GamesCom – The Yamauchi Interview
Hello all, from drizzly Cologne!
At this morning’s breakout session at the Radisson Hotel, Cologne we were told that all information and media given was subject to an embargo until 0900 GMT Thursday morning – which we, unlike other sites, intend to respect – we were left in somewhat of a no-man’s land. Andreas, Venari and I couldn’t really bring you any of the information we wanted to and yet, at the same time, we have to report something. This is, after all, what you’re paying us for.
What we can bring you is news that, yet again, the GT5 code has received a few tweaks and is another, more recent build than E3, there’s some good news on expected features, some better news on some potential fears and some great news on some unexpected (but by now, thanks to “other sites”, internet-wide) features. We’ll provide more the instant the embargo expires tomorrow. Kazunori seemed quite nervous beforehand – pacing the courtyard, cigarette in hand – but his nervousness was unfounded.
Luckily, after a quick play on the GamesCom show floor of the latest GT5 build (with new tracks and cars as exclusively revealed late yesterday), Andreas received an SMS from Sony’s Alex Armour – Kazunori Yamauchi would see us now…
As Andreas, Venari and I sat down with Yamauchi, we were asked to be brief – it was, after all, lunchtime after a stressful morning and we were feeling hunger-pangs too. We didn’t quite get all the questions out that we wanted and Kazunori didn’t want to be filmed during the interview, but we tried our best to interrogate while respecting his time constraints.
Can you tell us anything about PSN Trophies in GT5?
Kazunori looked a little confused at first. We’d put to him the rumour about multiple Platinum trophies which he dismissed as just that – rumour. He clarified that he really hadn’t thought about Trophies in GT5 but that they will be in. Our considered opinion is that GT has been doing “trophies” since 1997 and it’s more likely than not that the Trophies system will be grafted onto the existing trophy aspects of the game.
Will GT5 feature LAN mode/multiple monitor support?
“Probably” was the reply. At this point, there are still aspects of the game that the 140-man strong team are still refining. My understanding of Kazunori’s precise words were more probably-likely than probably-possibly.
We’ve seen changing light and, recently, weather. Will this be available on all tracks?
“Not on all tracks, but some.”. We’d imagine that tracks with 24 hour races are more likely to see diurnal cycles, but whether you can race the ‘Ring in snow… at this point it is still up in the air.
With GT5, how close are you to your goal of “The Real Driving Simulator”?
“90%” was the instant answer. “Well, 85-90%”.
Are there any features missing from GT5 that you’d like to have included?
Kazunori said “Yes”, without hesistation. “But there’s still time to work on things!”
Would this include a livery editor?
“Probably not for GT5, though it’s certainly on our list of things to work on…”.
Previously we’ve seen you say things about weather, lighting, skidmarks, that you’d add them if you felt they added to gameplay. How much is this the case, compared to community pressure (from sites like GTPlanet) to add things?
“It’s probably evenly balanced”, said Kazunori. We’d interpret this as a borderline tacit admission that our forums – and many other sites – form research for PD, especially with regards to features. We have, after all, seen a recent addition of real-time skidmarks and reverse lights in the latest demo builds, now that there is the software and hardware to achieve it.
At this point we were asked if we could wrap it up quickly – we were originally told 3-4 minutes and we were already near ten. So the last question was the question I’d decided (hey, executive decision!) was the very best “alternate” question we’d received.
Given the time, money, space and resources, which fantasy Gran Turismo track would you create in the real world?
Kazunori was visibly awed by this question and spent nearly a minute thinking of an answer. “Deep Forest”, he said. I countered with “Trial Mountain?”. His next answer was complex – the team haven’t revealed anywhere near all of the tracks yet and there may be a fantasy GT5 track which exceeds Deep Forest in his estimations, and Trial Mountain in mine.
Kazunori continued, “A construction company in Japan [Maeda] investigated the possibility of building Grand Valley. They wrote a book about it!”. We weren’t able to get an accurate title from Kazunori or Translator-san – it didn’t seem to translate well, but “Fantasy Business Scheme” was the final answer. If you know of this book, please let us know!
And that was that – the first meeting between the world’s largest Gran Turismo site and the game’s creator, courtesy of Alex Armour at Sony, Darin Gangi at InsideSimRacing, Andreas Nie (our co-conspirator) and Jordan.
Edit: Thanks to Doctor_No for clarifying the comment about Maeda construction.
As ever, we’ll let Translator-san have the last word:
“We need your name!”
“No you don’t. Translator-san will do just fine…”
You should follow GTPlanet on Facebook, and on Twitter @GTPlanetNews. You can also get GTPlanet's news by full-text RSS feed, or delivered via email, straight to your inbox every day.
Newest comments are displayed first.
-
-
August 31st, 2010 at 6:38 pm - #HugoStiglitz_420
HAHAHA it’s bromance LOL
-
-
August 21st, 2010 at 3:56 pm - #carl.vain
PLEASE!!! Make Attention! GTplanet READ THIS! And share this information with KAZUNORI! and every fan of Gt. Well brothers and sisters everybody knows that Kazunori is a master of creation simulation and we love his work.But there is one missing thing that gt5 do not have and makes me cry.Kazunori forget to put a one beautiful camera that Forza3 have. Everybody love the grafics in gt5 but WHERE! is this camera that you could enjoy the beautiful grafics from outside the car.I meen that you could pull the triger during a race and look around every side and see whole boody of a car, like they instal in FoRza3.Inside in the cockpit view is perfect you can turn around camera on left end right . Why they do not instal this view:(
-
August 21st, 2010 at 4:30 am - #SZRT Ice
If not a livery editor, Custom paint?
-
August 19th, 2010 at 3:31 pm - #kaori
Am I crazy ?
I’m sure to have read yesterday a thing like : kazunori yamauchi, the producer, told that in GT5 ALL the cars will have in-car cockpit view.
it’s just that 200 premium cars will have amazingly in-car details with a lot more polishing.
he said that polishing all 1000 cars it would take ages so he decided to do it in a selection of cars… -
August 19th, 2010 at 10:40 am - #Gt5ser
So is there any word on Grand Valley or Trail Mountain on GT5?
- Jeramy
-
August 19th, 2010 at 5:10 am - #Paul Mc
*also taps watch*
Embargo be gone!
-
August 19th, 2010 at 4:59 am - #Hoodie1878
*taps watch*
Is there more juicy stuff due around now?
-
August 19th, 2010 at 4:06 am - #OGI
Slightly disappointed with the questions asked. Ths PSN trophies are of little interest to me. As for LAN and im surprised Kazunori didn’t shake his head in utter disgust. Just imagine they have spent all this time working on the online aspect of GT5 and then someone asks about a feature that is no longer required due to broadband being widely available.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 8:45 pm - #audiobbc
WOW… Thanks Famine, and everyone else involved. 5am can’t come quick enough.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 6:21 pm - #Doctor_No
>>Kazunori continued, “A construction company in Japan [Maede] investigated the possibility of building Grand Valley. They wrote a book about it!”. We weren’t able to get an accurate title from Kazunori or Translator-san – it didn’t seem to translate well, but “Fantasy Business Scheme” was the final answer. If you know of this book, please let us know!
The company’s name is “Maeda”, not ‘Maede’. They are well-known for building the Tokyo Bay Aqualine, which is the underground tunnel traveling beneath Tokyo Bay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeda_Corporation
In the interview he is likely referring to this:
http://www.maeda.co.jp/fantasy/
The project goes over several theoretical scenarios and discusses how they would be made in the real world. For instance, they would investigate how much it would cost to make a Gundam in the real world.
Grand Valley circuit was Project 03 in investigated in 2005, there is a discussion of the Maeda page here:
-
August 18th, 2010 at 9:15 pm - #Strikey182
Well found! :)
-
-
August 18th, 2010 at 5:43 pm - #recca
sounds like there’s a lot of people here who either don’t understand the meaning of the word embargo or didn’t read the article thoroughly.
What pains me the most is knowing that Kaz smokes. This man must live on, he can’t afford to shorten his life span or risk contracting cancer. Kaz please stop smoking =(
-
August 19th, 2010 at 3:09 am - #Big Ron
Hehe…if you would be stressed out by creating those complex games, you would skome too, I think.
-
-
August 18th, 2010 at 5:21 pm - #zeromobius
Welp it seems we have everything but 1 major feature and that’s weather. Which at this point I don’t care. We have more then enough content to keep us busy till GT6!
-
August 18th, 2010 at 3:46 pm - #Tenacious D
Even this tease of an interview is epic! Great job Famine… even though you neglected the font color thingie… ;D
Man, tomorrow evening is going to take forever to get here. And so is GT5! It’s even worse because I have a massive vacation coming at the same time. Every day is going to feel like Groundhog Day.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 1:41 pm - #AGNT009
My question was asking why they werent trying to destroy Forza (in the only category Forza has them beat)and work on decals and livery customization. It got answered for the most part, that they will try…next time.
So, if they are sitting on 5 Christmases worth of juicy intel BEFORE the interview, but cant publish it TODAY, then you CALL AN AUDIBLE, and ask in depth questions of the intel to be revealed tomorrow (its called forward thinking, try it some time), and release this interview TOMORROW. Instead they come off like 9th grade reporters asking mostly lame questions that dont effect game play. Opportunity wasted, and EPIC FAIL. If they didnt have the big intel yet, its still an EPIC FAIL either way. This wasnt some rep they had in front of them, it was THE MAN! For GT6, send me to Germany for you.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 2:00 pm - #Mickle Pickle
The translator-San will shut you up at first instant…
you cant do whatever you want… and even if you do…
they dont owe you any answers.They can simply deny or refuse to answer you.
simple Bah…
-
August 18th, 2010 at 2:02 pm - #randomer199
Ever occur to you that “things that effect gameplay” might have been covered in the breakout session BEFORE this interview?
-
August 18th, 2010 at 2:17 pm - #ItsHim
Jesus, you do have an attitude. If you want to paint cars, why not use your crayons?
-
August 18th, 2010 at 2:23 pm - #Obli
Three good answers. Why not stop and think before letting rip?
-
August 18th, 2010 at 3:13 pm - #BoBo
Alright shush now..
-
August 18th, 2010 at 5:51 pm - #FoolKiller
So wait, it was a bad interview because they didn’t press further on a question you wanted asked? This was a friendly sit down in a courtyard, not some in-depth grilling of a politician. If they did it like that I guarantee the interview would have ended very quickly.
-
-
August 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm - #BZSIN
I’m kinda glad we don’t know Translator-San’s name. I like the mysticism surrounding him, a bit like The Stig :P
Cheers for the interview.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 1:37 pm - #Kazuya720
I miss the question about the track editor??? Why is it not in the interview :(((((
-
August 18th, 2010 at 12:56 pm - #Johan
75 and 76 days left
-
August 18th, 2010 at 1:54 pm - #G
OH MY GOD THATS ONLY 1800 and 1824 hours left!
-
-
August 18th, 2010 at 12:42 pm - #Black Chamber
Awesome.
So weather is in – that makes me smile from ear to ear!
-
August 18th, 2010 at 12:31 pm - #NimbusToast18
I feel really stupid asking this… but what the hell is an embargo?
-
August 18th, 2010 at 12:52 pm - #RS
embargo: A request by a source that the information or news provided by that source not be published until a certain date or certain conditions have been met. The understanding is that if the embargo is broken by reporting before then, the source will retaliate by restricting access to further information by that journalist or his publication, giving them a long-term disadvantage relative to more cooperative outlets.
-
August 18th, 2010 at 1:01 pm - #NimbusToast18
Ahh I see, that makes sense. Thanks.
-
-
August 18th, 2010 at 12:24 pm - #Razor BR
can anyone confirme that it will be possible to transfer the cars from GTPSP to GT5 , because there are a few cars tha i would like to use in GT5
GTPlanet on Google+
I love Kaz :D
(no homo)