Gran Turismo Sport will be the platform for another esport series in 2019. No, not the FIA-certified GT Championship, but Porsche’s own digital series in Japan.
The announcement comes alongside a shakeup of the real-world one-make series in Polyphony Digital’s native land (via Auto Sport Web). Porsche Japan held a press conference on Friday to officially rename the existing Porsche Carrera Cup Japan to Porsche Spring Challenge Japan. The 911 GT3 Cup will continue to run in the series, but the new 718 Cayman GT4 will join it. Which is quite the bombshell, since even Porsche hasn’t officially confirmed the car yet. Whoops!
Alongside the restructure, Porsche Japan also announced a move into an officially sanctioned esport series. The Porsche E-Racing Japan series will seemingly use the 911 RSR that already exists in GT Sport. There’s no mention of any other cars, current or future. Kazunori Yamauchi was on hand for the announcement, and offered a quick comment on the move (via Google Translate):
“As for driving techniques you can learn the same things as real, you can learn the same race bargaining and assembly as the actual one.”
The article mentions that the Porsche esports series overseas use Forza Motorsport 7 instead of GT Sport. Polyphony’s sim racer arguably makes more sense in its homeland however, as Xbox as a brand is almost a non-entity in Japan. That said, it seems the regional championships prefer home-grown platforms: the Carrera Cup Italia used Assetto Corsa earlier this year.
Cheers to AKps3 for the tip!
Featured image courtesy of Donnced.
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