Sony Interactive Entertainment recently confirmed that the upcoming God of War and Grand Turismo 7 are both in development for the PlayStation 4 as well. While the former didn’t come as much of a surprise, considering Horizon Forbidden West is cross-gen, Gran Turismo 7‘s cross-gen status did take many by surprise because it was advertised as a PlayStation 5 exclusive all along.
According to Video Games Chronicles’ Andy Robinson, who has an excellent track record when it comes to insider information, Sony only recently made the decision to release Gran Turismo 7 on the PS4, unlike God of War and Horizon Forbidden West – both of which were intended to be cross-gen releases since the beginning.
“You can’t build a community of over 110 million PS4 owners and then just walk away from it, right? I think that’d be bad news for fans of PS4, and frankly not very good business,” argued PlayStation Studios boss, Herman Hulst.
Hulst isn’t wrong. However, it’s Sony’s U-turn that has come under criticism because the company insisted that it “believed in generations” while Microsoft pushed for cross-gen releases for its first-party titles.
“We believe that when you go to all the trouble of creating a next-gen console, that it should include features and benefits that the previous generation does not include,” SIE CEO Jim Ryan said last year. “And that, in our view, people should make games that can make the most of those features.”
Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart remains a PS5 exclusive along with Housemarque’s Returnal.
[Source: VGC]
