Bang the gongs, cue the avalanche of GIF’s – it’s happening! After over six months of silence, GT Sport is ready for its first gameplay showing. As you’d expect of a company that has announced a title at a racetrack (GT6), and taken over an entire town for a release party (GT6 again), Polyphony is pulling out all the stops, showcasing the PS4 title in downtown London, at the Copper Box Arena, a former Olympic site.
Last week we reported that Polyphony Digital’s CEO Kazunori Yamauchi would be returning to the Nürburgring in the lead up to the 2016 ADAC 24 Hours of Nürburgring. Sharing the driving duties of the #101 BMW M6 GT3 with Matias Henkola, George Richardson, and Max Sandritter, Yamauchi was set to participate in the top SP9 class under the Walkenhorst Motorsport banner.
Kazunori Yamauchi will be returning to the gruelling Green Hell this year. Polyphony’s man in charge took 2015 off, after an accident during the qualifying session the year before. In a surprising turn, however, Yamauchi will be slotting in behind the wheel of a Bavarian motor for the ADAC qualifier this weekend.
I believe many of you will recall our report from the 2015 SEMA automotive show several months ago when we closely followed the battle between five 2015 GT Awards finalists, all brought together from various categories. Presented by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the ”Best in Show” crown was awarded to a painstakingly-modified Datsun 240Z, which is owned by popular Fast & Furious movie star Sung Kang.
On January 23rd Gran Turismo was presented with the Golden Marker Special Award at this year’s Japan Car Design Awards ceremony being held at The Gallery Too in the Minato district of Tokyo, Japan.
Every year, Polyphony Digital hosts an annual Christmas party at their offices in Japan with a wide variety of motorsports and gaming industry celebrities in attendance. This year, however, they spiced things up a bit, using the opportunity to show off what appears to be new concept artwork likely related to next year’s Gran Turismo Sport.
A complete redesign of Polyphony Digital’s website went live earlier today, and with it, the company has updated us on the subject of sales for the second time in 2015. During GT Sport’s first unveiling in Paris, PD had snuck a quick mention of a rough series total into the game’s website. Over 75 million units had been sold as of March 2015, while today’s newer tallies come from September of this year.
UPDATE: The “Fugu Z” was scanned by the Polyphony Digital team on November 7, 2017 in Long Beach, CA. It was finally added to Gran Turismo Sport in the game’s 1.31 update, released on December 5, 2018.
As part of the flurry of activity and announcements surrounding the reveal of Gran Turismo Sport at Paris Games Week today, an interesting bit of information was revealed as Polyphony Digital updated their official site: the GT series has now sold over 75 million copies:
UPDATE: Although these numbers were reported in official court documents, they have since been discredited. Thanks to detective work from NeoGAF and here in GTPlanet’s community, we see the judge quoted sales numbers by VIRAG in their original claims against SCEA, made in July of 2014.
Polyphony Digital’s work has been put on display at the National Art Center in Tokyo, Japan, as part of a new Manga*Anime*Games exhibit in the museum. The exhibit, which showcases the relationship between artists’ work, society, and technology, uses Gran Turismo to demonstrate the technical techniques of the artists that bring the game to life.
Since its inclusion in Gran Turismo 6 was first announced back in 2013, the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed has had a close relationship with the franchise. As many will recall, last year saw the in-game track updated to include the 2014 “Central Feature” sculpture at Goodwood – a soaring art installation that features different manufacturers and changes each year.