GT has traditionally been seen as a flagship racing game
The Le Mans circuit and others always show GT adds.
The new Citroen GT car has GT logo's emblazoned on the pre-reveal sheet
Ferrari uses the GT engine for a virtual test drive of it's new car the California.
etc.
etc.
etc.
Forza, unfortunately for it, just doesn't have the same punch as the GT brand.

mario kart is a driving similator now? O.o

gran turismo is to much of a high profile franchise for anyone to compete against it, you only need to look how much content that goes in to the games.

i expect gran turismo 5 to have more content than gt4.

forza 2 is also a very good game, some in fact prefer the forza series because it offers some diffring gameplay mechanics, but gran turismo is the #1 racing game.

if polyphony announced gran turismo 5 launched on same day as forza 3 date, i predict that microsoft would have no choice to delay forza 3 as it would be suicide

There was also a Forza/Xbox bundle.

Did I say driving simulator? I said racing games, very general.

Gran Turismo is big in every region,but Forza has quality,make no mistake. GT sells great in every region,Forza sells great in US and ok in Europe. Plus,we don`t know how Forza 3 will look/feel like,but we do know how GT5 will be because of the Prologue.

They are both quality games,it`s only a matter of choice.

A little off topic but I hope that PD and Sony will have a Special Edition GT5 with a special G25 racing wheel with the GT logo and and a Playseat racing chair with the GT logo, I would easily pay the $500 bucks that that's worth.

Actually we have a pretty good idea how Forza 3 will be like based on Forza 2. It's also rumored that Turn10 is working on PGR5, so I don't even know if they are working on Forza 3 right now. Racing games tend to sell best in PAL territories and Sony is doing better in PAL territories than MS, shooting games tend to sell better in the US and MS is doing better than Sony in the US (that's the main reason R2 will not outsell Gears 2).

In terms of branding, GT has been built up to the point that it is the premiere driving franchise, with direct ties to the automotive industry.

GT has helped build the image of various makes and models as well as individual builds from aftermarket performance tuning shops.

Professional drivers have been known to use the game as a learning tool to memorize tracks, down to the subtle individual traits (inconsistencies of pavement to trees used as guide markers for cornering) of specific tracks necessary for achieving optimal lap times.

Forza is a ballpark range second to GT, but it will always be second, as the Xbox's necessary driving genre response to GT, unlikely to ever achieve the same level of prestige.

At heart, Forza feels more like a driving video game, whereas GT feels like a highly accurate driving simulator (other than GT's bumper car no damage collision physics).

But that is actually something that could be seen in Forza's favor, since too much accuracy and realism can be very frustrating for some.

It's unfortunate that most people play GT with a game pad, rather than a $500-600 Logitech G25 steering wheel/racing bucket/frame simulator seat.

Kaz says the same thing and I wish he would stop fucking around. Listen some of us want ultra realistic, hit a bumper at 40MPH and you're most likely SOL. Now I understand that some people wanna crash at 200 MPH and still drive, and Sony wants those people to buy GT as well so have different driving physics levels (much like you have your difficulty levels) and amateur you have your bumper cars and stuff, professional you have crashes but you won't be out of the race unless it's major and simulation you simulate for the experts and racing lovers like myself.