Gran Turismo (series)

Overview

The Gran Turismo series is developed by Polyphony Digital and produced by Kazunori Yamauchi.

The appeal of the Gran Turismo series is due significantly to pristine graphics, a large number of licensed vehicles, attention to vehicle detail, accurate driving physics emulation, and the ability to tune performance. Handling of the vehicles is modeled on real-life driving impressions, tuning is based on principles of physics, and the sound of the vehicle's engine is based on recordings of the actual vehicles. The game has been a flagship for the PlayStation console's graphics capabilities, and is often used to demonstrate the system's potential.

Although Gran Turismo has an arcade mode, most gameplay derives from its simulation mode. Players start with a certain number of credits, usually 10,000, which are used to purchase vehicles from several manufacturer-specific shops, or from used car dealers, and then tune their car at the appropriate parts store for best performance. Certain events are open only to particular types of vehicles. In order to enter and progress through more difficult races, a license-testing system has been implemented, which guides players through skill development. Players may apply prize money won in events to upgrade their existing car or buy a new one, collecting a garage of vehicles.

Since Gran Turismo 5 Prologue launched on the PlayStation 3, an online aspect of the gameplay has started to evolve. GT5 Prologue has enabled users to race online with up to 16 players on track at once. Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2 was actually the first online-enabled Gran Turismo game but the online aspect of the game did not make it past beta stage.

According to Yamauchi, the cars in the first two games were made from 300 polygons, while those in Gran Turismo 3 and 4 were made up of 4,000 polygons, and the "premium cars" in Gran Turismo 5 were made up of 500,000 ("standard cars" are slightly more detailed versions of those in Gran Turismo 4).

Game history

The Gran Turismo series is represented by six primary releases, two for the PlayStation, two for the PlayStation 2, and two for the PlayStation 3. The series is also represented by many other "abbreviated" releases on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

Official simulator kits

Polyphony Digital has collaborated with peripherals manufacturer Logitech and auto parts maker Sparco to design official driving simulator kits for the Gran Turismo franchise. The most recent product designation is Driving Force GT. Two other racing wheels are compatible with Gran Turismo.

Official model car kits

In 2009, radio-control model car company HPI Racing released an official RC car tie-in: the HPI E10 RTR Ford GT LM Race Car Spec II designed by Gran Turismo (200mm), a pre-built officially licensed radio-control car kit built to look exactly like the cover car for the Gran Turismo 4 game. Plans for future releases include releasing more kits to replicate other Gran Turismo cover cars.

Gran Turismo cafe

In 2009, a cafe opened at the Twin Ring Motegi racetrack.

Street Namings

In acknowledgment of the Mount Panorama Circuit’s inclusion in Gran Turismo 6, the City of Bathurst in Australia unveiled a new street called ‘Gran Turismo Drive’ in December 2013. Mayor of Bathurst, Cr Gary Rush said “Driving a lap of our world famous motor racing circuit is a life changing experience for those who have the chance, and the Bathurst Regional Council is very excited about opening up the Mount Panorama experience through the launch of Gran Turismo 6.”

Also in 2013, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi had a street named in honor of him in the city of Ronda. Named “Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi,” the street snakes around the Parador de Ronda. According to Ronda's city mayor Maria de la Paz Fernandez Lobato, "There is no doubt that his work has a huge cultural resonance with people today. He has driven the racing game genre to new levels of realism and his creations are as much art as technology. Ronda’s association with Gran Turismo is also a reflection that our ancient city is a modern, vibrant place to live and very much part of the 21st century.”

6th annual Gran Turismo Awards (2008)

The sixth annual Gran Turismo Awards was held at the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada. The exhibitors were given a chance to have their car featured in a future version of Gran Turismo as a drivable vehicle, with Gran Turismo creator and series producer Kazunori Yamauchi judging the five finalists to award the "Best in Show" prize.

The awards ceremony was held at The Joint, located inside the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas) and was hosted by experienced Formula D driver, Tanner Foust. Following the ceremony, Hip-hop star Ludacris and special guests Tommy Lee and Dave Navarro treated the guests to a special live performance.

The winners of the awards are as follows:

Recap of the 6th Annual Gran Turismo Awards

Gran Turismo Trophy (Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance)

Each year since 2008, Kazunori Yamauchi is invited to the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance to present the Gran Turismo Trophy – an award “to support those who make efforts to preserve irreplaceable, precious automotive culture for future generations to come”. The winners are featured in Gran Turismo series.

The winners of the awards are as follows:

Sponsorship

The series has been involved in sponsoring various real-life sporting events and teams, including the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb as of November 2014, D1GP since the 2008 season, the 2004 Race of Champions, the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight at Circuit de la Sarthe until 2012, and racing teams such as Prost Grand Prix, Pescarolo Sport, Audi/Oreca, Peugeot, Abt Sportsline, Signatech-Nissan, Audi A4 DTM, Vita4One-BMW Z4, Aston Martin Rapide S and Sébastien Loeb.

GT Academy

The GT Academy is a driver discovery/development program initiated in 2008 through a partnership between Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Polyphony Digital Inc., and Nissan Europe.

Online qualifiers are held within Gran Turismo, and the top qualifiers are invited to National Finals in each participating country. The top winners of each country are sent to a Race Camp held at Silverstone, UK for the final selection. The winner undergoes an intensive Driver Development Programme designed by Nissan which will train and license them into a professional driver, competing in races worldwide.[2][3] The 4 winning drivers will then automatically join the Nismo Global Driver Exchange and go on to race in the following years' Dubai 24 Hour.

Winners of the Gran Turismo Academy include Lucas Ordóñez, Jordan Tresson, Saiful Alam and Jann Mardenborough, who have all gone on to compete in professional real-life racing.

Reception

The Gran Turismo video game series has been one of the most popular over its lifetime, appealing to an audience ranging from casual gamers to fans of realistic PC racing sims.

Because of the success of the Gran Turismo series, Guinness World Records awarded the series 7 world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. These records include "Largest Number of Cars in a Racing game", "Highest Selling PlayStation Game", "Oldest Car in a Racing Game", and "Largest Instruction Guide for a Racing Game".

With a collective sales total of 72.6 million units sold, it is the highest-selling PlayStation exclusive franchise of all time.

In the final issue of the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, Gran Turismo 2 was chosen as the 5th best game of all time. Edge magazine said the first game was one of the 10 greatest videogames of the last 20 years.

In 2005, Maeda Corporation, in association with Tokyo University of Science, researched the feasibility of making a real-life replica version of the fictional Grand Valley Speedway used in the series.

Film

Sony is developing a live action Gran Turismo film with Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti from The Social Network producing the film, along with Josh Bratman, Elizabeth Contillon and Devon Franklin. DeLuna will oversee the film with Matt Millan and Joseph Kosinski will co-write the film with Alex Tse and is in talks to direct the film. Jon and Erich Hoeber will write the film.

At the Jalopnik Film Festival, Kazunori announced a documentary film covering the past 15 years of the game series to now for himself, entitled KAZ: Pushing The Virtual Divide. It was released on January 22, 2014 on Hulu.