Gran Turismo's a "sterile, almost car collecting type of product," says EA's Soderlund

EA's senior VP Patrick Soderlund is of the belief the Shift franchise can "absolutely beat" Sony's Gran Turismo series due to the former's "authentic driving experience".

Speaking in and interview with CVG, Soderlund believes Shift and Gran Turismo will share audiences to "some extent", but there's also folk who will only buy one or the other.

"If you look at the differences between the current games we have on the market, obviously Hot Pursuit and Gran Turismo, there is a big difference in those two products and they will share audiences to some extent," he said. "But at the same time I would think that they also have non-overlapping significant audience that won't buy Gran Turismo but will buy Need For Speed and obviously vice versa."

"But if you compare Shift and Gran Turismo, I actually do see Shift as a direct competitor to Gran Turismo for sure. Honestly, my take on this. Would I want to compete with Gran Turismo on sheer scale - meaning number of cars and the depth that they have in the game? Probably not. What does make sense to me... I think they have a very sterile, almost car collecting type of product where that's mainly what we do and I think we can offer something different.

"Our idea is that if we can offer the most authentic driving experience and portray what it feels like being inside a race car, then I think that's where we can excel and where we absolutely will beat them. That I know for sure."

Need for Speed Shift 2: Unleashed was announced last week and Gran Turismo 5 is out tomorrow, after what seem like ages.