- 608
- Italy
Kaz's interview with the Italian car-magazine Quattroruote
anything special
anything special
It has sold over 70 million copies in 15 years, giving rise to one of the references of driving simulation. Kazunori Yamauchi, professional pilot but especially producer and creator of Gran Turismo, he is also one of the great supporters of GT Academy, the virtual-to-real competition that this year has selected a young man to begin a career as a pilot. Wednesday, on the podium at Silverstone, Yamauchi has crowned French Gaeton Paletou. Then he was back to studying the next evolution of the series: the new updates for Gran Turismo 6 on PlayStation 3, but especially the seventh chapter to be released (perhaps) by the end of 2015. At Silverstone, in addition to trying the GT-R , the game designer met with journalists: here some of his answers.
Mr. Yamauchi, what is your favorite championship?
I watch regularly Formula 1, but in Japan the other categories are more difficult to follow because they aren't transmitted. In USA I got to see the NASCAR, and it's amazing: on the stands you can find 200000 spectators regardless of the importance of the event. Also the Japanese Super GT series is very interesting and technologically advanced.
What aspects of Gran Turismo will improve with the next generation of consoles, beyond the graphics? There is something that has never been possible to do so far and that future hardware will allow?
I still can't go into details, but it was hard to develop on PS3: you don't have enough memory to do whatever you want. Our goal has always been to preserve the feeling of Gran Turismo, but with the last chapter we faced limitations. With the PlayStation 4 we have much more memory: we can exploit it easily, inserting elements that we had to force or hold on PS3. There will be more graphics, more physical, more AI, more online.
We talk about the GT Academy: Jann Mardenborough, one of the winners of the previous editions, is competing in GP3 and one day might go in Formula 1: What do you think?
From the beginning I thought that a winner of the GT Academy would be able to become a Formula 1 driver, but it isn't so simple. In any case, not only the result matters: it is amazing to see these young people who play their chance to reach higher levels. These people have the power to change things, to make a mark.
What will be the most important and distinctive feature of Gran Turismo 7?
(Laughs) I can't answer yet, we are planning big updates for GT6 to be launched soon. GT7, of course, is a title faithful to the spirit of the series.
Vision Gran Turismo is almost a game within a game, a "showcase" for special and one-off designed by the same manufacturers, a powerful tool for innovation and in part also a way to develop new cars. GT 7 will have the same approach?
The response of the manufacturers in Vision Gran Turismo has surprised even me. The manufacturers are excited to work on this front and I am convinced that the project will continue with the same momentum. As with the pilots of the GT Academy, the flourishing of new ideas is always an incredible event.
Many fans continue to demand a realistic and detail damage system: GT 7 will change anything?
The damages are part of the physics of the game. In the future, we will continue to work to definitely improve the system.