Kazunori Yamauchi on Gran Turismo Fan Expectations, SUVs, Expensive Wheels, Tourist Trophy, and More

[STINGer71]

Man lives in his own world and I'm affraid that is not good for the series. He is talking about SUV's, meawhile all comptetitions are in old racing gr4 and gr3 cars from the last game. BoP is not fixed, penalty system is not fixed, online lobbies are disaster, private lobbies are worst now than day one and man is talking about future.
Well, nothing new in the dream land....

 

[Ande3200]

60 cars per year hopefully that means we get 5 cars per month at average

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

nteresting. So, is my buddy a complete yobbo for preferring to collect & modifying these old pickups/SUVs when he has record-setting Vipers in his stable?

Oh my lord!

Also man, I forgot that the 90s Tahoes also came in 2-doors, I kinda miss those.

Edit* The elitism at times is truly fascinating. I wonder if it's influenced by people's regions they're in & a lack of access to certain cars. Because in the US, I can definitely visit a Cars & Coffee and see a wide arrangement of vehicles.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised that he claimed never seeing any SUVs at a Cars & Coffee. The one I frequented back in South Maryland usually had several Ford Broncos show up. In addition to some Dodge Durango SRTs and Jeep GC Trackhawks.

OK OK those cars are cool and I totally appreciate them but a I see a lot of yobbos driving modern "performance" SUV's around my city. Sorry if it sounded like a blanket statement but a lot of delinquents, such as drug and crime bosses, drive them. At least some people, such as Adrian Portelli, has the balls to show off his Aventador SVJ. I'm not saying I'm elitist, I'm merely stating the reality.

The thing about those yobbos driving performance SUVs is that they're probably the vocal minority of people doing it, not the majority. It's the same case with any vehicle including Mustang owners or truck owners for instance. There's probably a sizable amount of people that drive these higher-end SUVs simply to enjoy them.

 

[McRae555]

If we're gonna get SUVs anyway in future updates, why dont we get vans as well? 2.0TDI baby. 🔥 At last, this game is "The Real Driving Simulator". I dont understand why some folks here would prefer prototypes or hypercars over SUVs. Most other games already have those hyper super ultra fast cars. Let the GT be different. I really miss the odd selections of the older GTs like GT4.

​

 

[JustMac]

Has Kaz forgotten about motion controls? If you want to lean into a corner on a bike, just tilt the controller and add a little bit of steering with the analog stick. Simples.

Absolutely -- a motorbike game is the single best use case of motion controls I can think of. One where he'se not a gimmick, but intrinsic to the core gameplay.

Actually on that note, GT Sport had a brilliant motion control option, I used it a lot before getting a wheel. Not even sure if GT7 has it!

 

[Johnny Caisse]

I wouldn't be annoyed by SUVs one bit in GT7 as long as there's a balance between that and other cars.

I always love to see how performing on road I can make them to be and take them to their limits!

 

[GTxForza]

Now, I want to see touring cars in it.

Also, I wish Gran Turismo 7 never had online DRM and I hope Forza Motorsport Reboot will never have online DRM because not everyone has a good internet connection.

 

[B80]

Just to add my own experience to this, some of the most fun I've had in a car was in a modified Golf MKII around Oulton Park. The car was stripped, engine tuned, suspension upgraded and had wider wheels and good tyres. Still road legal and still front wheel drive. It didn't have a huge amount of poiwer, around 200bhp I think, but I didn't own it and I couldn't say for certain. But it was ridiculously light and handled on rails until the rear stepped out slightly which you could hold, or bring back in with absoute ease.

Then you have the modern day hot hatches with mid bogglingly good LSD's that despite being a lot heavier than a car like Rosie the Golf MKII retain that ability to corner very fast and with precision.

I would go as far to say that a car enthusiast who ignores FWD cars because, well they're FWD, is a pretty limited car enthusiast.

Yes, I wouldn't rule out an FWD by any means. Off the top of my head Golf GTI's, Type R and i30N are excellent pieces of machinery, that are FWD, with LSD's and obviously built, focused enough for most enthusiasts. Or the mini that Famine mentions in post below yours. Power to weight ratio plays a big part for 'fun' factor, particularly on normal roads.

Don't get me wrong, ultimate power, amongst other things in a decent high performance car is immense, but realistically you can't really push it, close to leaving safe limit (so I'm talking within realms of not being a maniac and endangering others) on normal roads compared to 'lesser'cars, so I;ve long maintained, smaller 'nippy' cars are probably fine for most enthusiasts. My 450bhp rwd car is immense, but you can;t come close to its limits without endangering others, yourself or losing your license quickly. Particularly in wet weather/roads that prevail in the UK for close to 6 months a year. Particularly as I've received no advanced driving or racing training at any point in my life.


That said, they're a different kettle of fish to some of the mentions in this thread. Theres an element of people liking the classic GT experience of tuning a low powered Japanese/Korean car ti crazy numbers, but for most thats just at the beginning of the career, and once you gain access to Imprezza's, Evo's, Supra's and beyond, very few are interested in the low powered 'grocery cars'. PD are hardly churning out masses of cars as it is, so I'd rather they delivered modern high performance or race cars in their updates. Not some SUV, that I think has very limited appeal to most players, perhaps completing the odd race or two for ticking off the list.

Understandable. I mean, BOXY SUVs? I can see the appeal...

But then I look at these hideous creatures:

And now on top of the already existing problems of being SUVs, they pretty much lose all of their practicality with the sloped roof and let's be honest, look far uglier than before with the lines of the car just being all over the place.
And remember, lots of people buy this stuff... If they are not sheeple, what are they?

EDIT: I didn't post the Nissan Juke (F15) because I don't want to make people bleed from their eyes. Yet another car SUV/Crossover I can't explain how it was sold by the bucketloads and was horrible in every single way, and I know because I drove, repaired and cleaned thousands of these.

Oh those things are abominations, the sloped backs... and they cost serious money. I know they say its subjective, but a bit like 'fashion'/style some things are just mind boggling how people can think they look good.

Saw a new RS Q3 the other day in my works car park and just thought it looked awful... given its price. I get some people jump on the Juke, Qashqai, Sportage band wagon, but they're relatively cheap in the scheme of cars. I googled RS Q3 and they're listed as starting from £55,000. Baffled how people with that amount of money to spend would opt for something like this, given range of other options. Most of the RS range looks very good imo, presence, balance between aggression/classy etc. Raised height, but what else? Small interior. Plenty of better options for that money if you're looking at SUV's

 

[kjb]

I don't mind them bringing in SUVs as long they have some events for them to race in. But I know that will probably not happen seeing how we have quite a few cars with no events or rivals

 

[Rangeraus]

The Mounting Costs of Sim Racing​

One thing we’ve seen recently with GT is the increasingly expensive official racing wheels, with the latest Fanatec GT DD Pro for GT7 coming in at nearly $1,000 for the complete kit. It’s a trend Yamauchi doesn’t appear to like all that much.

“High-end wheels are fine, but I think we need something that is easier for everyone to pick up,” he comments.”

“Of course, I know it’s a good experience, but it’s not something everyone can afford. For example, the first [Logitech] GT Force… there were quite a few of them, because it was cheap,” he adds.

Yamauchi goes on to note the additional expense of such simulation-grade peripherals, such as cockpits to which you’d need to mount powerful direct drive devices. “It’s wrong to ask everyone to do that… I know that there is such a world of simulation, but it’s not the majority.”

He also talks about the dangers of focusing only on the narrow market segment of wealthy players. “I want many people to play… There is such a narrow but rich world, but if you focus only on it, it will end as a market.”

You can still buy and use a fairly entry-level $300 Logitech G29 in GT7... and last I checked some players were/are still qualifying for GTWS events on a G29 or a DS5 controller.

The experience is not going to be as good in-game as an official GT-branded wheel (which also have better in-game support than pretty much every other wheel on the market), but you get what you pay for.

Likewise in iRacing you can also use a G29 wheel and pedals, but you aren't going to have the same experience as someone using a $5-$6k rig with a 20Nm Simucube DD wheel and Heusinkveld pedals.

 

[OldandSlow]

This is actually to compare what people buy and if they have race variants.

Australia’s best-selling cars … as race cars

Australians purchased over one-million new vehicles in 2022, the best sales result since 2018 but still well short of the

www.speedcafe.com

Did Ford pull the plug on you guys there, or was it just the cars that they stopped selling?

I'm not an SUV guy, but I could live with this:

It's so fast, it makes you laugh. Nice and loud, too. Love the exhaust note and blower whine. A friend of mine has one. It's a riot to drive.

To each, his own.

Honda Odyssey from GT4-6 says hi.

And the Avantime I mention in the article, although that's a very awkward vehicle to actually classify as a two-door, four-seat MPV.

Who can even imagine performance Transit vans? Ludicrous!

View attachment 1221311
View attachment 1221312

Yeah, what kind of moron races those, eh?
View attachment 1221310

Or these guys at Pike's Peak

Check out the GranTurismo windshield banner:

1949 Ford F1 Sets Diesel World Record at Pikes Peak

Scott Birdsall details his diesel-world-record-breaking run at Pikes Peak.

www.motortrend.com

 

[chromatic9]

I like the Porsche Cayenne, more impressive in person though with the right wheels etc.

I get what Kaz is saying and I wouldn't mind seeing some in SUV events. The culture around these types of cars is strong, large amounts of money is spent on them and many people like the look and status of these vehicles. I'd say a lot would like to race these types of cars against each other and photograph them.

I'd include the various trims as people like the slightly stylized versions over stock. It can be a very fine line in the real world trying to sell these, one car can look the part while another of the same model or very similar can look plain.

For me I do find it fun to take a Transit van, Range Rover or similar around the Nurburgring.

 

[Michael88]

''.....old cars wont last''.

What does he mean by that? Car culture dies if you are not a fan of the vision GT cars? What?

I love racing ''modern cars'' AND ''Old'' cars. In fact ''old cars'' are often harder to master and more rewarding - the most fun I have in the game is with custom endurance races with ''old cars'', and I am sure I'm not alone with this.
And this does not have a future?

 

[RichiPuppy]

I don't mind them bringing in SUVs as long they have some events for them to race in. But I know that will probably not happen seeing how we have quite a few cars with no events or rivals

That was my take away from this, all this talk of how long it takes and how hard it is to add cars to please people, when so many people are clamoring for events that could so easily be added.

 

[Joey D]

Kaz saying SUV in the same sentence as car enthusiast confuses me. I'm not faulting SUV's (apart from the conspicuous consumption performance and high luxury models that will likely end up in the game...) but if I ever bought one, it wouldn't be because I'm a car enthusiast, which I am, it'll just be for their added practicality.

There are a number of people who buy SUVs because they're automotive enthusiasts. The off-road and overlanding communities are massive. Sure they aren't automotive enthusiasts who care about taking a corner fast or hitting 60 in under 5 seconds, but they very much enjoy their vehicles and use them. In America at least, I would say one of the biggest automotive sub-cultures are Jeeps.

t seems that Kaz has never been to cars and coffee, because I don't see any SUV's. Unless you count a Hummer as one. How can he say that car enthusiasts are buying and taking out SUV's? The only people I see driving "performance" SUV's are yobbos who aren't car enthusiasts but rather clout seekers.

I haven't been to a cars and coffee type event since last August, but at the last one I was at, the vehicle that drew the most attention by a long shot was a pristinely restored FJ60. There were all sorts of Ferraris, Lambos, and Porsches there too, but for the most part, those aren't interesting unless they're old. If you attend these events often enough, you've seen your fair share of supercars and it's the oddities or rare vehicles that draw attention.

I'm sure cars and coffee gatherings a different in different places so while you might not see SUVs there are plenty of events where people do bring them out.

And the only people I really talk to with supercars are clout chasers that have more money than they know what to do with. They buy a Ferrari because it's a status symbol instead of liking the engineering, driving feel, design, or whatever. When I do meet someone who owns a supercar and is genuinely interested in something beyond the status it brings, they're almost always driving an older or unusual supercar. There's a guy in the Detroit area that would drove a Vector W8. That dude genuinely enjoyed vehicles and wasn't chasing clout at all, however he always drew a massive crowd at shows.

 

[grandtourismo]

“if all you want is old cars that’s fine, but that will never last.”

"so here's 5 cars post 2018, enjoy!"

 

[AudiMan2011]

There are a number of people who buy SUVs because they're automotive enthusiasts. The off-road and overlanding communities are massive. Sure they aren't automotive enthusiasts who care about taking a corner fast or hitting 60 in under 5 seconds, but they very much enjoy their vehicles and use them. In America at least, I would say one of the biggest automotive sub-cultures are Jeeps.

There's a difference between serious off-roaders and the Chelsea Tractors that are driven exclusively in urban areas by soccer moms with kids named Aeshileygh and Braxxxxton. Its the later that is the most contentious point about their necessity.

 

[Joey D]

There's a difference between serious off-roaders and the Chelsea Tractors that are driven exclusively in urban areas by soccer moms with kids named Aeshileygh and Braxxxxton. Its the later that is the most contentious point about their necessity.

Yes, there's a difference, but there's also a ton of space between those two things. I'm not a serious off-roader by any means and since I got my 4Runner last year, I've gone off-road 5 or 6 times. I'm still very much an enthusiast who enjoys driving an SUV. Would my previous Volvo be more fun to drive? Sure, there's no doubt about that, but I still have fun driving my truck even if it's for different reasons.

 

[ICEYOU3]

I always felt like the Vision segments could be more varied. Maybe they can get the companies to design a few futuristic SUV concepts for the game instead of pumping out the same old silver blobs every few months.

 

[OldandSlow]

It's none of my business whether someone buys an Escalade or a Prius, their reasons notwithstanding. I don't care what someone buys, it's their money.

 

[Sonic939]

By the way, time will prove me right, since the useful life of Gran Turismo 7 is mentioned, which meant that once the servers close, it will be USELESS, nothing more than a paperweight, that's why I say it's we better make him understand to remove the DRM from the game

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Car enthusiats that drive SUVs exist, they're often a necessity in many cases for families that can only afford one new car. So, the buyer will try to look for a compromise so that they don't have to lose out on having fun, hence why the performance ones exist. Though for the ones aimed at rich people like the Bentayga and Audi RSQ8; that's probably more of the case of someone wanting to have something to impress their friends in.

With that said, I can't imagine myself wanting one over a station wagon. Despite what I said earlier, I can't help but find it mind-boggling for anyone that can afford an Bentley Bentayga to want it over the Continental GT. Or buying an Audi RSQ8 over the RS6 Avant, or buying a BMW X5 or X6 M over the M5 or M8.

 

[Nebuc72]

By the way, time will prove me right, since the useful life of Gran Turismo 7 is mentioned, which meant that once the servers close, it will be USELESS, nothing more than a paperweight, that's why I say it's we better make him understand to remove the DRM from the game

You're still going with this? I thought you packed it in back in like, July.

GT Sport has an easy flag to enable offline progression saving. There's no reason for GTS to have something like that and for them to not have something lined up with GT7 as well.

 

[BradleyLove]

The elitism regarding SUV’s is saddening.

It seems GT’s origins have been forgotten by some. GT1 was so compelling because it featured ordinary cars that people might own. Hell, my first car was a Honda Civic because of how much I loved it in GT1/2. It was a real thrill taking a completely relatable car and racing it, something that hadn’t really previously been done in racing games.

Yet there’s something the anti-SUV folks are missing. Besides the fact GT has always featured a wide variety of vehicles anyway, if some kid gets into GT cos they see their parents’ SUV in it then that’s a good thing.

Every car enthusiast has to start somewhere, and if it’s by living out a fantasy of ragging your dad’s Qashqai then where’s the harm. GT should be for everyone.

 

[Pizzicato1985]

Can't really think of a single car enthusiast driving a crossover because it's such so much of a car.
Of course, there are SUV enthusiasts, like Jeep's and such, but it's whole other territory of off-road driving that GT never covered up even remotely, and never will, because it's not rally. And if he's talking about Porsche cayenne's and other Maseratti/Ferrari/Lamborghini SUV's, I wouldn't call them enthusiast cars. More like "this is something that we can sell to the general public to stay afloat" cars...

Considering the whole backlash thingy and overall state of the product and the design direction, KAZ just seems to be way out of touch with the core fans of the series. That's ok, he's focused on his dream produst, which is nowadays e-sports, but that's such a niche product that it shouldn't be the main and only thing about a game as big as GT. I can't even enjoy GT7, I try as hard as I can but end up going back to GT4/5 every day after having to face extremely lame and unstable online experiences and overall lame design choices in a small GT Sport update that is GT7. I guess that even though I have completed every single GT out there and enjoyed it, I'm somehow not the target audience for KAZ anymore

That's just his way of saying "we don't want to pay for the rights to modern sports/super/hyper/race cars"
If GT is ever going to get back on track Kaz needs to retire...

@RandomCarGuy17 What are you going to do with a sports SUV? Run it around Sarthe?
People WANT the origins of the series and would gladly engage with SUV races, Wagon races, etc but they have to pay out enough to be worth the time or no one will touch them. Then there's the glaring issue of all the current gen sports cars, Super GT, REAL GT3/GTE, GT4 cars not existing in GT7. We have one model from Ferrari's current showroom lineup and our race variants are a decade old. I could go on and on...

No one trusts PD to support any inclusion of a new class since they don't support the current classes in the game in any meaningful way. We have a bunch of 50's road/racers (most of them broken after 1.23) and no content. We have 60's LeMans cars, no content.
We don't even have the IB/IA/S license content in the game at this point, yet we have the licenses... The Car Collector level is still at 50, did they forget it exists?! I'm currently 540,000+ points, lol.

It's not elitism, its dismay at the game still being in beta almost a year post-launch. I'd LOVE to be at the point where I'm sick of driving sports cars so I could do Jeep races, especially if I had the luxury of no longer needing a constant influx of credits. But that's not reality, despite the fact that I've earned 596,704,640cr in the life of the game thus far, yet I still don't have the credits to tune cars without running Sarthe/Sardegna/Tokyo daily. 800k earned for a 30min race to tune 3 cars so that I have 3 different cars to run the same three races I just ran

If it's elitism to want off this hamster wheel and have the game finished moving into year 2 of GT7's existence, then I wear my elitist badge with pride.

 

[eran0004]

''.....old cars wont last''.

What does he mean by that? Car culture dies if you are not a fan of the vision GT cars? What?

I love racing ''modern cars'' AND ''Old'' cars. In fact ''old cars'' are often harder to master and more rewarding - the most fun I have in the game is with custom endurance races with ''old cars'', and I am sure I'm not alone with this.
And this does not have a future?

View attachment 1221490

I read it as “it’s not enough to stay in the past, we have to look to the future as well.”

We’re probably in the last generation of children now who makes the sound “brrrrr” when they play with cars. Future generations will grow up almost exclusively with electric cars. That doesn’t mean old cars will no longer be fun, but it means that games like Gran Turismo must keep up with the development if they want to stay relevant and attract new generations of players.

 

[05XR8]

Did Ford pull the plug on you guys there, or was it just the cars that they stopped selling?

I'm not an SUV guy, but I could live with this: View attachment 1221484


It's so fast, it makes you laugh. Nice and loud, too. Love the exhaust note and blower whine. A friend of mine has one. It's a riot to drive.

To each, his own.


Or these guys at Pike's Peak

Check out the GranTurismo windshield banner:

1949 Ford F1 Sets Diesel World Record at Pikes Peak

Scott Birdsall details his diesel-world-record-breaking run at Pikes Peak.

www.motortrend.com

Car manufacturing is what stopped. Mitsubishi(2008), Ford(2016), Holden(2017) and Toyota(2017) plants, were all shut down.

 

[MatskiMonk]

It seems GT’s origins have been forgotten by some. GT1 was so compelling because it featured ordinary cars that people might own. Hell, my first car was a Honda Civic because of how much I loved it in GT1/2. It was a real thrill taking a completely relatable car and racing it, something that hadn’t really previously been done in racing games.

One of my top 3 most iconic memories of the franchise was hammering up Grindelwald in a 7-Series BMW. It's a game about cars, ideally it would encompass all facets of that, SUV's and trucks included.

Gatekeeping over what car enthusiasts should like is pathetic. If your mind boggles, or you're baffled by people liking different things to you, that's a you problem, not a them problem.

Also...

 

[Nathan88]

Well, as an enthusiast, thank goodness Kaz isn't listening to those who completely dismiss certain aspects of car culture. I always find it sad when someone states they won't even try a particular car in-game. Some of my current all-time favourite cars are models I'd never previously taken an interest in, either because it was from before my time, or it passed me by.

The JDM era Gran Turismo made famous is now some 25 years old. There's an entire generation of enthusiasts who view these like we used to view 60's/70's cars, ie quaint, but not something that interests us. At least until they try them and learn about their history. But to get to that point you first have to attract the younger generation of enthusiast, who's first love may be SUV's, EV's & Hybrids.

 

[Auditore]

I think people are taking some of his comments the wrong way.
Kaz didn't mean that he wants to get rid of the old cars,just that you can't lean too much on them alone,i wouldn't mind living on japanese 90s box bubble but i'm just a player,PD can't just look at one demographic when it comes to car tastes.
Same with the SUV,i dislike them,but they are the wagons and the sedans of this decade,can't ignore that public and c'mon,GT4 had a Dodge Ram and GT 7 has a Toyota Tundra, SUVs won't stick out like a sore thumb