What a shame, no Gran Turismo 5 Callaways?

[Brangeta]

I asked Joanne a few days ago if Callaways would be in Gran Turismo 5 since the C12 was in GT4. And here's her response:

Hi Brandon,
As far as I know we did not renew to put our cars in GT4.
We do however have the Sledgehammer and Callaway Twin Turbo in the
newly released Project Gotham Racing 4 for XBOX.
Thanks for your interest.
Joanne

Man, that's a shame if true. :cry

I don't know if any of you play video games, but the Gran Turismo series has always been the most realistic car game with regard to performance, sound, and graphics, so it's a real shame that Callaways may not be included in the next installment.

I'd consider it an excellent way to get the C16 promoted as well as the Callaway Corvettes and past projects since the market is so large for this property. I'd be surprised if the market for the Gran Turismo series wasn't bigger than the entire market for ALL xbox racing games combined.

If Callaway isn't included, you won't be able to take your Corvette, Camaro, GTO, SSR, etc. to their shop and buy Callaway upgrades. (This was something you unfortunately couldn't do in GT4 either. You could do it for nearly all Japanese cars and a few German ones however).

The graphics in GT5 are amazing compared to GT4, so not having Callaway included would surely be disappointing on that end.

GT4 screen shot:
http://members.aol.com/speedbbb/callawayc12-gt4.jpg

two GT5 screenshots:
http://us.playstation.com/granturismo/images/screen_thumbs/ss07_xl.jpg
http://us.playstation.com/granturismo/images/wallpapers/gt5_xl/w06.jpg

I wonder what the possible reasons for not participating in the next game could be?

Money? (No idea).

Lack of cars available to model/record sound from? (Not really unless we're talking about the rarer older cars).

Callaway being too busy building cars to deal with being included? (Maybe that's the case).


What are your thoughts guys? Disappointed your car may not be featured?

 

[*89x2*]

...you do know, that is Pete's (Callaway4Fun) Callaway morphed as Sledgehammer, right??

Check out the shift knob (In PGR3) as it is red, not black like on the sledge.

I provided many high res. pics for this and they took pics of Pete's car in Old Lyme along w/ the C7r and C12.

...this pic was from that day:

and there are more here:
http://www.callawayownersgroup.com/COTM/2007April/cotm.htm

here is the photographer shooting the C12:
http://www.callawayownersgroup.com/COTM/2006July/cotm.htm

Callaway Cars cleared the whole day for this - they made the time and we all pitched in to get the C7r in and out of the lobby

 

[Brangeta]

Was that a photographer for PGR? or GT? Because the C12 wasn't in any of the PGR games.. I don't think?

Kind of related...

Video of the Gran Turismo team recording sound for the Vector M12. This M12 is #5 of the 18 made (15 road cars, 1 prototype, and 2 race cars).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaN8YsL4fKE

Just an example of the attention to detail put into the GT series for a very obscure, hard to find car. This was for GT2 which came out in 1998 if I remember correctly.

I'm sure Sony would have no trouble finding Callaway owners who would allow their cars to be modeled and recorded. Anthony has a C8 or two they could borrow for a few hours I'm sure.

Here's a video of how the people from Sony get their data for their Gran Turismo games, it has music Luigi and I can appreciate LOL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKDdxC3DXlI

 

[Jeroenvgfn]

some old pics

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75198

 

[Brangeta]

An email response from Joanne. I pretty much wrote back to her before making this topic with about half as much as I wrote in the first post, and this is what she said:

We realize what great publicity it was to have our cars in GT series.
Unfortunately it wasn't our choice, Sony decided to make the change.

Regards,
Joanne

I wonder why Sony would make that change? :confused

I can envision the conversation already...

Bigwig: "What car company can we take out to alienate some of our American fans? We need to fit in a few more versions of the Skyline..."
Lacky: "How about Chevrolet?"
Bigwig: "I wish, but they pay us too much money to be removed."
Lacky: "Then how about we get rid of Callaway, Saleen, and a few of the other small American companies. That way we can add some more Skylines to the HKS and Tom's tuner categories, and maybe even have some room for a few more Honda S2000s in the Spoon category!"
Bigwig: "That's genius! I'm glad I thought about it! Now grab my keys to my 350Z and let's go to lunch."

 

[Brangeta]

Seems the Xbox owners DO get all the fun right now. The C16 Speedster is in PGR4 thanks to an add-on package you somehow download. ;squint:

 

[*89x2*]

HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CallawayC8]

I can envision the conversation already...

Bigwig: "What car company can we take out to alienate some of our American fans? We need to fit in a few more versions of the Skyline..."
Lacky: "How about Chevrolet?"
Bigwig: "I wish, but they pay us too much money to be removed."
Lacky: "Then how about we get rid of Callaway, Saleen, and a few of the other small American companies. That way we can add some more Skylines to the HKS and Tom's tuner categories, and maybe even have some room for a few more Honda S2000s in the Spoon category!"
Bigwig: "That's genius! I'm glad I thought about it! Now grab my keys to my 350Z and let's go to lunch."[/quote]

Brandon, thats the funniest s#@ I have read in a long time. Sadly, it sounds accurate.

 

[Brangeta]

Joanne emailed me a few days ago, and couldn't tell me any specific info but...

she's contacted sony... :naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty:

 

[kruzmisl]

Could it be about the fact Sony is unauthorized to use the C16 speedster? hnoes

 

[Brangeta]

Are they unauthorized to use it? :confused Is it like Need For Speed's old "exclusive right" contract with Ferrari?

My dream list would be...

street cars:
C8 coupe
C12 coupe
C16 coupe
B2K coupe
CR1 coupe

special cars (ones you can only win in races):
B2K Speedster
C16 Speedster

race cars:
C7R
LM

cars you can tune at the Callaway shop:
4th gen Camaros and Trans Ams
C4, C5, and C6 Corvettes
~'94 Impala SS
SSR and GTO
select Mazdas, Volkswagens, Holdens, and Alfas

minimal list (cars the game just HAS to have at bare minimum):
C16
C12
B2K Speedster
C8

How cool would that be? And don't say it can't be done. If you're familiar with the series at all, you'd know that certain manufacturers have INCREDIBLE lists of cars in the games. I mean come on... over 50 different Skylines (that aren't just simple paint changes), over 10 different 350Zs (with at least 5 cosmetically hideous), over 10 different Honda S2000s (ugh), and let's not forget the silly Japanese cars in the game. Honda Odessey anyone? :ugh Nobody else has a minivan in the game. Why spend the time?

I'm getting more into a rant about the game now but... It'd be great if Gran Turismo did better research this time around. Some of the manufacturers in GT4 just had pathetic lineups. Alfa lacked the Montreal (Alfa's only V8 car EVER) and GTV6... Marcos lacked EVERYTHING remotely cool... Pontiac lacked the Firebird... no BMW M1... only 1 Cadillac in the game... and there were dozens of other things that could have been improved as well. Why have all the lame Japanese sedans and coupes and not have the Impala, Monte Carlo, Cobalt, Fusion, etc?

It's time for them to venture outside Japan a bit more than previously. Start representing manufacturers with more than one car.

 

[Brangeta]

New screenshot from Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (not the full version of the game--Prologue is basically a demo version with only 71 cars instead of 710 or MORE) of the Corvette Z06. Here's to them including several Callaways in HD at 1080P!

 

[*89x2*]

Brandon, host your screenshot, I am curious as to what you are talking about. Appaerntly, that site did not like the hotlink

 

[Brangeta]

Oops! To make up for it, here's two super large images from GT5 Prologue.

The game looks really realistic! But much cleaner than real life!