Kazunori Yamauchi

At the 2011 SEMA Show last week, I had the very special opportunity to – for the first time – personally interview the master himself: Kazunori Yamauchi. We had a great chat, and I am happy to report that Kazunori seemed happy, relaxed, and in good spirits.

The 2011 Gran Turismo Awards were held last Thursday night in Las Vegas, and Kazunori Yamauchi himself selected this year’s “Best in Show” winner: a 1971 Chevrolet Camaro, customized and tuned by Mary Pozzi of Salinas, California.

Just as the North American gamers are getting to grips with yesterday’s DLC addition, Kazunori Yamauchi has announced a game update. The update will address issues gamers have brought up with the Spec 2.0 version of the game released earlier this month:

Following the community reaction to some of the intricacies of the downloadable content released earlier in the week (or next week for North America), Kazunori Yamauchi has been busy working on solutions and responding to complaints via Twitter. The latest of these includes a nod to the present, one-off nature of the car pack:

Kazunori Yamauchi has been sharing a boatload of new details via Twitter this morning on the previously announced Gran Turismo 5 Spec 2.0 Update coming later this month. Here’s an overview of what we can expect from 2.0, which will be made available to everyone for free:

Fulfilling his pledge to make important Twitter posts in English, Kazunori Yamauchi has just announced some interesting plans if Sebastian Vettel wins the 2011 F1 World Championship:

The GT community has been eagerly awaiting news of the next significant update following last month’s announcement hinting at new content and features for us this fall. According to a very rare English-language tweet from Kazunori Yamauchi this morning, that new content and features will be a “Spec 2.0” update to the game in October and downloadable content shortly after:

As was suspected when Polyphony Digital announced GT5’s online maintenance schedule earlier this week, Kazunori Yamauchi has now confirmed, via Twitter, the game’s next update should become available on August 29th/30th.

Polyphony Digital has taken an unusual – though certainly welcome – opportunity to announce scheduled downtime for Gran Turismo 5’s online services through mid-September. While it is not clear what, if anything, these maintenance periods will bring with them in the form of software updates, it’s worth noting the release of new GT5 versions have frequently been released after network downtime.

At the 2011 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance yesterday, Kazunori Yamauchi awarded this year’s Gran Turismo Trophy to a head-turning 1960 Plymouth XNR Ghia Roadster concept car. Created by influential car designer Virgil Exner (hence the concept’s name), it was intended to preview the direction of Chrysler’s designs in the 1960’s. It had enough muscle to back up its dramatic, asymmetrical look, producing 250 horsepower from a Valiant 225 Slant Six (more details on the car are available here).

In an interview with VG24/7, Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, made some interesting comments regarding the future of Gran Turismo 5 and Polyphony Digital’s next project:

Kazunori Yamauchi made a wise statement on Twitter today, offering up information on when the next Gran Turismo 5 update will be available while simultaneously tempering expectations. Here’s a translation of his post by Shirakawa Akira, in response to a question on the subject:

Kazunori Yamauchi is back in action on Twitter today, re-confirming one of the most-asked-for features in Gran Turismo 5 is still “under development”. Via Google Translator:

While responding to a question on Twitter, Kazunori Yamauchi has thankfully shared some brief yet interesting information on the future plans for Gran Turismo 5. Here’s a human translation of his comments, kindly offered by GTPlanet community member Shirakawa Akira: