Better late than never? It was certainly true of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. But with Polyphony Digital split between development of Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo PSP, both of them overdue, will history be repeated? Shortly after endorsing the newly announced PSP Go, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi spoke to Tim Clark, editor of Official PlayStation Magazine UK.
The PSP version’s been a long time coming. What challenges has it posed?
There were a lot of obstacles: the small screen, the lesser CPU power, the lower graphics processing power, and the small amount of memory. We went through and checked out a lot of the other racing games on PSP, and there’s not a single one that lives up to the Gran Turismo quality. We had to work very hard to get it to that level.
So what makes a GT game on PSP?
All of it, really – there was an unbelievable amount of material that had to make it on to this machine.
As a percentage, how much of Polyphony is working on this version, as opposed to Gran Turismo 5?
The balance varies from day to day. A lot of companies, when they make a PSP version of a game, license the development out to another company. There were times when 100 per cent of our efforts were on the PSP.
Does GT have any competition on PSP?
Like I said, there isn’t a game on there that’s up to par with any sort of racing game. I don’t think there are any competitors.
What do you think of PSP Go?
I like that it’s become very small, and the contrast and colour of the screen has improved over PSP 3000. Just to add: the proper version of GT PSP will load a lot faster than the version we have here.
How big a download will GT PSP be?
Because PSP Go content is only available as a download, our job has been to make it as compact as possible. Right now our target is to get it within a gigabyte.
And DLC?
No.
How about GT5? Is development running smoothly?
It’s going well. We could put it out at any time, or we could carry on working on it. There’s always something to polish.
How will the WRC and NASCAR licences be incorporated?
GT’s always included all different types of race styles, so it’s just a natural progression from that.
Which new cars do you think will prove the most interesting?
We’re still working on it, obviously, but merely from the cars in the E3 demo version, we have the Spec V GTR and the Ferrari Enzo.
Will there be any crossplatform interface with GT PSP?
We’re actually thinking about making the PSP garage compatible with the PS3 garage.
How are you finding the Formula One season this year?
I’m enjoying it. I think Jensen Button’s going to win. Both Lewis and Jensen are great Gran Turismo fans.
Didn’t Polyphony have a hand in the software of the Nissan GTR itself?
The multifunction meter. It’s a monitor that shows the status of the car and driving conditions. Out of the all the monitors equipped in cars these days, I think it’s one of the best.
There was also talk of Gundam having an influence…
It’s not just Nissan. I think all the cars in the world are affected by that Gundam kind of design.
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