GTPlanet

There may be a hint of sensationalist link-baiting in VG247’s latest headline about Gran Turismo 5 – indeed, you can’t help but wonder why they didn’t mention these comments by SCEA Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller in their article last month.  Regardless, his additional comments reinforce the important notion that the GT series is coming to platforms other than the PS3:

“[Polyphony Digital] report directly into our CEO, Kaz Hirai, so it’s a little bit of a ‘wait and see’,” the exec told VG247 when asked when we can expect to see GT5.

“But we look for that franchise to continue on as many platforms as possible.”

You won’t see GTPlanet jumping to any rediculous conclusions about a PC (or Xbox, ha!) release, but Mr. Koller’s broad choice of words there is still raising a few eyebrows.  E3 2009 may be even more interesting than we originally thought…

In a revealing statement from last week’s Game Developer’s Conference, SCEA Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller mentioned that Gran Turismo 5 will be released across “all platforms” when it “makes the most sense”.  The comments came from a Q&A session and were just picked up by VG247:

“Ultimately, they [Polyphony Digital] are a developer who makes a lot of their own decisions, but we are looking at GT5 across all platforms, just to see what makes the most sense.  [...] Seriously though, there is really nothing we can really say about it, other than it’s a franchise we would like to continue.  So, other than that, we don’t really have any announcements regarding the game at this time.”

Now, what the heck does that mean?  GT5 will almost certainly not be released on any hardware  that competes with Sony’s franchise, and it won’t be on older systems (PS2).  That leaves the obvious PlayStation 3 and re-affirms that development of Gran Turismo Mobile for the PSP is ongoing.  This idea is in line with recent comments about GT Mobile from Kazunori Yamauchi himself, and fits the cryptic hints about GT’s future shared by highly respected GTPlanet member amar212 in our forums.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning two more “radical” interpretations of John Koller’s comments which, despite being highly unlikely, can logically be made.  Less than one year ago, Kazunori Yamauchi declared that Gran Turismo could be coming to the PC, and that the mysterious Gran Turismo for Boys is still in the works.  Could both or either of these games be what Mr. Koller is referring to?  Time will tell…