in the series.
Since Gran Turismo 6 was launched, the team at Polyphony Digital has suggested that it might port it to the PlayStation 4, but has not offered a date or details.
The company has also talked about a potential sequel that might arrive in 2017.