December 23, 2022 is a very special day for the Gran Turismo franchise. Exactly 25 years ago, in 1997, the original Gran Turismo hit store shelves in Japan and changed car culture and racing games forever. The impact of the series has been felt around the world, and fans have been posting their own tributes and stories in our forums to reveal how GT has affected their lives.
Sony executives who played a significant role in Gran Turismo’s early history have also shared video messages to Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital.
Kazuo Hirai, former chief executive of both Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Corporation, worked closely with Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi in the early days. “I have so many memories of Gran Turismo,” Hirai-san said. “The impact of when I saw the initial Gran Turismo prototype running on PlayStation is something I will never forget. It was hard to believe that such a thing was possible on a video game console.”
A video message was also shared by Ken Kutaragi, another legendary former chairman and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. He is often referred to as “The Father of PlayStation”, having directed the development of the original console, the PS2, PSP, and PS3. He discussed how revolutionary Gran Turismo’s graphics and physics were at the time, though his most interesting remarks state that he “get[s] the feeling that there will probably be even more incredible games coming, an even more incredible Gran Turismo title, or even something adhoc”.
Of course, Gran Turismo would not be where it is today without its fans. The franchise has inspired a generation of automotive and technology enthusiasts in ways that we will never be able to fully understand. It is rare for such a video game to have such influence on the world outside of its own industry, but Gran Turismo has done it.
Gran Turismo also inspired the creation of GTPlanet in 2001, and we’d like to think our forums have been an important hub for the GT community to congregate over the years. We’re proud to host some of the most passionate and knowledgable fans of the franchise, and many have been sharing memories and why these games have played such a big role in their own lives.
For many of GTPlanet users, the game didn’t just affect their hobbies, it impacted the direction of their lives and careers:
“I became a mechanic because of my enthusiasm of this game. I felt I had an ‘insider knowledge’ about cars because of it when I took the modern apprenticeship. I doubt I’d have had much enthusiasm for picking up freezing cold spanners in winter, otherwise.”
— Silverfox1984
“It’s because of GT that I got into writing, started writing about cars, and now write about cars and games with cars in them. I’ve gone to many interesting places and driven cars in them (and some not very interesting ones too), and had more than one car worth more than my house on the drive, primarily prompted by writing about GT here.”
— Famine (Andrew Evans)
“[It] made me a car fanatic, would never have a passion for motoring, driving, motorsport, and wouldn’t be in the career I am in now, if it wasn’t for this franchise. A simple racing game set me on a path for the rest of my life.”
— R55NA
One particularly unique aspect of Gran Turismo is how the games managed to influence the way players viewed the cars themselves.
“Basically, it taught me how to ‘look’ at cars. Taught me about brands and their countries, about circuits, racing, teams, sponsors… My father was almost always playing GT2 with me, so he also taught me a lot of things. Sometimes in the middle of the street he would say ‘Look there, what car is that?’ and I would say something like ‘Oh, it’s a Renault!’. He then would ask ‘where does that car come from and why is shaped like that?’ for me to answer ‘it’s from France and it’s shaped like that because it’s a sedan!’. It may seem very boring, but for a 6 year-old me, it was something else! I kid you not, I learned a lot of countries by playing GT!”
— Arkseven
“The [Ford GT was the] first car I saw when booting up GT4 in the most glorious video game intro of all time. It got me soo excited for the game I was about to play. A whole world of motoring from East to West and everywhere in between. Nothing has, and ever will, imprint on me like this again. I thought I’d learnt a lot from my dad and his books and those in the library but GT4 illustrated car culture to me in a whole new light. That’s why I keep coming back after all these years, despite the controversies and broken promises which I’ll admit have angered me on occasion. However I can’t let it go because I’d be lost without it – that’s how much the series means to me.”
— ScottPye20
“It pretty much was my gateway to Motorsports. There are so many series I watch regularly that have some link to Gran Turismo. JGTC? Gran Turismo. DTM? Gran Turismo. V8 Supercars? Gran Turismo. American Le Mans Series (which eventually became IMSA)? Gran Turismo (Courtesy of both the Dodge Viper GTS-R on the NTSC version and Corvette C5-R that I happened to catch just as I turned on the TV to see the 2002 Washington Grand Prix). You could even slightly throw NASCAR into the mix courtesy of me being lucky enough to have the copy that still had THE Roush Racing Mark Martin Race Modification for the Ford Taurus (And instantly recognizing said car while at a restaurant which happen to have ESPN on at the time).”
— RACECAR
One of the most common themes, of course, is nostalgia. Seemingly everyone in our forums has fond memories of how they were first introduced to Gran Turismo, and what it was like to see and experience the game for the first time.
“26yo in 1997. While working for NY Telephone(NYNEX) in The Bronx, I passed a game store that had a demo of Gran Turismo playing in the window. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A Honda Civic racing against a Corvette! The Civic was keeping pace around the corners, through a tunnel(Grand Valley). That image is burned into my memory for all time.
Vivid memories, were realising grocery-getter cars can rev past 8000rpm and seeing the Spoon Civic upwards of something like 16,000rpm!”
— 05XR8
My first GT was also the first GT, and it was more or less accidental. My dad decided to bring me back some PlayStation games from his first transatlantic trip – knowing they were cheaper in the USA, but not knowing that they wouldn’t work – with GT among them. I think he’d heard of it through the original UK television ad.
After I swapped it at a local games shop for a European copy, that was that. Rather than doing the second and third years of my first degree, I played GT and then GT2 pretty much obsessively – with the old-school, pages full of notes playing method required for keeping track of 170 – and then 600+ – cars, their stats, the races they could do, the tuning, etc. etc. That more or less set the foundations for GTPEDIA, 20 years later.
Probably my favourite memory isn’t one but about 17 of them: the UKGTP LANs. A bunch of sometimes 20 or so Gran Turismo nerds gathering in one place – a house, a school hall, a pub, a… tent – just to play Gran Turismo against each other in person for a weekend. Some would travel most of the full length of the UK to attend, and sometimes we got people over from other countries (and we even went over to the Netherlands for one). While I loved the games (GT3 and GT4 especially) it’s always been more about the community.
— Famine (Andrew Evans)
These are just a few samples of the stories and memories are users are sharing in the forums. Be sure to head over to our GT 25th Anniversary forum topic to read more, and be sure to post your own!
Once again, congratulations to Kazunori Yamauchi and the Polyphony Digital team on this incredible milestone!
