Kazunori Yamauchi

When we saw Gran Turismo 5 for the first time last month, there was quite a bit of discussion about the impressive graphics from the trailer.  It was certainly in Polyphony Digital’s visual style, but was it “real”, or had it been rendered independent from the game’s visual engine?  That’s what IGN editor Chris Roper got to ask Kazunori Yamauchi during a recent interview, to which he answered “of course it’s real”.  To verify that answer, Chris began a frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer to see what he could find for himself -discovering some interesting imperfections that support Yamauchi’s comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfTr6rBusk

In a short but sweet interview with AutoWeek magazine which must have fallen through the cracks with all the other E3 news, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi stated that “We will give the release date of Gran Turismo 5 soon.”  The question remains, though – just how soon is “soon”?  Speculation is mounting in our forums, with many pointing towards the upcoming Tokyo Game Show this September 24-27.  Aside from taking place on Polyphony Digital’s home turf (their offices are located in Tokyo), the 2007 TGS show is where they announced the release date for GT5 Prologue.  While this is just speculation, you can see the pieces of the puzzle would fit together quite nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZw3ObYN6uE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0vcFE7Ezg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FioFErsHpQc

Just when we thought this roller coaster ride was about to come to an end, we find there’s one more scary drop: Sony is reportedly telling everyone interviewing Kazunori Yamauchi “to not mention Gran Turismo 5“.  So…what does this mean?  Obviously, it’s not good – presuming that Gran Turismo 5 is announced at Sony’s big press conference tomorrow, why couldn’t he talk about it?  It may, ultimately, come down to Sony not wanting any GT5 announcements to dwarf GT Mobile and the new PSP Go hardware, in which case, we may be waiting several more months for news about the big game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_66KyeyfI4

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxKSsXZ9mI

Since the Logitech Challenge cheaters were exposed, many of you have spread the word and contacted Sony/Logitech, expressing your anger with poorly-skilled drivers who were bending the rules to get ahead.  Now, we’ve got official word from Logitech on exactly what is (not) going to happen.   Chris Pate, Logitech’s Global Product Marketing Manager, stopped by the GTPlanet Forums:

Aside from a few seconds of screen time in the rolling credits at the end of each game, few people aside from Kazunori Yamauchi get much credit for the countless hours of hard work that goes into each masterpiece of the Gran Turismo series. True, Polyphony Digital is a very secretive company – that’s just a fact of life in their industry – but there are hundreds of brilliant people getting their hands dirty (and sleeping on cots under their desks) who deserve more credit for what they do.  A single web page on Polyphony Digital’s corporate site offers the rare opportunity to place faces with names.  Thanks to the magic of online translation, let’s take a closer look at who they are.  GTPlanet wishes all of them well – keep up the great work, guys, we are looking forward to what you have in store for us.