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Few franchises in the gaming world can trigger such heated debate as Forza and Gran Turismo. The reason for the rivalry is obvious, with each high-profile game competing for hearts and minds on the front lines of the “console wars”. Up until this year, however, Microsoft’s Turn 10 Studios and Kazunori Yamauchi’s Polyphony Digital worked quietly on their respective titles and delivered driving games of excellent quality for each console. As the online rhetoric of fans begins to heat up, however, that code of silence is beginning to melt away. Here’s what Yamauchi had to say about the competition while speaking with NowGamer just last week:

“[...] I keep my eye on them from a distance. My observations tend to more often than not centre on, ‘Oh, so they’re concentrating extra hard on this’, or ‘oh, so they’re not worried about that’, or ‘they’ve really got a lot of passion for that’. All my observations are first-impression sort of things. I don’t look at the games in too much detail. Just a one-glance observation is good enough. I think about what they’re trying to do, how much time they’re spending, how they’re going about putting the game together, how do they feel about the game as they’re making it… that sort of thing.”

Yamauchi’s comments stand in contrast to what Turn 10’s Creative Director, Dan Greenawalt, said about him at E3 earlier this year:

“We watched the Sony press conference and we were like, OK so we just brought what we believe firmly is the best racing game ever made, and our competition didn’t show up. So now you can see why I’m fairly bullish. I hate to sound so cocky but the truth is the stars have aligned. I don’t know how else to say it.

“Kazunori Yamauchi-san is someone I have tremendous respect for. I have tremendous respect for the work of team, but I am a GT fan. I bought my first car that I stressed out about buying because I played it in Gran Turismo. I’m in this industry because of that game.

“That said, as a fan of the series, he hasn’t done anything for me in years. So in many ways he’s handing the baton to me. He probably doesn’t see it that way, but I do, because I believe that I’m now taking what he ignited in me as a passion, and taking it to a much, much, much broader level. I’m not saying it’s necessarily larger yet, but definitely broader, younger, older, men, women. So I’m really excited.”

And, via Joystiq,

“So, props to Kazunori Yamauchi-san and the PS1 team. That said, I feel that he’s passed us the baton. Perhaps he hasn’t meant to, but we have taken the genre to new levels and they’ve stopped evolving the genre. So again, tremendous respect to him, but I’d say the differentiator is they’re old school. The emperor’s naked, and I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to slap him around, but no game competes [with] us right now.”

…and Xbox360Achievements:

“I play a lot of racing games, including PC racing games and I have not seen anything that is even within years of what we’re delivering here.”

As this war of words plays out, it’s becoming evident that, to Yamauchi, it may not be a “war” at all. As we learn more about him, he appears to view himself as an artist, judging his work by the standards of his own ideals. Likewise, when analyzing the work of his peers, he does not try to compare it to his own – instead, he attempts to understand their interpretation of what a racing game should be, and how their work may have lived up to their own goals.

Heated rhetoric aside, it’s very interesting to see how two very different groups of people approach the same problem. Yamauchi, in his quest for the perfect driving simulation, delivers games of stunning quality. Turn 10, in their pursuit of the GT franchise, introduce innovative new features to differentiate their product in unique and creative ways. Ultimately, it’s a race from which neither will emerge “victorious” over the other, because racing game fans have already won.

Another Kazunori Yamauchi interview hits the web, this time from GameTrailers. Here’s what’s new:

• Entirely new code base from GT4 -- nothing has been carried over from the old game. Even the GT4 Online code was not used to develop the networked side of GT5.
• New physics in the TGS demo should be immediately apparent to anyone playing the game -- it’s actually “easier to drive”, though when the car begins to lose grip, its behavior is more true-to-life.
• Entirely new artificial intelligence. The oval tracks and NASCAR presented a unique AI challenge.

The big question mark, of course, looms over that one little word: “easier”. What that means is still unclear, though it will obviously worry many fans out there who may now fear a less challenging or realistic driving experience. For now, let’s hope the true meaning of Yamauchi’s words were simply lost in translation! Thanks to ComposerRyan for digging this one up.

Japanese gaming mag Famitsu hit news stands this week featuring a fresh interview with Kazunori Yamauchi. He used the opportunity to reiterate GT5’s progress while emphasizing the scale of the game:

“Naturally, my attention is focused purely on Gran Turismo 5 right now. The scale of this title is just dizzying, so daily progress is slow, but it’s still going forward at a steady clip. All the basic stuff is complete, but we’re trying to give everything that little bit extra at present. We could release it any time we want, really, but I want to have that classic GT-style ‘did we really have to go this far?’ feel going. I want to go way beyond gamer expectations.”

Though I have not seen a direct translation of the entire Famitsu interview, 1UP.com did not hesitate to confirm that “you’ll be allowed to bring your entire collection of cars” earned in Gran Turismo PSP over to GT5. We’ve known about the interoperability between the two games for a while now, but nothing as of yet has indicated if all 850 cars in GT PSP will be making the move to GT5. Unless 1UP was being liberal in their translation, it’s beginning to look like a safe bet.

He also discussed his rationale for choosing what car will appear on the cover of each GT game while explaining his choice of the Corvette ZR-1 for GT PSP.

“When I think about what car to put on the cover, I have to figure out which car is considered the coolest at this exact moment in time. The auto industry is going through a transition period right now, and it’s a dangerous time for a lot of companies. It’s a major support of the entire world economy, and the vast amount of talent and output it produces is one reason why GT is what it is. I wanted to go back to the roots with what makes a car cool, so I chose GM’s Corvette ZR-1 to try and cheer the auto industry up a little.”

So, any takers on Gran Turismo 5’s box art next spring…?

We’ve got another new interview with Kazunori Yamauchi via GameBlog.fr, and while it’s not as personal or as thorough as Xavier Ocampo’s, it does produce two interesting and encouraging statements.  First, he reiterates the updated damange modeling in Gran Turismo 5 - reinforcing my personal suspicion that negative reactions to the damage shown off at GamesCom was the primary decision for a 2010 release. On the subject of release dates, Yamauchi confirms that is a decision in the hands of Sony Computer Entertainment, since “both versions [PAL and NTSC, presumably] will be finished at the same time”.

The full video is available here, though it’s only with French subtitles. Keep reading for the English transcript to see what else is discussed.

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When you’re looking through some of the latest screenshots, it’s easy to think to yourself, “You know, that looks a lot better than anything I’ve ever seen in real life.” It’s a phenomenon not lost on Kazunori Yamauchi, who acknowledges that the real world doesn’t quite live up to the visual standards set by Polyphony Digital in these comments to NowGamer:

“‘Better than reality’ – yeah, that’s one way of putting it. In a way, it’s kind of a given that it’s going to look better than reality. The thing about reality is that the criteria for looking “real” are actually a lot stricter and volatile than you’d expect. The way the sun shines, reflects off something, the way it lights scenery – we seldom have the opportunity to see what we consider “reality” under the best and most aesthetically pleasing conditions.”

“Every time we go out to the circuit and take photos of cars, we get that same impression again. When you see a race on television, compared to a race in a game, you realise that the reality isn’t as shiny or pleasant as the game. However, these “best conditions” do indeed exist. They happen every once in a while. Maybe, once a year, you’ll be watching a race on TV, or you’ll be outside, and a cloud will move in an ideal direction, and the sun will shine down at a perfect angle, and maybe just for a moment you’ll have this beautiful scene right in front of you.”

Of course, Yamauchi-san is correct, but you can’t help but smile at the irony of dynamic weather and time of day being two of the most-wanted features in GT5!

Unfortunately, most “journalists” who get the chance to interview Kazunori Yamauchi are largely clueless about the current state of the franchise. As a result, they ask the same questions to which the answers don’t really matter, delivered with the same rabid, impatient schoolboy mentality that seems to plague many people on the Internet these days. Needless to say, while this interview method can provide some sensational headlines, it does nothing to connect with the man or the company behind Gran Turismo. That’s what makes this interview with Xavier Ocampo, Japanese correspondent at MeriStation, so incredibly refreshing and insightful.

Xavier, who has a long history of friendship with Yamauchi-san, offers rare, personal impressions of his time at Polyphony Digital – all while providing us with much more information about the development status of Gran Turismo 5 than anyone who has gone before. Indeed, a quick skim of the article already revealed a “secret” GT5 trailer. The only problem, of course, is that MeriStation is a Spanish-language site, making Xavier’s full work inaccessible to many international GT fans unless they wanted to sift through an awkward machine translation. To help out, GTPlanet user Tenacious D smoothed out the rough edges, offering up the text in a much more accessible format. It’s long – 4,743 words, to be exact – but after reading it you’ll have a much better understanding of both and Gran Turismo 5 and Yamauchi-san. Thank you, Xavier, for this wonderful look inside Polyphony Digital.

You can start reading the translation below – I’ve highlighted the especially important parts in red.  For native Spanish speakers, of course, you can find the original version here.

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Last weekend’s interviews with Kazunori Yamauchi are finally hitting the web. While most reveal nothing that GTPlanet readers don’t already know, if we add up the bits and pieces of new information, we can get a better idea of what he is trying to tell us (or not). With so many interviews out at once, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. To help out, I’ve organized Yamauchi’s comments for you, dividing them up by topic. Let’s get started…

Gran Turismo 5’s Release Date

Yamauchi: “If it’s just to play the race or just run the game is over. However, if you want to go after the experience I would say we’re at 65%.”  –via JVN

Yamauchi: “The development schedule for the U.S. and Japan are pretty much fixed and the rest are really up to the marketing decisions that need to be made, so our schedule won’t really be changed – it’s really up to [Sony]. –via IGN

Yamauchi: “I don’t think it’s going to be that much later in the U.S. and Europe. This is based on our production schedule. The reason why the dates for the U.S. and [European] regions are not decided yet is because their marketing is still discussing their issues. It shouldn’t be too far off from [the Japanese] date for the other regions as well.” –via GameSpot

Car Damage

Yamauchi: “Once we have the physics calculation engine that will calculate the deformation on impact I think we will be done. [...] Racing cars will have the parts falling off, and obviously you will be able to see inside of the car, so it takes a lot of additional effort to create the cars.” –via IGN

Online Play

Yamauchi: “The big difference between Prologue and GT5 Prologue is that works like an open game. Anyone can go and play together. In GT5, there will be a restricted area where you can invite anyone you want or your friends.” –via JVN

Weather and Day/Night Cycles

Yamauchi: “We can implement it, but we don’t know whether we will put it in or not. Even for damage, it only took us two months to get it where we’re at, and if we really wanted to, we could enter time changes and stuff like that, but it really depends on how it will affect the quality of the game.” –via IGN

Car Customization

Yamauchi: “Visual modifications, yes. They will also affect the physical characteristics of the car as well.” –via IGN

Downloadable Content

Yamauchi: “At this point in time, we have nothing really planned.” –via IGN

Interaction with Gran Turismo PSP

“Gran Turismo PSP [...] will have a connection with GT 5. [...] …players won’t be able to move their credits from one version to the next.” –GameSpot

Gran Turismo 6 and Gran Turismo PSP 2

Yamauchi:  “GT5 is a title that was pretty much remade from scratch, but because we did that, the next version is actually going to be faster — the time period it’s going to be released. But I think when GT5 comes out, we’re still going to have things that are left undone, and whether we complete that in GT6, or the next version for PSP, I’m not sure yet. I’ve been working very hard for the last 15 years, and I think that hard work is just going to continue.” –JoyStiq

If you’ve noticed some other detail which you think deserves to be covered here, leave a note in the comments and I’ll update this post.

It’s always interesting to take a peek inside Polyphony Digital’s studios – a modern space packed full of computers, PS3’s, model cars, and Japanese toys. While we wait for the interviews from GamesBlog and GameSpot, take a look at some of the pictures from they’ve already started sharing. Be sure and watch for the iconic Ferrari 330 P4 getting its interior modeled, along with some interesting track-side elements, curiously blocky screens of Gran Turismo 5, and a talking George W. Bush figurine (?). What else can you find hiding in the background? Take a look at our full gallery of 111 images right here.

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