*claps*

Good for Forza but no matter how yuu look at it the "meltdowns" comment is just asking for trouble. I remember GT4 getting crapped on due to not having damage, that is being fized for this game and with online it is a guaranteed AAA game.

GT4 did not review too badly though, was it over 80%?

Yes I do, but probably not the way you invision it.  M$ will more than likely bundle this with another game and sell it for the holidays.  Will it actually compete with GT5 on its own?  Probably not.  But I do believe it will siphon off people who are on the fence and that is exactly what M$ is wanting it to do.  Give a low cost driving sim alternative that is less than half the price of what you would need to pay for a PS3 and GT5.  People who already own a PS3 will not be swayed either way, even if Forza 3 is the next coming. 

man I hope it gets released this year I've been looking foreward to Forza 3 for a LONG time.

*bleh*

Well as for Forza 3, it should be huge and its main advantage is customization. You can nearly do a gigantic amount of paint jobs, no car will ever look the same. For GT, its partly its driving physics and the fact that it should be the better looking game in GT5. Not to mention it should have more cars.

But overall, both games are a gr8 series to each platform. Myself being a GT fan, im excited for Forza 3. It could outshine GT5 in the gameplay bringing in new modes such as drag and drift, not to mention a gr8 online service for auctioning. for gt5 to be better, its gonna have to have a "wide selection"

Here's some info for you:

Forza Motorsports 2 sales before bundles came to marketplace, October 12th, 2007: 1,087,744. Those are confirmed, 100% sales to consumer(s) without any question of bundles.

Next, we have to look at the discrepancy between Marvel: Ultimate Alliance sales and Forza 2 sales, as both were packins at the same rate (therefore, any extra F2 sales were indeed sold). Between October 19th, 2007 and February 22nd, 2008: 615,716. This was the number of copies F2 sold above the packins (as referenced by Marvel:UA sales in that period...Actuals were probably higher, as Marvel did sell some copies between the periods). For reference, F2 sold 3.6 million as of that date. Anything past that date should have been an actual sold copy.

So subtract the 4.37m from the 3.61m that F2 accumulated after said date, and you get an extra 760,000 sold after bundles were DOA, give or take.

So 1.09m + 0.62m + 0.76m = 2.47 million units of Forza 2 sold. This should be within 10% of actuals. The negative side of this analysis would be any pack-in units sold after Feb 22nd, 2008. The positive, however, would be the discrepancy assuming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance sold any units whatsoever between Oct 19th and Feb 22nd. But I believe both should offset eachother.

So 2.5m is a good estimate.  

True, that has been MS' strategy for some time now (as I've stated in the first post I made here), but I can't see it working too well with this game, especially against the might of GT.  GT is a household name, and I do believe that it will come close to destroying pretty much every game with wheels that comes close to it.

The way you say it (bundle it with another game) is however a good move this time, as the game (or bundle) on its own wouldn't (probably) stand a chance.

Funny though that some claim that the games won't have an impact on each other (while that's exactly the reason that MS would put this game before, or close to GT's release).

And on another note:

The first person to mention GT5 was actually a DS / Wii owning person (if you check his profile), not "some sony fanboy".

I was then the next one to mention it, questioning whether MS' usual strategy would work against a well-known name as polyphony and GT.  If that was wrong, then I'd like to know why, especially since GoW also immediately gets used in KZ2 and R2 threads, but that's apparently okay.

It's easy to then go and point at "sony fanboys coming in and trying to derail the thread by mentioning GT5" when I absolutely had no intention of doing so, and it was merely a post trying to discuss whether it would be a good strategy for MS to do so (and Damndloser's idea would indeed create some balance against GT5).

But hey, fine.

Shout "SONY FANBOY" some more, then act like you're all better since you are not reporting the sony fanboys and that you're acting like the bigger man.

 Can you say the same about LBP, Uncharted and Motorstorm?

 Edit -

Hey wait a minute.. is Forza really a PAL system seller?? I think the series is good for the console, but I wouldn't call it a system seller.

This may send a lot of hate my way from PS3 and X360 fans but....

Forza 2 was a system seller. Taking out PAL bundles using the same methodology (subtracting Viva Pinata sales from Forza 2 sales between Oct 19th and Feb 23rd), we find out that Forza 2 sold over 1 million copies in PAL territories - somewhere just below 1.1 million.

Since that's the case, 1.1m PAL sellthrough puts Forza 2 in pretty good territory, especially given how poor the install base was at that time.

Forza 3 this Christmas should rack up between 1.5 million and 2.0 million units sold in PAL territories. That should, for all intents and purposes, move some consoles.

Unless its a real graphical powerhouse I can't see this moving systems - surely anyone interested in forza would have bought a 360 to play the second one.