Nissan GT Academy

Tokyo, May 9, 2008 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that the cumulative worldwide shipment of the Gran Turismo™ franchise, a genre-defining racing and car-life simulator available on PlayStation®, PlayStation®2, and PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) computer entertainment systems, has exceeded 50 million units as of April 30, 2008. This remarkable sales figure was achieved in just 10 years and 4 months since the launch of the first title in the franchise - Gran Turismo, in December 1997.

The Gran Turismo franchise, from the original Gran Turismo to the latest Gran Turismo™ 5 Prologue, has continued to evolve alongside the PlayStation platforms. With its outstanding game play, beautiful graphics and the true to life driving feel, the franchise is recognized as the world's number one automotive game title on the PlayStation format, receiving high regard not just from game fans, but also from professional racing drivers and people in the automobile industry.

The seventh installment of the world's best-selling racing franchise, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue introduces entirely new entertainment modes by taking advantage of the broadband network, such as online head-to head racing for up to 16 players, "GRAN TURISMO-TV"; a new in-game online channel that delivers automotive video contents from around the globe, and downloadable additional contents including new cars and courses, only possible on PS3. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has recorded strong sales since the first launch in Japan in December, 2007, followed by North America and Europe in Spring of 2008, with more than 2 million units of cumulative shipment worldwide and contributing to the further expansion of the PS3 platform.

For all Gran Turismo fans around the world, SCEI and the developer of the Gran Turismo series - Polyphony Digital Inc., will continue hereon to vigorously promote development of the Gran Turismo series, which can be expected to evolve even further through the PS3 platform and broadband network environment.

"Initially, "Gran Turismo" was an "alternative" racing game, kind of an outsider in the genre." said Kazunori Yamauchi, Producer of Gran Turismo on a press release on Kotaku."And we made it thinking that it would be okay as long as it reached out to "the select few who would agree with us". So this figure, 50 million units - is simply astounding. If you go to a game store and look for a particular package, and pay for it at the cash register, though the time may be very brief, it still takes at least 3 minutes or so. It's simply mind boggling and hard to believe that this has been repeated 50 million times all around the world in the last 10 years. I would really like to thank all the fans who have supported the Gran Turismo series over the years, for all their passion and love of the game. We'd like to continue making every effort to create cutting edge, high quality games, so that we don't disappoint anyone's expectations.

But until Gran Turismo 5 actually comes out, we can only get a taste of things to come through Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. So is that taste making reviewers hungry for more? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out—a buncha reviews with the crust cut off because we know you like it that way.

Dark Zero
Gran Turismo 5...ups that realism to an insanely high level. Not only in its boasting of tossing around 200,000 polygons, but also in the way physics differ for each car, at times offering infinitesimal but still noticeable changes in the way you must drive each car. Making sure each is different it from the one before.

Jolt
Online play is certainly welcome, but compared to rival games, the lobby features are not what we've come to expect from this generation. We've no doubt that's one of many things that will change come GT5's release, but that's not what we're reviewing here today.

Videogamer
What doesn't impress nearly as much is the way your AI rivals behave during races. The GT series has always been criticised for its racing experience and GT5 Prologue doesn't improve things a great deal...At times while playing Forza 2 you could have mistaken an AI driver for a real-life opponent, but no such mistake could be made while playing Prologue.

IGN
...in order to complete every race in the game you'll have to do some serious grinding for cash in order to simply be able to afford the cars you need. The bare-minimum ride selection will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million credits, while the biggest payoff you'll get for any race is around 30k credits. Considering that most of the races pay far less than this, you're looking at a whole lot of repeat laps...

Kotaku
Look, as a demo, it's a good one. What's already on offer looks great, and feels great, so GT fans should have little doubt that when the full game's released - with hundreds of cars and dozens of tracks - Gran Turismo 5 will be everything they want it to be. But now, as a retail product? With a limited singleplayer experience and unstable online play, I just don't think it's worth $40.

Es ist sehr sehr unwahrscheinlich, dass GT auf einer anderen Konsole herauskommt. Aber vielleicht kommt es auf den PC. Vor allem am chinesischen Markt könnten wir so die Verbreitung fördern. [It's very, very unlikely that GT will be appearing on another console. But maybe it'll be released on PC. Particularly for the Chinese market.]

But if you're still on the fence over whether it's worth shelling out 60% of the full game's asking price for what's probably less than 10% of its content, read on, dear readers, read on.

Loved

• Graphics - Still a little sterile as far as the tracks are concerned (London excepted), but gorgeous nonetheless. Between the cars, in-car view and HDR lighting tricks this is the game you'll want to use if you're the type who has friends over just to show off how important your PS3 is to you and your home entertainment setup.
• Difficulty Curve - GT5P's got a new, improved assist mode for beginners, and it's the best I've seen in a racing game. Not only do you get an indicator for where the racing line is and when you need to brake, it actually tells you how fast you need to be going when you hit the braking-point. Very handy.
• Car Handling - No surprises here, it's the series' strength. Cars feel reasonably real, there's a marked difference between cars, blah blah blah. It's GT, you know the score, and even feels a little more forgiving than GT4, especially in some of the shittier cars. Oh, unless you turn off the assists. Then it's brutal as hell.

Hated

• Collision Modelling - The prettier and more realistic this game gets, the more its poor collision modelling stands out. I don't need to see scratches and broken glass on my car. What I do need - and what I expect of a series that's striving so hard for realism - is that when I hit a wall or another car, I feel like I've hit a wall or car. Not a stack of fluffy pillows stuffed with marshmallows.
• Six Tracks? - There's only six tracks, and even then, you spend most of the singleplayer events on only three of them (you race on the beautiful London track once). Those are slim pickings.
• The GRIND - The game's short on singleplayer content (I finished every event in just over a day), so it resorts to grinding to pad things out. Example: many races force you to buy a specific vehicle. So you have to repeatedly complete earlier races to get the cash for it, then usually only use the thing once. Next time you run into a car-specific race, you'll need to grind out the cash all over again. In a full GT game, this is fine, as there's a wealth of races to enter to spread things out and give you a little variety. With only a handful of tracks here, though, the grind is noticeable, and it's boring as hell.
• Online Play - I entered 30 online races, and not a single one was without serious issues. Cars blinked in and out of existence, and poor net code resulted in opponents that zoomed off into the distance at lightspeed, only to then reappear right in front of you. Makes racing, especially on packed circuits, really, really hard.

Look, as a demo, it's a good one. What's already on offer looks great, and feels great, so GT fans should have little doubt that when the full game's released - with hundreds of cars and dozens of tracks - Gran Turismo 5 will be everything they want it to be. But now, as a retail product? With a limited singleplayer experience and unstable online play, I just don't think it's worth $40. Not until they add more content or fix the online multiplayer, anyways.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was developed by Polyphony Digital, published by Sony Computer Entertainment and is due to be released on April 17. Retails for $39.99. Available on PlayStation 3. Played singleplayer events to completion, completed 30 online races.

We've had a lot of discussions with the manufacturers and although at the beginning they hated the idea of deformation, now they're slowly coming around to it. We've still got a few to convince, but we will. Expect deformation in the very near future: very, very soon.

There hasn't been confirmation yet from Sony Computer Entertainment, but we plan to bug them until we get a solid non-confirmation that the game does or does not exist in some form. Yeah, we're looking for something as substantive as GT4 PSP itself!

Gran Turismo 4 Mobile Cancelled? [IGN]

Seasons Greetings from Gran Turismo [Playstation Blog]
[Thanks, Jon]

The team at Polyphony Digital have created a video Christmas card for Gran Turismo fans, which they say celebrates "10 years of passion and enthusiasm for cars." It features the stock smooth jazz soundtrack of any Gran Turismo game, this time with a finger-snappin', mute-button reachin' cover of "Jingle Bells." The rest of it is the typical car smut, with plenty of motionless bystanders that have become a staple in GT over the past decade and a guest appearance from Santa. Good times.

"Best European Import" - Marcel Horn; 2007 Audi TT
"Best Domestic Automobile" - Gary Cheney; 2007 Factory Five GTM
"Best Hot Rod" - Jim and Mike Ring; 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback
"Best Japanese Import" - Michael Chung; 2007 Nissan 350Z
"Best Truck / SUV" - Mike DeFord; 2007 Dodge Ram

1UP's report of the Famitsu interview also gives us a hazy vision of what that mysterious PlayStation Home integration would be like, indicating that a "Gran Turismo World" game space will be included, giving players the ability to switch from Home to GT5 Prologue and vice-versa.

No mention of hovercar support, Yamauchi? No sale!

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Online Details [1UP]

The official Japanese site for the game is now up, loaded with new screenshots and a new film of the game in motion. The brief video, in 720p, shows off the game's improved lighting effects and physics model but reveals little in the way of radical new features.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue does sport unspecified interactivity with PlayStation Home, a feature we hope to learn more about at Tokyo Game Show.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Official Japanese Site [Playstation.com]

Please note that the above photo of Kaz is clearly staged, as his office was uncontested as the messiest at Polyphony when we visited them in September. The man may be powerful, but he's a pig! Michael McWhertor

Gran Turismo Creator Makes Motor Trend List [IGN]

Japan gets the freely downloadable Gran Turismo HD concept demo on Christmas Eve and here's what they'll be getting: one course, in the form of Eiger Nordwand, and ten cars. Here's the roster:

• Suzuki Cappuccino '95
• Mazda Eunos Roadster '89
• Honda Integra Type R '04
• Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV GSR '96
• Infinity G35 Coupe
• Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX GSR '05
• Lotus Elise 111R '04
• Nissan Sky Liner GT-R V Spec II '94
• Toyota Celica GT-FOUR Rally Car '95
• Ferrari 599 '06

At free, there really isn't room to complain, especially when the team will now be focusing on a proper Gran Turismo PlayStation 3 sequel.

Also, according to IGN, we can expect an announcement on Gran Turismo 5 before the end of October 2007. Polyphony Digital must get some perverse thrill from making us wait and wait and wait...Michael McWhertor

Gran Turismo Demo Details [IGN]

To be honest, I'm not the best person to ask about Gran Turismo. Even though I've been to Polyphony Digital, played Gran Turismo HD for hours, and like shiny, pretty things... this game just isn't for me. It's like work. And I already have a job. This latest batch of screens... I don't know. What do you guys think? Some of those cars look fugly. Some look great. I'm so conflicted! Michael McWhertor

Gran Turismo HD Screen Update

Make the jump for pics of the tour.

That's Kazunori Yamauchi's office and it's a freaking mess. No one would accuse the rest of the staff of being tidy, but Kaz is clearly the worst.

Here's the design review space. Can you find the Xbox 360 in this photo?

After passing the server room (where the wine was stored)...

...we were shown to the "relaxation room" where staff can unchain themselves from their desks to read from the library of thousands of car magazines and books, or go lower brow with the collection of hundreds of PlayStation 2 and PSP titles. The room also features "Japan's best massage chair", an electric drum set, electric guitar and a massive keyboard for office jamming, as well as...

...tons of lighters. The staff likes to smoke. A LOT. There are ashtrays everywhere.

We were also shown the "hotel rooms", where those pulling a literal all-nighter can catch a few winks. We were there on a Saturday and at least a dozen members of the staff were working that afternoon. Working on what? Modeling cars of course.

Kaz later explained that the modeling process can take up to three months to perfect a car. Despite the long hours and bouts tedium, the staff actually was still capable of smiling.

Then we continued on to the staff area. Normally cubicles aren't that interesting, but this is the home of Gran Turismo.

Where they really really really REALLY like cars.

And they have a lot of PlayStation 3 reference tools. The office was littered with what seemed like hundreds of machines from PS2's to high end Dell computers to Vaio laptops to PS2 TOOLs.

Of course, they need monitors to see all this stuff in action.

After the tour, we were invited to play Gran Turismo HD on the PS3 Test boxes and try out the Subaru developed Gran Turismo cockpit.

So we did.

After all the buttering up—the gorging on snacks, the game playing—we were led into the conference room to hear what Kaz had to say about what the future held for Gran Turismo. You can check out our wrap up below. Michael McWhertor

Liveblogging The Gran Turismo HD Press Event

We've just sat down with Kazunori Yamauchi in a room with about 40 or so press types to get an inside look at the upcoming PlayStation 3 title, Gran Turismo HD. After walking through the studio, checking out the relaxation room, the dorm rooms, the weekend staff plugging away at car models, we've been brought into the conference room to see what GT:HD is all about.

Kazunori's going on about the suite of online features: online garage, head to head racing, drift contests, team and club builders, voice chat. It's a lot to shoot for. They admit that not all of this stuff might not be available day one, but expect it to come "soon".

Kaz is pushing the user creation features of GT:HD. Talking about the differences betweek GT:HD Premium and GT:HD Classic. "Over the years we:ve collected massive assets and we've rebuilt those assets in HD".

Why can:t you combine the assets, the features of Classic and Premium and put them into the same game? They did a quick simulation based on that request. Basically, it's a factor of time and that that would take upwards of three years.

"We've finally reached the stage where the car modeling is up to speed with the power of the PS3." He's talking about the features of GT:HD Premium which is the GT5 sneak preview with "full PS3 spec qualities".

"Due to the fact that this is an online game, there will be regular system updates of new content, cars, tracks, what have you."

Now we're talking about the Classic version. "Its very important to have assets to support the online depth we have".

GT:HD Classic content will feature 770 cars, 51 tracks, 4500 items - all downloadable.

We hope to add car parts, visual parts, things people can download to make modifications. This is being shown on the screen with the shop front image on the network platform. "We can't go public in saying this, but this is the GT version of iTunes." They haven't yet decided on pricing for any of these items.

"Gran Turismo HD is the bridge to GT5, there would be no GT5 without this game."

Kaz talks about how they want to make items in the game as desirable, more like enviable, and that not every item or car will be available to every person. You have to be able to "afford" it. He wants to create that ownership lust that exists in the offline world.

Jean asks if we'll be able to resell rare items to other users. If we'll be able to command an inflated price. "Technically, anything is possible".

GT:HD is also designed to be more casual, more accessible. It's intended for smaller bites, gaming sessions of 30 minutes. Kaz thinks that there will always be a market for the hardcore GT player, but this is the focus for now.

Someone asks about PSP integration. Will we be able to buy things via GT:HD and use items on the PSP? Kaz says thats an "interesting question" and that we should talk about it later.

After we get the PS3 version up and running, then we'll go back to the PSP version. He hints that that level of interaction asked about just now between GT:HD and the PSP version was very accurate.

We're taking the example of the beta test we tried months ago, that there is a range of drivers that are just average and super good. We've come to a stage where we need to categorize the physics models to best suit their driving skills.

Damage? "Another piece of homework that we've always forgotten to submit". The crowd laughs, but Kaz says the hope to support damage models at the start of next year.

This damage model will, in theory, affect the visuals, the physics, the drivability, the integrity of the car.

"Implementing damage, the biggest hurdle was obviously dealing with auto manufacturers. The philosophies from manufacturers is starting to gradually change. The best compromise at this point is to model damage to racing cars and not yet to consumer level cars."

Now they're talking about the improved calculation power of the PS3 and how the AI will improve.

Now, we move onto new car manufacturers, including Scott's favorite, Ferrari. He seriously just did a little giddy golf clap.

Ferrari's chief engineer has said that the GT:HD model was the best CGI model of their cars that they've ever seen.

They hope to add more cars from the Ferrari line up, including older models, but won't be including Formula 1 models.

Now, they're showing the GT:HD box art. It just happens to be Ferrari red. What a coincidence.

They plan to ship the title in Japan and Asia during winter 2006-07 and North America and Europe in 2007. We'll not hold our breath, no offense.

Now, we're moving on to some Q&A.

The crowd is asking about the length of time and difficulty involved in modeling such finely detailed cars for the next generation console. How will it affect the output of downloadable content for GT:HD Premium?

Kaz: It is problematic. The range of cars in previous version was very rich, now we may have to focus on the more popular cars that users want. We have to find the right balance. The whole team is bigger, we have more artists, but they have so much we need to do, it keeps us from developing everything.

What's the purpose of creating a GT5 if you can just download new content to GT:HD Premium?

Kaz: We sell Gran Turismo in over a hundred countries and there will be territories that have not adapted as quickly as the US and Japan to internet service. For that reason we have to have a packaged product.

Have you found any pushback from the Blu Ray engineers to have a disk that can hold all that data as opposed to having it available online for download?

Kaz: The product that we just communicated to you will start with a disk based solution, and we hope to aim for a low price point. The reason why we think of doing a disk based system and pushing 10 to 20 GB of data we need a disk and Blu Ray is the solution. In the future, that could probably change. It could end up that its cheaper to do it via download.

Your products tend to be compared to other games as more voluminous. Are you making a game anymore as opposed to an obsession?

Kaz: Precisely so. (It's an obsession)

Is there really room to improve or have you reached your goal?

Kaz: The example of the modeling, its to a point where I'm saying this is good enough. The physics and simulation aspects have room to improve. There is obviously lots of room for improvement in the online aspect.

What are you doing to make Gran Turismo fun for the casual audience? Are you looking at aspects of other games and including those in GT?

Kaz: One of the examples of our target features, there was one called Track Date, you're with your friends, with your favorite car for the weekend. You're in Leguna Seca, you're just kicking back, you're not worrying about time. You're having fun, not burning rubber.

If everything is available simply through commerce, what will be available for gamers who want to unlock content through skill?

Kaz: There is a special car that is not available via commerce. Perhaps there is an online race and the car is only available to the winner. We hope to add that kind of content. Going back to the online community, there are the players who are participating and helping us build, there are manufacturers, but naturally as the community is formed, there will always be star players. There will be some guy in LA (Scott raises his hand) who will be the best in his area (raises it further). There will be car clubs, there will be mean guys that people are afraid to race, there are many angles to this where gamers will still be motivated to be better than others.

Given your role as a hardware contributor at Sony, have you considered moving into another position? What's after Gran Turismo if it's becoming closer to your ultimate vision?

Kaz: Its true I have two hats, one as Gran Turismo creator, one as executive director, but let me ask you this, would you rather be president of Columbia Pictures or would you rather be Steven Spielberg?

We're done! Time to bug Yamauchi, play some GT and snack.

Despite boring the collective attendees of their E3 press conference with the painfully long Gran Turismo HD presentation and receiving a lukewarm response to the demo on the show floor (it was almost always available to walk up to and play), it looks like Sony is going to actually release GTHD as a commercial product. And why shouldn't they? They'll sell hundreds of thousands of copies to the license testing, car collecting masses. Plus they could really use the cash!

It actually was quite impressive to see in 1080p at 60fps, but after the Gran Turismo Vision trailer, it felt a bit like a next-gen tease.

Largely known as just a quick demo, a port of the Gran Turismo 4 data, now it appears that Kazunori Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital will be teasing PS3 owners with a true sequel to GT4 in the form of GTHD. Speaking with Gamespot, Yamauchi had this to say.

We are working on a version of GT that supports the full PS3 specification, but in this transitional version, I think you'll get a taste of the potential that next generation games hold.

Given the slow turn around time between iterations of the flagship racer, I wouldn't expect to see that "potential" for a long time. Michael McWhertor

Gran Turismo HD forerunner to new next-gen GT