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.
I’d just like to point-out, and save any future readers the time, that the vast majority of comments for this article are in a negative-light with PD, with no-one to blame but themselves.
“Where are we now?”, More like “Will GT ever recover?”.
I was one of many fools who rushed out after GTS was announced last year to take advantage of seasonal sale prices on PS4. Deceived by a less than honourable sales tactic? Guilty. Should have listened to those who warned me of PD’s reputation. Anyone want to buy a PS4?
“Where are we?”
Simple. This Quantum Leap turned into a Quantum Distortion and we’re stuck in it.
What in the world is wrong with Sony?
Why would they string there fans out like this. A lot of sim racers I know are fed up and say say screw you.
If Turn10 would listen a bit more to their forums, focus a bit more on revamping their physics and having a bigger track list they could easily overtake GT.PD is slowly losing more and more support from fans due to their lack of communication and vague explanations, it’s crazy to see something so simple make such a big impact when not being done.
In almost every way that counts I think they have taken over from the GT series. The car roster is second to none…ever, IMO. The track list already bigger than GTS intends to be at launch and will probably grow by 4 to 6 with the launch of Forza 7. Feature wise it’s got GT beat. Physics are a toss up from what I gather. They already have online championships and prize money. The only advantage for GT I can see is GT Academy and with only 1 winner per year from millions of players and maybe 1 player in 50,000 having a realistic shot at even qualifying, it might as well be a lottery ticket.
I absolutely cannot believe I bought a ps4 in anticipation of this game think pd would act make good on a release date promise after going through the last two series of delays. I’m wishing I would have spent the money on a PC to do some real sim racing instead of having a $400 system collecting dust in the corner for months on end. Bah, come on pd get it together and at least give us a date to look forward to.
I did the same you are not alone..I bought a PS4 just for this game..it’s still sealed in the box..waiting..just waiting..still waiting..losing intrest
Sorry PD and Sony, but I WAS going to get a PS4. After the delay, I sold my PS3 and now have an Xbox One S, Forza 6, And Horizon 3. No looking back. You had a loyal fan since GT1. Oh well. Maybe the next Gen console you can convince me to come back?? We shall see.
That sounds a lot like myself except I made the move already in August 2015. :) Haven’t looked back at GT since, it’s IMO moving away from real simulation MUCH too far with all these Vision GT fantasy cars and now fantasy stuff like a Ford Focus Group B rally car, a Ford Mustang Group B rally car. I mean…. w…t…f…. are they doing???
GT Sport missed its window by some 2 years. I will now wait for true next generation, not PS4 Pro.
It’s for the best if they show us something new, I’m bored seeing the same stuff over and over. As of now GTSport is not worth buying a PS4. PD need to step up, and maybe try to communicate with the fans.
Where are we?
We have an abandoned mostly finished game missing some very desired VGT’s that gets retread seasonals and no updates to improve anything.
We’re no closer to GT Sports’ release than we were then. I seriously doubt it’ll be out in a year from now.
Bitter much? Yeah, I’m a veteran of the Kaz PR machine, or lack off one. I’ll be first in line to get my preorder but I’ve stopped checking the news for updates on its features or release date.
If PD could actually start making progress by having back & forth communication with the community, that’d be great. Its ridiculously embarassing for such a popular developing team to lack in such a vital part of their game’s playerbase.
They are japanese, they are not used to communicate too much.
Japanese people don’t talk?
This is where we are now :
– Forza Horizon 3 released with very positive reviews, 2 expansions and a handful of DLC still coming
– Assetto Corsa getting 3 Porsche expansion packs
– Project CARS sold over 2 million copies and PC2 is under development
euh… what game were you talking about again?
Cool story bro
It is a cool story. Players interested in both Arcade and more hardcore Sim racing have several alternatives now and are all the better for it. Add to that list a couple of Forza games, the latest one with arguably the greatest car list ever to appear in a video game and simply blows GTSport out of the water in that regard. PCars has features like dynamic time of day and weather and huge car counts offline, full on race weekends with qualifying and highly tunable opposition strength and AI that’s on pace both in the corners and on the straights, making for an offline experience a GT player can only dream about. Tiny Kunos somehow comes up with the sim racing coup of the century in securing the Porsche lineup for their tiny little sim and brings a FFB and physics experience never before seen on console.
GT, once the undisputed content leader of the genre, has stripped back to barebones and is now trying to excel in only one area, the area they’ve never really excelled at before – actual racing and online to boot. It’s a bold maneuvre I’ll give them that, but whether they succeed in recruiting anything even close to their historic sales figures remains to be seen.
This is GT5 waiting all over again. :)
Event Editor and competitive AI. Please PDI.
But now there are many other comptetitors (i dont play them, but they are here for everybody :) )
No more Standard cars: Awesome!
Livery: Awesome!
140 cars: OK
Offline Mode Info: ?
Damage: So far, doesn’t look like it.
Basically, I need more to convince me to buy this game. I’ve supported GT since its inception, although I’m not a “hardcore” avid racer that has to have the best gear. I’m more like a “weekend warrior” when it comes to racing. Therefore, If I am gonna be convinced to not only buy the game, but also to warrant buying a PS4, this game better prove to be a much better game than its predecessor.
What offlne- mode?? This is “Sport”, not 7!
Dont wait AI for this game, or if it come, it is very bad and stupid.
No it’s not stupid at all. Or bad. Some of us like to just have those chilled races against the computer. How many GT games have you actually played Szuper?
I own all GT3 – GT6 games. Im playing those games about 40- 50 times start to finish and yes, i like it but AI is big problem.
GT “Sport” is buid for online gamers only. Maybe PD build little career (start to finish mode) and tahts it.
I leave the sport between 7 and set my expectations. Just because AI.
Will GTsport be at Lisbon Games week at November?
A very bizarre sequence of events IMO. The level of secrecy and lack of presence on social media really leaves fans in the dark and is out of touch with the direction most developers are taking in this day and age. The ninja like presence at gaming shows only adds to the mystery. Is it ready? Is it releasing soon? How can this be VR ready if it still has frame rate issues? VR only on PSPro? Why only a couple of tracks shown so far and why so few new cars since the initial reveal?
Only the Shadow knows apparently…
That was a quick year! Where are we know? We are still in the dark over the majority of GT Sport but we have more images and video to look at. Still speculating…