When legendary GT5 Producer and Polyphony Studio head Kazunori Yamauchi is not working hard on his game, he is spending his time racing cars or doing interviews. Recently he sat down with Famitsu to discuss aspects of his game as well as the US car industry.
In the interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu, Kazunori talked a bit about the progress of GT5.
“Naturally, my attention is focused purely on Gran Turismo 5 right now. The scale of this title is just dizzying, so daily progress is slow, but it’s still going forward at a steady clip. All the basic stuff is complete, but we’re trying to give everything that little bit extra at present. We could release it any time we want, really, but I want to have that classic GT-style ‘did we really have to go this far?’ feel going. I want to go way beyond gamer expectations.”
He also chimed in with his thoughts on the US Car Industry, the decision to put the Corvette ZR-1 on the cover of Gran Turismo PSP and porting cars from the PSP version to the soon to be released PS3 version.
“The PSP version has over 800 cars included, and that number’s even higher in GT5,” he commented. “I want to get gamers in all sorts of different vehicles, from the latest models to old classics and world-class sports cars. Having the freedom to drive whatever you want is one of the main attractions of GT, after all.”
“When I think about what car to put on the cover, I have to figure out which car is considered the coolest at this exact moment in time,” he said. “The auto industry is going through a transition period right now, and it’s a dangerous time for a lot of companies. It’s a major support of the entire world economy, and the vast amount of talent and output it produces is one reason why GT is what it is. I wanted to go back to the roots with what makes a car cool, so I chose GM’s Corvette ZR-1 to try and cheer the auto industry up a little.”
“American cars are just amazing, no doubt about it. There are lots of good things about European and Japanese cars, but while most of those evolved for practical purposes, it’s like American cars were designed with the heart of a boy looking forward into the future. There’s been a lot written about them in the news, of course, but I wanted to show people that the spark hasn’t disappeared yet. If that history wound up getting snuffed out, I think that’d be terrible.”
It sounds like racing fans will have a lot to look forward to when Gran Turismo hits the PS3 worldwide in Spring of next year. As always stay tuned to PlayStation LifeStyle for all your PS3 and PSP news.
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