Here is my 2 cents: I am a huge/massive/mega car fanatic. What I love the most about cars is modifying them and then driving and racing them to test the difference. Of course this in real life is very expensive especially if you want to do it to more than one car! So this is what I enjoy the most about these realistic racing games/simulators. On the gaming side of things it all started for me with the first Need For Speed game and NFS 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Back then that was all I could play as far as car games, but they were (as you know) very arcade to play and didn’t have many mods. Then the very first Gran Turismo game came out and I was officially hooked! Then I played GT2 and GT3 and loved every moment of it. But then I heard of the new Xbox (the original one) and a car game called Sega GT and Sega GT Online. What attracted me to these was the fact that it was similar to Gran Turismo but had a few different cars that weren’t available on Gran Turismo. So I saved up and bought an Xbox and the two games. A bit later I bought Gran Turismo 4 and then the first Forza game. I still thought Gran Turismo was much better and more complete, but Forza and Sega GT did have features that Gran Turismo could’ve had.
I briefly also played Sega GT for the PC (which I still have and love specially due to the fact you could build your own car in it from a few predetermined options!).
So I kept upgrading consoles and buying Forza 2, 3 and 4 and also Gran Turismo 5 Prelogue and 5. Up until this point, I felt both Forza 4 and GT5 feel very complete and fun, but I wasn’t looking forward to upgrading to the next gen consoles again, too much money and I’ve been getting quite addicted to modifying and racing cars in real life! So that meant that I could only commit to buy one of the two new consoles: Xbox One or a PS4. Then to my joy Sony goes and releases the GT6 on the old PS3! I was so happy as this meant I didn’t have to also sell my existing Fanatec wheel either. So I even sold my Xbox 360 as I felt I would be happy with the great and new GT6. But after playing for only two weeks, I kept finding myself playing GT6 less and less and missing Forza 4 more and more! And I played Forza 4 without a wheel. So I started asking myself, what is it about Forza 3 and 4 that keeps me coming back and playing even though I don’t even have a wheel? So I had a choice to make: either buy an Xbox 360 and Forza 4 again or sell a few rare car parts I had laying around and buy an Xbox One and Forza 5. I didn’t want to get Forza 4 again because I had already played it all, but didn’t want to spend all that cash on an Xbox One just for one Forza 5 game, no wheel and Forza 5 has less cars and tracks. So after putting this decision off and thinking about it for a couple more months, I decided to bite the bullet and buy an Xbox One and Forza 5.
I bought my Xbox One and Forza 5 in February 2014 and since then have played Forza 5 every day and have turned on GT6 about 10 times since then with hopes of rekindling my old love for it but compared to Forza 4 and 5, GT6 just feels artificial, somehow it lacks soul. It’s not as much fun, despite having so many more cars than Forza!
So to resume, it pains me to say but I really don’t think I’ll be buying a PS4 or GT7 for a long time, especially I also use my PS3 as our home media player and entertainment centre, including it’s TV tuner feature and ability to play (via stream) all the media stored on my home computer. And now looks like the Xbox One will have it’s own TV Tuner and ability to play and stream home network media, so it will be bye bye Sony for us, which means bye bye Gran Turismo. And the fact that every year we have either a new Forza Motorsport game or Forza Horizon game, and the new Forza 6 looks like will have more tracks, cars and even weather, well, that seals the deal for me. Now I have to sell my Fanatec wheel, buy a Thrustmaster TX wheel and keep racing on Forza!