This whole GT5 release date confusion might actually be a good thing.

[Grimes]

bugrimmar said:

When Sony announced the release date at E3, there was little buzz. It was like "finally", "nothing to see here", and "expected". It was competing with something much bigger than itself in terms of initial hype (COD), and i guess it was being drowned by all that stuff around it.

Prior to the delay announcement, there was still little buzz. Then, because of the delay, people went crazy and just showed all over the place how much they were waiting for GT5 after all. The internet has been in a state of panic over the last few weeks discussing "WHEN FFS", and some people were actually "canceling preorders" (whatever lol).

Then now that we have an actual release date straight from Yamauchi, the forums have reversed polarity all of a sudden and now they're praising the lord like Jesus himself came down from heaven again.

Isn't this all free advertising? Free hype? Self generated desire to buy the game?

Sony didn't advertise the game at all, bar a few internet sites and whatever. They've saved on marketing thus far, but marketing was being done for them for free by every disgruntled person on the block.

In the end, the total message most angry fans were saying is "SHIT, WE NEED THIS GAME FFS", thereby possibly creating a giant ripple of desire to buy. See now, just simple announcements of a release date from a delayed game is making us shit our pants.

I think this might have been the plan all along....

The people who are discussing it were going to buy the game anyways. It's all the casual people who don't read message boards that need marketing for.

Take a look at what happened to Black Ops. The internet buzz wasn't all that great. There wasn't nearly as much talk as MW2 on the boards and much of it was negative. But it had a much better marketing effort. The launch date was known for months. Advertisers put banners up weeks ahead. Tv commercials were occuring months ahead of time. IMO, the difference was quality marketing which led to the biggest opening of a game of all time.

GT5 will still sell great, however I do think there will be opportunity loss. Especially in the US because they may have missed the advertising window for black friday. In addition, November 24 is the biggest travel day of the year which means that many people will be travelling rather than shopping. Black Friday will be dominated by cheap sale prices, not necessarily by the latest and greatest. Because they missed the advertising window, it may not get the steep price discounts that other products get.