Kazunori Yamauchi Takes Home the 2018 Autoweek Car Culture Award

Calling cars like the Nissan Skyline and Mitsubishi Evolution "Obscure" surely must be some form of sarcasm, Lets not even begin with the whole Dr Kaz was not even the first to create a simulator thing. (NASCAR was first)

The man gets way too much recognition for essentially being the mastermind behind games that have glaring flaws especially in the physics, sound and ai departments and for releasing games that while being polished and pretty generally have missing or plain unfinished features.
 
ghostrider135
Calling cars like the Nissan Skyline and Mitsubishi Evolution "Obscure" surely must be some form of sarcasm, Lets not even begin with the whole Dr Kaz was not even the first to create a simulator thing. (NASCAR was first)
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That's why I said "in the States". Prior to the release of GT, a vast majority of gearheads in the US had no idea what a Lancer or Skyline were. We never got those cars (except for the Dodge Lancer which was similar to the Mitsu). The handful of folks who followed rally racing probably knew of the Lancer Evo, but I'm not sure how popular that even was at the time.
 
That's pretty awesome. Yes, the games are not perfect but they are far from mediocre. I played GT3 when it came out in 2001 at the age of 13 and while I was already a car nut from the tender age of 3 (I used to name almost every car brand that roamed the streets of where I grew up when riding in the car with the folks), GT pushed my love and interest of the car world into new heights.
 
Great to see his influence on so many areas of the automotive and gaming business is recognised and appreciated.

The article sums his impact it up very well both in moving interest in cars from bedroom posters to virtual driving, building relationships with manufacturers who are looking to interest the younger generations and providing a platform for real driving talent to flourish.

With the changes coming in both the automotive world and slowly growing influence of e-sports the step from Nissan Academy to GTS could well be important as there was a risk of the product being seen to be too closely tied to Nissan. The Manufacturers Cup is a good step here.

Inevitably there have been missteps along the way through a 20 year history but the overall impact is undeniable.

p.s. It is fashionable today to criticize long running franchises and look back with nostalgia to days gone by but I do wonder whether when original GT came out everyone instantly agreed that this would be the start of such a long running series and was met with instant critical acclaim or whether there were doubts expressed .....I suspect like everything new there were mixed opinions...... and perhaps we should remember that when evaluating the 2nd generation "reboot" of the series.

ghostrider135
Calling cars like the Nissan Skyline and Mitsubishi Evolution "Obscure" surely must be some form of sarcasm, Lets not even begin with the whole Dr Kaz was not even the first to create a simulator thing. (NASCAR was first)

The man gets way too much recognition for essentially being the mastermind behind games that have glaring flaws especially in the physics, sound and ai departments and for releasing games that while being polished and pretty generally have missing or plain unfinished features.
Click to expand...

You mean like the rest of the gaming industry then........PS3 era maybe for whatever reasons...... but GT4 to my mind was complete and against other games in different genres at the same time I found was pretty bug free which is why it got played more......the move in the industry generally to being able to download patches has reduced the need for 100% perfect implementation as several non GTS racing genre titles recently have demonstrated very clearly.......GTS so far looks like a return to form but only time will tell.
 
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Leggacy
I think of GT as kind of like a “gateway drug” I started on GT1 with a pad (and a NegCon controller) now I’m playing AC, PC2 and GTS with a wheel and playseat. God damn I’ve spent a lot of £$¥€ on this “hobby”/waste of time. Kaz it’s all your fault :D
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how on earth is doing something that makes you happy a waste of time is beyond me :D some people huh
 

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