This may be the first time I’ve seen a pre-release article that isn’t a regurgitated press release and discusses an issue that is driving a lot of fans away from FM5.
It seems Forza Motorsport 5’s publishers, Turn 10 Studios, have just kicked an own goal in the ongoing battle between the XBox One exclusive and its Sony Playstation rival, Gran Turismo 6. It’s come to light that FM5 will make do with a mere 200 cars and just 14 tracks when it hits shelves on November 22.
It hits the nail on the head that lack of content is FM5’s biggest weakness. I still haven’t cancelled my preorder, but if Sony has a PS3/GT6 bundle around Christmas, I may be switching franchises.
Tonka Crash Tuning and Commentary 
Here is my response to all this. I’m in wait and see mode for the foreseeable future.
I have cancelled my Xbox One and FM5 pre-orders. Here is why: Well, I went and did it. I was one of the first to place a pre-order of the Xbox One all in one game and home entertainment console the day it was announced. It was billed as an all inclusive centre for gaming, interacting with web TV and the world wide web. Interacting through Kinect cameras with Microsoft and others, interacting with thousands if not millions who had access to whatever I had set up on the One.
All well and good. But, I don’t have Kinect on my 360, so don’t need it, don’t want it. I have two PC’s and one laptop at home, all connected to 63 and 60 inch plasma monitors, so don’t need the web capability of the One. I have a comprehensive Satellite TV package, so don’t need a One to watch my favourite movies, dramas, comedies or sporting events.
So what have I gone and done?
I cancelled my pre-order of Xbox One from Best Buy.
The One won’t play my old games.
The One requires that I buy a new set-up for racing wheel games. (I cannot use a hand controller due to pain in my hands and wrists.)
The One won’t interface with my $Thousand Dollar$ plus game controller. Fanatec wheels are not compatible.
The One, in spite of all the hype about its capabilities, won’t play Blue Ray 3D. That should be a no-brainer, since some game developers are writing 3D games.
The only One game I wanted, FM5 has only 200 cars on the release disk. Most of which I could care less about. That stinks of months of DLC to flush out the garage ($$$$$). And still no Porsche on release.
I have doubts about the roll out consoles of the One being bug free and reliable. Remember what we all went through with the 360 roll out.
So, I put all this into a mental ledger and come up with nothing on the black side and everything on the red side.
Thus, the cancellation.
Now, I will wait and watch with interest to see if FM5 (my only motivation for the One) turns out to be a great game. And I will watch for feed back and reports from the community about reliability and bugs. And, I will wait for the next generation of the One console to see what has been fixed and / or added. And most importantly for me, the deal breaker, I will wait to see if Microsoft and Fanatec can come to an agreement ($$$$$) over compatibility with existing race wheel controllers.
It took me 3 months to come to this decision, but with all the red ink on my ledger, the decision became obvious to me. Not happy about it, but to me it all makes sense.
Too bad, so sad.
I agree with a lot you say. Like you this is a gaming console to me and not the whole media center M$ has made it. It’s not even going into my living room or getting connected to a TV for me.
I’m expecting bugs on the Xbone, but I’m expecting software glitches and not hardware issues. After the RROD fiasco with the 360, I would have to think that M$ has done a lot more reliability testing.
I think the smart move would be to cancel, but I can’t quite force myself to quit the franchise even though I don’t think FM5 looks very promising.