Gran Turismo is "Taking on New Challenges", says Kazunori Yamauchi

[Maddens Raiders]

Gran Turismo forever

 

[mef]

I for one, like the VGT dimension because it ventures into design. But I am utterly disappointed that Kaz is unable to discuss this monumental cornerstone in motorsport with any substance and credibility.

I’m not against people enjoying VGTs at all, to each their own.

What annoys me is the same you mentioned above. Talking up VGTs in vague language.

Let’s look at some facts, VGTs are virtual cars, not actual concept cars that are built physically, shown at motor shows etc. There are no production models that follow a VGT.

And Kaz May not want to admit it but I’m pretty sure real design processes have very little to do with putting a car model in a video game.

So where is the value for anybody beyond brand awareness? To see a marketing ploy here is not cynical but based on the actual numbers in play.

GT is the biggest car game on the planet. And I the early years none of the famous car companies like Porsche or Ferrari could be othered to have cars in the game. Fast forward 20 years and now they are all talking about their shared effort etc

Please, this is about brand reach foremost. And that is fine. I just wished Kaz wouldn’t take me for a fool.

 

[boostdmarkii]

You don't mention that while you are still selling the current game. And you do not mention the length of support for that game either, especially when it is connected to the support for its content. Buy GT7, because our new game will be out in 2 years time!

For me, the slow down of additional content each month, even compared to GT Sport, is an indication that they are working on the next game. Whether that will be on the PS5 or Sony's next console is anyone's guess. I personally think the next game only being on the PS5 would be a very hard sell. Without an increase in the technology of what a new console brings, what would they next GT offer over GT7 with the same technology running it. Seemingly gone are the days of significant software improvements during the lifetime of a console. Is the PS5 offering a massive difference to most GT players than GT7 on PS4!

You can't really compare the last 3 months or so to the rest when it comes to updates.. They may have released less to save more for the spec II release which they act like is 3-6 months of content but it only takes a few hours of gameplay smh

 

[Yard_Sale]

Idk dudes…


I think history will look back on Gran Turismo 7 as one of the most important car games in the now post-modern car game era that we’re entering. For everything that PD has got wrong with this iteration, they’ve gotten waaaaaaay more right. When you take 2 steps back and look at all this game has to offer in its entirety, there really is nothing like it.


Besides, we’re not even 2 years into the game’s life cycle yet. IIRC, the Lewis Hamilton DLC dropped right around the 2 year mark in GTS. I fully expect PD/Sony to do the same thing, and my expectation is that it would be heavily PS5-focused. I honestly do think the best of GT7 is yet to come.

 

[newmedia_dev]

That's a fair summary Yard Sale.

I think for me, when you strip all the glossy graphics away and ignore the mostly useless (not to say they aren't good or defining) cars. We have seen this all before.

Previous games have introduced some of these features and in their own right could be argued to have had a more defining impact than GT7 has had.

I'm not a nay sayer as I really enjoy with a passion all of the GT games I do feel that 7 was a missed opportunity to innovate again on the experience rather than just as a technical exercise in some regards.

 

[Techlet]

Besides, we’re not even 2 years into the game’s life cycle yet. IIRC, the Lewis Hamilton DLC dropped right around the 2 year mark in GTS. I fully expect PD/Sony to do the same thing, and my expectation is that it would be heavily PS5-focused. I honestly do think the best of GT7 is yet to come.

I really hope PD's idea of "big update" isn't just another set of time trials.

 

[Ande3200]

That is what everyone said after GT Sport, and look what we have! And they don't seem to know, or are interested in, how they have ****** this up. Giving them a pass on this game could really impact on them in the future. They could easily fix a lot of the problems now, but they either don't see problems, and if they do, they have chosen to do very little about them.

Sophy being ready or not has nothing to do with the basic design of the game. It is not too late to fix it, but if they wait how many years till the next game, I for one will be way past caring. If they don't see the problems now, in all likelihood that next game would be the same, or make even worse, because eh, they sold x million games.

I think you are wrong here, sophy is proably one of the reasons why pd still has not bothered much with single player, i can easily see sophy as full feature in next game With maybe the return of gt league with qualifying in the the races, if you dont care thats on you, but then why bringing it up that dosen’t make any sense, gt7 has some flaws, mainly single player, economy, but pontential has never been better in the franshise,

 

[brockie]

I’m one of those, only online racers, gained the platinum on the game but I don’t do single player generally. I’ll take a bit qualifying and the 1230 race each day on my lunch, it’s about all I have time for these days! The odd weekend when the kids are out. It completely suits my needs and I enjoy the hell out of it

 

[ScottPuss20]

Here's a challenge: make a penalty system that's consistent and give us new cars each week. Also give people the freedom to do the career events in whatever order they like. The menu books are pointless and only serve to get in the way of the experience. Pun intended.

 

[Flagmo-T]

i don't think it's that big of a deal with 25 years in the making.

It's Mostly talk in my opinion.

GT7 is still standard GT. My god they can talk, and now with so many potential games running.

But sadly GT7 is the only Race VR title on ps5. What the F is up with that. Secrets. Secrets.

Sony Playstation is lacking behind, meta quest 3 is getting the interesting exclusive deals like EA-WRC and probably EA-F1 ( it will come )


A hard miss for me in GT7 is
Team/friends not being able to share Car setups within the game ?

There should be a setup/tune download from friends/team members/community, in the game.
I don't get it, because that is so obvious to me to get the best experience even if you're not able to create your own tune/setup.
A perfect setup makes the car. A ****** setup makes ****** cars end of story. Setup/tune area within the game please - how hard can it be.

Last thing is. Where's is my Nissan Blitz, Citroen 2cv, and not to forget the Micro 3/4 wheelers cars from the 50s and 60s. It's a whole era of the Car industry that is skipped in this historical Car show game.

Ohh well it's going to be great someday, maybe it will be at it's 30 year anniversary because we know polyfony is sloooow development.

 

[Deni323]

The biggest advantage for GT is that it doesn't really have any rival at the moment at least on PS.

As 'the only one' they can do and be whatever they want and people who love cars don't really have choice but to play it as it is the best at the moment. But that could change very soon with the release of AC2 on PS next year.

If we would have Forza, AC, Project cars(rip), GT and one more new on PS battling for sales and active players things would be very different as you would be forced to deliver what players want or the'll go elsewhere.

I have very big hopes with Sophy tho. I think that when fully developed and implemented in career mode could be a game changer. Basically career similar to gt4 with Sophy AI and GT7 graphic sounds etc. that would be THE Gran Turismo.

 

[R3V]

✅VR in all modes
✅Sophie
❌Sophie at all tracks
❌More tracks
❌More cars


No need to overcomplicate it.

 

[Lomic]

The next challenge for GT is to finish transforming its business model, from a video game relying on players buying copies of its game iterations, to a franchise selling image and partnering with luxury brands

 

[StPeterMartyr]

Should PD buy this site, Kaz would rename it gtblahnet for sure.

 

[pornomazinger]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo is “Taking on New Challenges”, says Kazunori Yamauchi​

The Gran Turismo franchise has changed a lot over the past 25 years. From breaking ground as a “the real driving simulator” with realistic cars and driving physics to growing into an esports platform, the series has come to attract a wide range of people for many different reasons...

I think I'm taking 'new' challenges too...😒

 

[suomi1]

His new challenge is to replace you with new players who will accept anything and everything with a smile.

It's been a long birthday. By the way I'm 35yo and still celebrating my 25th birthday, the cake is a little dry and green but it's ok...

 

[Akwaaba]

I find it pretty strange Kaz thinks of VGT as a noteworthy achievement for the franchise to mention in the larger context of the franchise.

I used to like the direction he provided for gran turismo but comments like this make me cringe. Maybe he’s more marketeer now than racer.

Because, from the perspective of Kaz and PD, it is a noteworthy achievement. They've got around 40 brands to design cars specifically for a game, and then some of these brands have arranged to produce full scale models for display. Has any other game made this happen, in any genre of gaming? - I've no idea if anyone else has!

However, for the players, VGT will have a negligible impact. But, if the goal is to increase visibility among major brands, then it is probably successful. If the goal was to improve the experience for players, then my guess is that the goal has failed miserably.

 

[Lomic]

if the goal is to increase visibility among major brands, then it is probably successful

And what is the purpose of reaching this goal ?

 

[redhed17]

I think you are wrong here, sophy is proably one of the reasons why pd still has not bothered much with single player,

The things wrong with the single player game is not only the AI in the game, they are things that could be fixed by a redesign of the game, and content added, and by that I mean challenges rather than cars and tracks, which are always welcome of course.

i can easily see sophy as full feature in next game With maybe the return of gt league with qualifying in the the races, if you dont care thats on you, but then why bringing it up that dosen’t make any sense,

Great that you think Sophy may be the answer to a lot of the ills of the game, I don't. I want this game improved, at the moment I don't care about the next game, however many years away that is. This was supposed to be the return to a 'proper' GT game, and it has not been. Imho. You may think differently. And that's fine.

gt7 has some flaws, mainly single player, economy, but pontential has never been better in the franshise,

Some flaws is an understatement imho. This is the 7th version of the game, and it shouldn't be a game talking about potential. They have messed up the basic core of the game.

You can't really compare the last 3 months or so to the rest when it comes to updates.. They may have released less to save more for the spec II release which they act like is 3-6 months of content but it only takes a few hours of gameplay smh

There seemed to be a lot more content released for GT Sport, and maybe that was because of the perceived lack of content and backlash from the players, but for me the extra content so far has been mostly disappointing. I hope they keep bringing extra content, and that can transform the game. We'll see.

 

[MasterGT]

For such a major title that has historically a large amount of IP, they sure don't make a lot of the traditional content available now.

They are bold enough to create a reimagined version of their own IP, i.e. Grand Valley, but they don't include an updated version of their original layout, let alone all of their older, traditional tracks. At least I got Mid-field added, once, way back in 6, but where are Tokyo, Apricot Hill, Autumn Hill, Rome, even Motegi?

They have exclusive rights to all of their SEMA GT Award cars, but where are they now?

They had useful links from the real world to the virtual world, their Data Logger, which they seem to have abandoned.

They could do all of this, and much more.

 

[Ande3200]

The things wrong with the single player game is not only the AI in the game, they are things that could be fixed by a redesign of the game, and content added, and by that I mean challenges rather than cars and tracks, which are always welcome of course.

Great that you think Sophy may be the answer to a lot of the ills of the game, I don't. I want this game improved, at the moment I don't care about the next game, however many years away that is. This was supposed to be the return to a 'proper' GT game, and it has not been. Imho. You may think differently. And that's fine.

Some flaws is an understatement imho. This is the 7th version of the game, and it shouldn't be a game talking about potential. They have messed up the basic core of the game.

There seemed to be a lot more content released for GT Sport, and maybe that was because of the perceived lack of content and backlash from the players, but for me the extra content so far has been mostly disappointing. I hope they keep bringing extra content, and that can transform the game. We'll see.

I never claimed gt7 was perfect or it was what we all thought it would be,
The pontential has never been better in a gt game pd just have not take full advantage of it, the pontential was not really there with earlier titles becouse they didin’t really have as good sounds, as good graphics, or as good dynamic wheather system, including full vr support, upgrades part have effect on how the cars sounds and in some cases looks in gt7 to just name a few things,
As its core its not really a bad game,
They just made some wrong design choises in some areas the biggest ones is for the single player and overall game economy,
The updates has been slow but the game is much better now than on release, is it enough no,

I don’t think pd would spend this much amount of time with sophy ai if they are not going to take advantage of it in the future just think about it for 1 sec, i said it might but none really knows the truth and we never know either, but pd might not be intrested to put any effort into single player with how bad the standard ai is,
This makes a lot more sense than you think,

 

[Auditore]

Taking on new challenges such as becoming a legitimate advertising platform for luxury brands.

I mean,they already were a advertising platform for car brands 20 years ago...

 

[Lomic]

I mean,they already were a advertising platform for car brands 20 years ago...

Which was closer to car lovers wanting a game where you drive cool cars, than those Bulgari and Dior partnerships which 99.99% of player do not care about.

 

[matrix_gt1]

yahh, so true... and this comment from the article ""with complaints of both a shallow singler-player mode from one group of players,"" is insulting! Players have a right to complain about the shallow SP mode and demand more given that the (dishonest) pre launch marketing heralded GT7 as a "return to roots Gran Turismo" - that had old skoolers so excited... What a lie!

How is it insulting? No where is it worded as "unjustified" criticism. its just stating facts.

I cant say I know how the process of making and maintaining GT7 is done, and people should be encouraged to through criticism polyphony's way. However, considering 99.9% of us are not flies on the wall and can only ever wish to be... I would hope many of us would refrain from personally attacking Kaz and his crew for apparently not caring about fans and now not caring about making games. I get it can look that way from a certain perspective, but making games has be very difficult, otherwise GT would have competition pass it long ago, but they have not.

 

[BangsMcCoy]

A properly functioning split screen mode isn’t a new challenge in gaming.
A halfway decently balanced economy where the majority of the players can feel they’re making fair progress for their time spent isn’t a new challenge.
Allowing people to put carbon fiber on select parts isn’t a new challenge.

I could go on, but the point has been made. Maybe it’s time to start fixing issues that have existed since launch rather than creating self imposed new challenges and “experimenting”? Give people a finished product before offering more experimental stuff.

It’s ok to work on that stuff in the background, in fact its necessary, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect universally expected, fundamental parts of a game in order to do so.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The limits and framework most of the non Gr cars have is that they have bee designed to fit a niche in the market, and have been designed to 'compete' in the real world market against each other, and so a similar in design, power, weight and performance so that they can be used to race against each other. Some the VGT cars have nothing close in terms of power and performance.

Some don't, but we're talking about a small number of them, and they don't need to race against each other provided there's other cars in the game for them to race against, which mostly there are - but this isn't really any different to the non-VGT car selection.

One of the things that really p's me off is when they bring a new car, or should I say vehicle, is that they bring one version of that type of vehicle, and least bring two for some variety and racing opportunity's. If you bring an ambulance, bring at least two different option. Try something different, but two or more matched options.

I don't disagree with this sentiment, but if we're accepting that car additions are finite, then making two of each class will halve the variety coming to the game. It's personal preference, but I'd rather have the variety than not have something representative of some manufacturer, class, series, culture or fandom. I completely understand why people would want the opposite, in an ideal world we'd have more of both.

My argument against the VGT is not that they are blocking another type of car from being introduced, which they obviously are, as they have said they are limited by how many new cars they can produce, no, it is that they are too different to each other.

Regarding the bolded bit, again, this isn't something specific to the VGT's, it's true of every car in the game. Regards them being too different to each other, why do all VGT's have to be the same? A Valkyrie is nothing like a DB3S, a Super Formula car is nothing like a Willy's Jeep.

Something similar to the proposed Hypercar and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) Championship, where numerous aspects of the design for the new class would be kept open, with a free engine architecture and the freedom to run any number of cylinders with the choice of a Turbo Charged or Naturally Aspirated engine. Hybrid system are allowed. But there are some fixed design elements for weigh and size. Some cars are based of road legal hyper car designs. The cars I saw that were potentially competing in that were varied, but designed to race each other. And that should at least be the point for cars in a racing game.

Again, I don't mind this as a concept, but it's not what VGT is... that's more like the PD developed Gr.3 & 4 cars (which still see people whinging). VGT is more about designers being giving the freedom to express themselves without some of the constraints they have with production cars, and different manufacturers have used that opportunity different ways.

 

[redhed17]

How is it insulting? No where is it worded as "unjustified" criticism. its just stating facts.

I cant say I know how the process of making and maintaining GT7 is done, and people should be encouraged to through criticism polyphony's way. However, considering 99.9% of us are not flies on the wall and can only ever wish to be... I would hope many of us would refrain from personally attacking Kaz and his crew for apparently not caring about fans and now not caring about making games. I get it can look that way from a certain perspective, but making games has be very difficult, otherwise GT would have competition pass it long ago, but they have not.

If someone, or a company, is told many times, from many people, that there are multiple things wrong with their product, and they do little, but more often nothing, about the majority of the problems (for many years) they have been informed about, unless you are told why they can't fix the problems, or why they decided to make those decisions, you can only surmise that they may not care.

Yes, PD are very bad at communication, but if problems are not acknowledged, it gives no confidence that something will be fixed or changed. Although even worse is when things are acknowledged, but when very little changes makes it even worse. So what conclusion are you supposed to come to! They don't listen and they don't care.

Making games is difficult, but when something has worked before, and you change things in subsequent games to make things worse, there is little research needed to see what worked, and how things can be made better. If someone does not do that, again, what are people supposed to think.

 

[Lomic]

but making games has be very difficult, otherwise GT would have competition pass it long ago, but they have not.

what is the most difficult to nail ? fleshing the single player with decent amount and variety of events ? Setting a decent economy so players don't have to lose their souls in order to obtain credits ?

or building an amazing graphic engine and a game incredible to drive ?

because IMHO they succeeded to do the 2 last points and I can't comprehend how they failed the 2 first ones

 

[sswishbone]

Franchises which lost their way and "returned to their roots" include Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, DOOM, Mortal Kombat, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater... GT could learn a lot from these franchises.

The single player with something between GT4's race marathons and Need for Speed Underground/Midnight Club region unlocking would be a relatively simple fix.

 

[BraLoD]

I'm having a blast with GT7, as I also did with GT6.