Gran Turismo 7 is a game we can't wait to play, but we're having to keep our patience.
It looked for all the world that GT7 would be released as a launch title for the PlayStation 5. After all, GT7 was officially revealed on the same day as the PS5.
Half a year has passed since then and the PS5 has been out on the market for weeks now. There's still no sign of an official release date for GT7, all we've got is "2021... Hopefully".
This could be a bad sign for Polyphony's upcoming sim racer, as history appears to be repeating itself.
What we've seen so far
There's not a lot to go on here, and that's part of the problem. All we've been shown so far is a reveal trailer. How long ago was that? Almost six months ago now and it's still the most up-to-date information we have!
You can view the GT7 reveal trailer below:
For what it's worth, going off the trailer, GT7 looks great. However, it looked as though this game was going to be a launch title for PS5.
Honestly, that might well have been the case. 2020 has been the year of delays, so GT7 could easily have been pushed back. Polyphony could have known this was going to happen, hence why no release date was stated.
We've been here before
This feels like Deja vu, as a very similar thing happened when GT made the jump to PS3. Polyphony's intention was always to have a Gran Turismo on the PS3 when, or soon after, it launched.
Xbox had done this with Forza, but GT5 just kept getting delayed. Polyphony stated that this was to ensure the game was of the required quality for release, so fans begrudgingly stuck with them.
2010 rolled around and GT5 was finally released, a full three years after the PS3. The result? What was at the time the worst Gran Turismos ever.
Polyphony bit off far more than they could chew, as they attempted to compete with Forza's quality and quantity of cars that were available.
We ended up with a vast library of cars, which was good. However, we also got a huge majority of these vehicles looking like they were ripped straight out of GT4.
Sound effects, damage, and the overall playability of the game were also sub-par. Gran Turismo had lost its crown as the king of racing sims after looking bulletproof in the PS2 era.
This GT7 delay isn't the end of the world for GT fans though, far from it.
Delays aren't necessarily bad
It's easy to be pessimistic about GT7, it always is when a delay is announced or silence is all there is to be heard.
Take Red Dead Redemption 2, for example. RDR2 was delayed by an entire year and fans questioned why and what the game would be like when it did hit shelves.
The answer? RDR2 is one of the best games ever made.
It's because of that delay that its success has been so great. The extra year allowed Rockstar to fine-tune and improve their product to become of the best sandboxes they had ever produced.
It's a similar story with Cyberpunk 2077, as that title should release later this month after a series of delays.
Nobody is doubting that 2077 will be a great game. In fact, Projekt Red's commitment to making the title as good as possible makes gamers more assured in its quality.
Gran Turismo 7 will be released, it's just a matter of time. Hopefully these delays are an indication of Polyphony's commitment to a great product rather than a fundamental issue with GT7.