Another day, another game delayed. This time, it’s Gran Turismo 7, from the PlayStation racing sim series. The game promised to take full advantage of several of the PlayStation 5’s features, but it looks like we’re not going to see it for at least a year, if not more. The reason? The ongoing pandemic, which is causing problems for the development team the same as it is for everyone else.
The news was dropped in a GQ interview with PlayStation’s Jim Ryan about Sony’s next steps, the same interview in which he dropped more details about the upcoming PlayStation VR 2.0 that was recently revealed. Ryan was answering a question about Sony’s roadmap for upcoming releases, and he named Returnal, Horizon Forbidden West, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. GQ’s Robert Leedham pointed out that Gran Turismo 7 wasn’t in that list, and was assured that a statement regarding that game was on the way.
The statement reads: “GT7 has been impacted by Covid-related production challenges and therefore will shift from 2021 to 2022. With the ongoing pandemic, it’s a dynamic and changing situation and some critical aspects of game production have been slowed over the past several months. We’ll share more specifics on GT7’s release date when available.” The game was originally intended to be released some time in the first half of this year.
So yes, COVID-19 delays yet another game. It’s hard to keep count of the number of times that’s happened, but it’s still a shame to see GT7 added to the list. The game was originally revealed with an announcement trailer in June 2020 (see above) that seemed to show a game decently far along in development, but of course those trailers can be deceptive. It’s not a first for the series, though, as Gran Turismo 5 was delayed multiple times before its release.
Source: GQ
