Patches as an equalizer for multi-region content

Remember drift mode, car tuning and other features that were announced as “new content” for the Western versions of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue? Yeah, well Japan gets them too through a 1540 MB “Spec II” update that went live over the weekend.

I’m not complaining that Japan is getting new modes or anything like that. Honestly, it’s great that they aren’t getting gypped by not receiving the extra features we are getting in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue when it arrives in April.

Recently, it feels like a handful of US releases have been getting revised whether it’s in the form of new difficulty levels (hi, Square Enix) or mysterious extra content. However, there are occasional times where we miss out on bonus material through a third release with English voices given to Japan only.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world if publishers took advantage of internal storage space released patches to get international gamers up to speed with the other releases? Imagine getting the bonus material from Final Fantasy XIII: Polished Crystal Edition (now with English voices). Publishers could easily charge a small fee for an update. Localization does cost some money. In this case Sony is doing it for free with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, even though gamers with the Japanese version would grudgingly pay a fee for a new track and new cars. Good on them.