A Chat with Kazunori Yamauchi, Creator of Gran Turismo

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With a November 2nd release date now on the horizon for Gran Turismo 5, our dashing European counterpart James Gallagher sat down with Polyphony Digital‘s Kazunori Yamauchi yesterday.

Take it away, James!

While the new Gran Turismo 5 trailer at the SCEA E3 press conference was still fresh in the mind, a select few journalists were invited to a behind closed doors presentation from the father of GT, Kazunori Yamauchi, at the Los Angeles Conference Centre.

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We were shown the Lounge feature, which gives every player a dedicated area to host their car collection and results, and the online lobbies where you and a group of friends can race, perform test laps, chat and watch other people driving. The floor then opened for questions with my favourite being when someone asked if Kazunori had visited every location used in the game.

“I have to be moved by something in one of my games so I have visited every location used in the game, either personally or for work” he replied.

When the room was clear he sat down with just me to answer a few more questions, starting with what he was trying to put across with the new trailer.

“I think first and foremost it’s the quality of the visuals and that cool style that Gran Turismo is known for. There was also a part showing some of work we have been doing with the Red Bull racing team. We wanted to show people that we are communicating with the real [racing] world on a lot of different things.”

I then asked how much community feedback had shaped the game’s development.

“The Gran Turismo community gives us a great deal of courage and we have already had a lot of positive feedback from them on our new trailer. That gives our staff the drive to keep getting better.

The playable build here at E3 is designed to show people as many of the game’s features as possible in a short space of time. It’s made so that you can see the tracks, the new physics and some of the new visual effects that we’ve been working hard on. The tracks include Rome, Madrid and the Top Gear Test Track, which many of our fans have been asking for.”

We then moved onto stereoscopic 3D, which Gran Turismo 5 will support, it was announced on Tuesday. I wanted to know at which point in the game’s development he had decided to include the feature.

“The 3D feature was almost complete two years ago, actually. We could see that it was in that natural flow of technology and where things were heading. Discussions with Sony regarding 3D technology began more than three years ago. More recently we have spoken with Evolution Studios, who have put a lot of work into stereoscopic 3D, about things like video formats.

Because Gran Turismo 5 is built to run at 60 frames per second it was easy for us to implement 3D. It’s quite difficult to convert a game that runs at 30 frames per second to 3D.”

There ended our short conversation and we parted ways. As always when I meet Kazunori, I left wondering which car he drove back to the hotel.

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91 Comments

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  • My music goes great with this game.

  • Would love to know the song that was in the E3 trailer!

  • Kazunori — you get props for life.

    12

  • Cheers! Can’t wait for this one!

  • i know understand why Motorstorm Apocalypse in 3D looks spectacular!!! dont get me wrong GT5 and Killzone 3 look great too but the 3 demo that impressed me the most at E3 was Motorstorm Apocalypse , anyways cant wait to play GT5 , i bought my driving wheel already , november 2nd cant come soon enough

  • There are 2 questions that are insanely important to me does anyone know where we can ask them?

  • How many maps will there actually be? I mean if they have spent all their time on 1000 cars, it doesn’t’ amount to anything if you only have a handful of tracks to use them on…

    • More than 40 tracks with over 100 layouts (including all versions of Nurburgring – which nobody’s ever done before). That enough for you? :)

  • Wait, wait, wait– that “Top Gear” tbing in the middle was REAL!? (In the gaming sense) I thought they’d just spliced in some footage from a show or something… HOLY SH–!

  • Wow finally the game is coming in November, Gran Turismo is the best Simulator for racing fans. Is there going to be a GT5 Racing Wheel with Speed Shifter?

  • this game blows my mind u sir are a legend i wanna hit the fast forward button to November 1 question tho pleaseeee tell me the name of the song in the e3 trailer i need it. :)

  • all this GT5 stuff is making me want to play Motor Toon Grand Prix . is that on psn? i was never any good at any gt game though

  • So it’s all over the Internet that 800 of the cars are upscaled PS2 quality and will not have cockpit view. No cockpit view! What were they thinking? It’s industry standard these days. This is the problem when there is no community manager, which PD should have had from day one.

    Epic fail Kaz.

  • Blog is still busted Jeff. Site still won’t load past the embeded video in the Video Content post.

  • jeff please get me the song name :)

  • In Photo to explain what I mean:

    h.ttp://i50.tinypic.com/259y7nm.jpg

  • I played the demo at E3 ^_^ too fun!

  • Are there any plans for DLC? I know KY and team sure could use a break… but ya know after that. At this point I do not even think we need a GT6 until the PS4. If GT5 continued to grow with this level of graphics and features I think all fans would be quite satisfied.

  • standard cars.. clear up if there is cockpit view in-game.. simple question.. I’m hoping for simple reply.. ;) thank you

  • Hmm… 40 tracks… I was hoping for more actually. So long at least 16 or so of those are off-road then I will definitely be satisfied. While off-road may not be a key feature of GT, it has always be the most satisfying experience of them all to me.

  • ..oh and in the official gt site there’s 20 tracks.. and 70 layouts.. don’t confuse people just more than already is

    (confirm the absence of cockpit view for standard cars please)

  • I just wish PD hadn’t gone with such a strange decision to have 200 “premium” high quality cars and 800 “standard” cars upscaled from GT4. I can’t wait to play GT5 but I’d love for someone to ask him why this decision was made. I’ve never seen a racing game with such a difference in quality of cars in game.

  • hopefully damage will be fixed so if we crash every car in the game it will look and feel like a real life car crash

  • a think that i liked about GT3 is that a bunch of my friends would come over with their memory cards and we would go 1 on 1 my cars against theirs. will there be a feature to help make that possible?

  • Also on the DLC note it would be GREAT if PD could get community feedback on what DLC to include. Since the active community are the people that are most likely to buy the DLC. You could put a poles up on the PS Blog or send out questionnaires to the people who sign up for the GT mailing list.

  • this question is about tuning, what made GT awesome for me is tuning up my car piece by piece and with prologue they got rid of all that. is it coming back for the full version? u have no idea all that i have learned about cars because of this.

  • oh one last question, will there be F1 racing? I haven’t seen any F1 cars, that will be disappointing.

  • My question is very simple. Could you confirm all the Standard cars have the cockpit visual ?
    I can accept to see old structure or model in GT5, but it’s very important to see the wheel !

  • errata corrige: “steering wheel”

  • Jeff, did you personally see Standard cars?

    Is it possible for drivers to use a dashboard view of any sort? There is so much confusion, here among GT’s fans and in the media, that no-one knows the real answer.

    If a Standard car has a dashboard view while driving, please post a picture.

  • Will there be some “Endurance Racing” functions for teams to swap drivers online?

    Also, would Kaz like to come run an enduro with us, using just Prologue?

    http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/Gran-Turismo-Series/Daytona-500-The-Return-of-Endurance-Racing/m-p/45695925#U45695925

  • I am so happy
    :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

  • yeah, i’m with comments 18 and 28. somebody needs to clear up that potential issue. it’s not a big deal to me but it is to sony detractors, xbots, and flopza fanboys. they were running out of ammo when PD showed reserve lights in e3. but now, they have this to bash and whine about.

    i know there will be interior view for all cars in gt5 just like i knew that the lakers will win the finals. but an official answer now would be nice.

  • Can’t wait for GT5! :P But im not to bothered about any 3D&MOVE stuff really.

  • Where can I find the list of the tracks that are already confirmed to be in the game?

    If anyone could give me this info I’d really appreciate it :)

  • “online lobbies where you and a group of friends can race, perform test laps, chat and watch other people driving.”

    I understand the above statement but more specifically will there be in game communication between participants during an actual race and will race contestants hear what spectators are saying in the lobby? Also, is there a limit of players allowed in a private lobby at one time?

    Thanks
    FLF

  • Please inform Polyphony Digital of this awesome possibility of having an actual community manager whose existence would stop all the desinformation, FUD and wrong translations that have plagued this game since its genesis.

  • @34 Andrefpvs, for the most detailed, current and quick updates on GT5, head on over to gtplanet dot net – those guys are true fans who report and dissect *everything* about the game in minutes, not days later and incomplete.

  • We have our own revealed track list, so there is no need to look elsewhere. ;^)

    http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/Gran-Turismo-Series/GT5-List-of-Revealed-Cars/td-p/44303964

    Every GT fan should follow our GT forum and get some great racing, too!

  • I’ll be counting the days, and looking for the power supply to my logitech GT wheel lol. Anyone know where I can find a replacement?

  • @#40 DarthLee

    Hey I know, why not try Logitech Customer Service? 1-800-231-7717

  • I am no fan of racing titles to be sure, admitedly because of my lack of skill in the gnere.

    But this game, wow. IF it can even still be called a GAME. With its level of detail, crafting, and realistic qualities.

    I belive it may get me into racing, And that sirs (and mamms) is the highest compliment I can bestow upon you as the Developers and creators of this game…Bravo, Bravo.

  • C’mon Mr. Rubenstein, you’re not being a very sociable Social Media Manager. WE NEED DETAILS!

  • Mr. Yamauchi, can you please give people the option to use the third-person chase camera from GT1-GT3? Many of us greatly dislike the perspective used in GT4/GT5P and we would really like using the older viewpoint.

    Thank you very much,
    Luke (mclaren777)

  • Never brought a GT game before. Don’t know if i’ll get this one.

  • will we be able to paint and decal our cars or are we stuck yet again with no paint shop????

  • Hey, Jeff, I have two questions I’d like clarification on please:

    1. You said above “More than 40 tracks with over 100 layouts (including all versions of Nurburgring – which nobody’s ever done before). That enough for you? :)” Well… the official site sayd 20 “locations” (as distinct from your word “tracks”) and 70 layouts. Which is it and is there a distinction between locations & tracks?

    2. We know that the premium cars will have fully-detailed lifelike interiors. Nothing’s been said about the standard cars. Will they have interiors, just ones that aren’t as painstakingly recreated to be true-to-life like the premium ones, or is there no way at all to drive from a cockpit view in the standard cars?

  • I was so happay to know the release date which as same as my birthday Nov 2nd :)

  • Some interviewer really needs to try and clear up this cockpit controversy.

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