Polyphony Digital

Summer holidays are going to leave a big impression on Gran Turismo fans spending their vacation in Japan, as Polyphony Digital recently took to its Pit Stop blog to announce it will be hosting special GT Sport public sessions over the course of the summer. Much like the previous event in the country, these will be open to the general public.

The 100th anniversary Pikes Peak International Hill Climb challenge recently finished, with French racing driver Romain Dumas taking the top spot with a time of 8’51.445 behind the wheel of the Norma M20 RD (#30) in the Unlimited class.

When looking at the GT franchise as a whole, critics frequently rate the most recent games – GT5 and GT6 – as the least successful in the series’ history, for a wide variety of reasons. Those critics might be surprised to find that Kazunori Yamauchi actually agrees with them.

When Gran Turismo 5 was released, something unusual in the game’s Kyoto Photo Travel Location caught the attention of our community: a curiously detailed little cat. He blinked, turned his head, looked around, and generally drove people crazy.

Yes, it’s been officially confirmed on the NISMO Facebook profile page: GT Academy has enrolled into another season of close online competitions that will try to track down talented drivers over the next several months. Although a significant number of countries won’t be supported on the initial run of the 2016 season, players residing in few select ones will get an exclusive chance to test-drive the upcoming GT Sport before everyone else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5xbLbt5IXE

GT Academy, the notable racing program made as a result of cooperation between Nissan and PlayStation, quickly gained recognition for offering PlayStation and Gran Turismo users an opportunity to take part in real racing. Currently running strong in its 8th year of existence, the program has life in it yet as, according to recent news, there are more things to come.

2016 marks the 100th anniversary – but only the 94th running – of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado. Gran Turismo became a platinum sponsor of the event last year, and will expand that relationship by having Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi not only attend the event, but drive one of the three Acura pace cars.

Located between Great Britain and Ireland, the small Isle of Man annually hosts one of the most dangerous and thrilling motorcycle events in the world: The International Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Race. Although the race is entirely devoted to motorcycles, for the last several years Subaru has been coming to the course in order to challenge the four-wheel lap record. Their latest entry saw a significant improvement, beating the 2014 record by more than 100 seconds!

At this point, it’s been confirmed beyond doubt that the partnership between Polyphony Digital and Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (view the original announcement) will greatly influence the gameplay structure of the incoming GT Sport. But by how much?

https://youtu.be/djZToFEFw_0

When the Vision GT Project took off back in 2013, nobody really knew how long the collaborative effort between Polyphony Digital and leading automobile manufacturers and design houses was going to last. Speaking with GTPlanet in London last week, Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed the initiative is far from complete, and that players can expect further additions in this year’s Gran Turismo Sport:

In less than a month, citizens residing near Colorado Springs will get the chance to attend the 100th anniversary race of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb challenge, one of the most dangerous point-to-point racing events in the world. Conquering the peak of this 12.42 miles long course has always been one of motorsports’ cream-of-the-crop undertakings, with various numbers of unique machines trying to beat the environment in the hands of unbelievably talented drivers.

Does anyone remember the initial announcement regarding one of the largest collaborations between a motorsport organization and a video game developer: the agreement between Polyphony Digital and Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile? The partnership was followed by the certification of four of the game’s real world circuits and an official FIA Online Championship, a mode destined to merge real life racing with the virtual world of Gran Turismo.

Our man Jordan is on the ground at the GT Sport press conference right now, and Polyphony has released the targeted release date for its new PS4 title: November 15, 2016.

“We Love Cars!”

We’re now less than 24 hours away from the GT Sport reveal in London. The anticipation is palpable, as even Polyphony has stoked the fire with their brand-new official Snapchat account. Here at GTPlanet, GT Week celebrations continue unabated!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably on Snapchat – one of the hottest social networks out there. It’s about to get a bit hotter, as the Polyphony Digital guys are launching a new official Snapchat account to share content about Gran Turismo games and events.

A good driving song can make a boring journey into a memorable one, or a good trip into one of the greats. By that same token, while Gran Turismo is fondly remembered for the driving, there’s a lot of memories tied to the audio cues. A song will stick with you, intertwining itself with the game until you can’t separate the two. To this day, I’m still annoyed every time I walk into a Mazda dealership and this catchy tune isn’t playing.

If you’re like us, you can’t wait for the big GT Sport event in London this Thursday and Friday. In an unprecedented move, Polyphony is making the first playable showing of the game open to the public, and if you were lucky enough to snag some of the tickets GTPlanet had to give out last week, you’ll get to take part in the festivities.