Gamers Slog: Prologue

I was just phoned by a friend and fellow gamer and the first thing he said to me was ‘What does prologue mean?’. I knew right away he was talking about Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (due out this Friday for PS3); I went on to explain how it's a ‘taster’ of what’s to come. I mentioned the number of cars and tracks included, its features, its online modes and so on. However it got me thinking whether it's right that a game publisher can get away with releasing ‘teasers/glorified demos’ of games at retail (albeit cheaper than full priced games, and quite rightly so!), while prolonging release for the finished article? I can appreciate the need to add time to production in order to produce a finer game and I’m more than happy to wait if it means the finished product is improved, but won't these features be included in the finished game? Will I get this twenty quid knocked off the final game to compensate?

The RRP of Grand Turismo 5: Prologue is £24.99 and I imagine the final game will be set at £49.99. So is this only half a game? In fact, going by the final car and track listing it's only about a tenth in terms of actual content, so how can they justify the price? Are they just pandering to the salivating fans or trying to make an easy return on a franchise that’s guaranteed to sell? Can we honestly blame them considering that it IS business at the end of the day.

I will be buying 'Prologue'; sure I’ll enjoy it for a while but I’m sure come release day for the game proper I’ll be a little bitter. Here’s hoping they give us pre-release demo whores something to ease the transition, maybe some unlockable cars or special crowns and sceptres to attach to our avatars. As long as we continue to believe that these publishers have gamers' interests (and ultimately wallets) at heart we’ll all be ok.

Let's hope this isn’t a trend continued, I don’t want to be paying out for ‘Gran Turismo 5: Epilogue’ after release instead of a proper sequel!

(I’m also aware that the game will be released on ‘Playstation Network’ for download a day before the boxed version, and from what I gather they’re the same price and no different in content).