It’s Been a Year Since GT Sport’s Reveal: Where Are We Now?

Paris Games Week 2016 got underway yesterday. For Gran Turismo fans, the event holds significance, for it was at last year’s expo that the latest chapter in Polyphony’s racing franchise was first introduced. With 366 days since that initial reveal, we’re looking back to get an idea of what’s changed since then, and — thanks to a delay pushing the title into 2017 — where GT Sport is heading.

If we’re being thorough, we should point out that the GT Sport story only officially started on October 27, 2015. Thanks to a Croatian retailer listing during June of that year, the title was bandied about quite often before Polyphony confirmed it.

Without further ado, here we go. Grab a snack: this won’t be a short ride!

2015: And So It Begins

• We start with the obvious one: the original announcement at Paris Games Week 2015. With only a quick video and short speech, Kazunori Yamauchi makes it clear this will be the biggest departure from the traditional Gran Turismo formula the franchise has seen, aiming at the lucrative eSports market and focusing on the previously-announced FIA Championships.
• We break down everything we know on the game. Live racing events will take place, much like GT Academy (which would use GT Sport as its platform in 2016). PlayStation VR compatibility is confirmed, alongside a continuation of the Vision Gran Turismo project first started with GT6. A public beta is earmarked for “early 2016”, while the full title is expected by the end of the calendar year. Neither of these come to pass, unfortunately.
• Sony’s Jim Ryan is confident GT Sport will be in player’s hands by the end of 2016, saying as much in an interview. Sorry, Jim. He also states that the game is emphatically not Gran Turismo 7, a tidbit that causes a great deal of discussion over the next 12 months.
• After all the excitement in Paris, it’s quiet along the GT front for two months, until images leak out from Polyphony’s Christmas party. We see stunning shots of cars in picture-perfect surroundings. We’re not quite sure where they’ve come from or what they represent, but it all starts to make sense in the Spring…

January–April 2016: The Quiet Times

• We start the year with a potential look at GT Sport’s car roster from an unlikely source: Hot Wheels. We do eventually see a Corvette C7-based racer in the game, though it’s not the C7.R, but a Polyphony-designed model. Looking back, this has us asking one question: where has the Veneno gone in the latest builds?!
• A mysterious GT-branded info screen follows an Acura ILX endurance racer across the Canadian Auto Show circuit. Nearly 10 months later, we’ve yet to see the car in the game, leading us to believe there was a miscommunication somewhere. Though there’s still cars to be unveiled…
• French journalist Cyril Drevet takes a tour of Polyphony at the beginning of the year, and in a podcast recounting the experience, states he doesn’t believe Gran Turismo Sport will make its 2016 release. This turns out to be quite prophetic, but our fears are assuaged in April when Sony Europe VP Phillipe Cardon name-checks GT Sport as part of the company’s 2016 plans.
• Even with so little known about the game — officially, there was only the 2-minute announcement trailer — the demand for GT Sport is substantial. When PlayStation VR pre-orders became available on Amazon UK, the game saw a massive 581% increase in its own pre-orders.

May 2016: The Copper Box Event

• Those expecting to have to wait until E3 in June for more info were surprised by the announcement of a dedicated GT Sport event in London. GTPlanet is invited along, with 50 lucky community members gaining access to the first public opportunity to play the game.
• The information blowout begins: Over 130 cars, all at a “super premium” level of quality. 19 track locations with 27 variations available. The FIA Championships will be a major focus of the game, with a unique digital licensing program for 22 countries from launch. Most importantly, fans get an (initial) release date: as early as November 15 for certain regions.
• Remember those ultra-realistic images from the Christmas party? These are revealed to be a smattering of the 1000+ locations in the new “Scapes” mode, which places GT Sport car models on real-world photographs through compositing. Photomode veterans rejoice!
• A livery editor is confirmed to (finally) be making its way to the Gran Turismo series.
• Not only will the FIA Championships be a primary feature of the game, with winners getting to rub shoulders with racing champions from F1 and WRC at the yearly awards ceremony, Polyphony plans on making the races broadcast-friendly.
• Thrustmaster shows off a secretive direct-drive wheel at the event. Bring (lots of) money.
• The public beta promised for “early 2016” is quietly canned. In an interview with GTPlanet, Kazunori Yamauchi states the reason is to maintain the November 2016 release date.
• The Vision GT project is “not even halfway done“, according to Yamauchi. The Polyphony president confirms no more models will arrive in Gran Turismo 6.
• Polyphony throws a curve ball by announcing GT Sport won’t feature dynamic time or weather, on the basis that consistent image quality and frame rate is more important.

June 2016: Electronic Entertainment Expo

• Shortly after the Copper Box event, GT Sport was shown off at the Nürburgring 24H race. At the beginning of June, it got a similar showcase in its home country, complete with another live race event.
• Talking with Famitsu, Yamauchi suggests players won’t have to wait long for GT Sport’s post-release DLC.
• Just days before E3, Sony releases GT Sport’s latest trailer. Players get their first chance to ogle the Group B (rally) and Group 3 (circuit) Mustangs, two of the latest Polyphony-designed racers making their debut in the game.
• Not content with releasing just the trailer, Polyphony also drops over 100 new GT Sport images.
• After the occasionally-choppy connections many suffered with GT6’s online mode, news of dedicated servers for the new game’s “Sport Mode” is most welcome.
• Our man Jordan gets a detailed breakdown of GT Sport’s “Advanced Matchmaking System” & “Sportsmanship Points”. The system is clearly inspired by iRacing’s Safety Rating, with the end-goal being a better online experience and, ultimately, more fun.
• GT Sport’s FIA Digital Licensing program is expanded upon. While the details are very much still in progress, the game could offer a new avenue into getting on track locally.
• No more glitches! Photomode enthusiasts found all sorts of ways to snap images inside their cars in the PS3 titles, but no longer: GT Sport will let you in there right away.

July–August 2016: The GT Sport World Tour

• As promised, GT Academy 2016 uses GT Sport as its platform to find the next gamer-to-racer. Switching to exclusively live events, the season kicks off in Thailand and the Philippines.
• GT Sport gets a whole bunch of public play dates in Japan for the summer.
• China isn’t left out, getting dates in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
• EGX, one of the biggest gaming conventions in the UK, confirms GT Sport’s presence.
• Some unexpected details begin to come out of the Chinese leg of GT Sport’s tour. Up first is a presentation slide showing a possible reduction in location count, going from 19 to 15. Interestingly, the layout count remains at 27.
• GT Academy finalists receive a steady steam of input from experienced mentors during their time at Race Camp. With the game’s Sport Mode offering a similar path through eSports, Kazunori Yamauchi hints that players may get lessons from actual F1 coaches.
• Easily the biggest shock out of the China interviews, Kazunori suggests the game will end up featuring up to 500 cars. He also confirms the controversial Standard cars of the previous generation are indeed dead for good.
• At the Copper Box event, Yamauchi stated the game was at roughly 50% of where he’d like it to be. By the beginning of August, that percentage is bumped to 70%.
• Remember when Jim Ryan stressed that the game was not Gran Turismo 7? Well, Kazunori believes the game has enough content to warrant the full sequel treatment, but insists the current name is more appropriate as it focuses on the defining Sport Mode.
• GT Academy begins in Australia.
• Huge news for previous GT players hoping to keep their existing racing accessories: “We plan to continue supporting PS3 wheels.”
• GT Sport arrives at Gamescom with new car and track additions, and a new documentary about the Nürburgring 24H race.
• August ends on a low note: despite the cancelled public beta and the confidence the game would release on time, Kazunori Yamauchi posts an update to the PlayStation blog confirming the game has been delayed. No release window is given beyond “2017”. This will remain the most recent official statement from the team at the time of writing.

September–October 2016: Post-Delay Uncertainty

• Sony begins cancelling (digital) pre-orders of GT Sport.
• Kazunori stated GT Sport would continue to tour the globe despite delays, and it’s true: the game shows up at the 2016 Tokyo Game Show, with another Exhibition Match (featuring Super GT drivers).
• Barcelona Games World is the next place the game makes an appearance. Another multiplayer event is set up, with a unique twist: players can win a copy of the game. Presumably, it won’t be delivered for a while…
• Footage emerges from another event — this time in Russia — showing some slight changes. Notable are the head movements of the driver when using interior view.
• Despite being confirmed from day one, we’ve yet to see any in-game footage of GT Sport using PlayStation VR. The game (briefly) features in an ad for the accessory, showing off a possible new addition to the car roster in the form of the road-going McLaren 650S.
• Unusual comments out of Sony South Africa suggest GT Sport will be releasing in January.
• With GT Sport being shown off at numerous expos in October, we see a variety of (off-screen) recordings from fans, including a longer look at Fishermans Ranch.
• A rare direct-sound capture video of the game showcases what seems to be a very different (and surprisingly accurate) sound engine.

Looking Forward

With the build at this year’s Paris Games Week looking to be the same as the one we’ve seen during the rest of October, which upcoming event(s) could play host to the next major unveiling by Kazunori & Co? SEMA gets underway next week, but isn’t typically used for big game-related announcements, instead focusing on the GT Awards.

The PlayStation Experience in California is the last big event of 2016, happening December 3–4. If the rumours out of South Africa are true and the game is indeed coming January, we’d expect Sony and Polyphony to start ramping up the pre-release marketing there.

In his update about the delay, Yamauchi made reference to “yet-to-be revealed cutting edge experiences”. While we’ve known about GT Sport for a year now, so much of it is still a mystery: we’ve yet to see in-game VR experiences, or damage, or night racing. We’re more than a little curious to know what Polyphony has in store in terms of new features.

Another aspect we’re looking forward to is the further reveal of the car list. At present, slightly over half of the 140+ lineup is known (check out the full list here, kept in order by community member Samus). With the oldest car currently being GT5’s 2009 Lotus Evora, many fans are wondering if the game’s focus will remain exclusively on newer car models.

As ever, we’ll be keeping our eyes and ears open for any and all news relating to the game. Stay tuned; there may still be some surprises left in 2016!

See more articles on Kazunori Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital.