Polyphony Digital

In a certainly unexpected turn of events, Cigarette Racing Team has announced a surprising partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Sony to build the $1.5-million Cigarette Racing 50’ Vision GT Concept boat. Yes, that’s right – a speedboat.

Tamir Moscovici’s documentary about Kazunori Yamauchi and the Gran Turismo series has now been released on YouTube, via PlayStation’s official channel.

At the Fukuoka Motor Show in Fukuoka, Japan (home to Polyphony Digital’s new headquarters), a new version of Gran Turismo 6 was available, revealing multi-screen display support.

KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide is now available, premiering exclusively on streaming service Hulu (it will be widely released on Sony Movie Channel, Sony Entertainment Network, Amazon Instant Video, and Crackle starting February 5, 2014).

It may be the best time of the year, but bad things can still happen.

EuroGamer has published a lengthy and comprehensive interview with Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi, discussing everything form his childhood, his philosophy on life, motorsports, Gran Turismo, and just about everything in between.

Legendary Italian American Indy 500, 24 Hours of Daytona, Daytona 500 winner and Formula 1 Champion Mario Andretti is at the center of a new GT6 First Love campaign in which GT fans get to take part in a historic rebuild project. The First Love Campaign is broken into three “Chapters:” Andretti, Live Build, and Reunion.

Amazon.com and GT Academy have teamed up to giveaway a 2014 Nissan 370Z NISMO Coupe, with an approximate retail value of more than $43,000.

The 11th annual GT Awards were held in Las Vegas last night, where a car on display at SEMA was chosen to be included in a future Gran Turismo game.

The 2013 Gran Turismo Awards are at SEMA in Las Vegas this week, and the finalists have just been revealed.

Chevrolet has featured Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi in their marketing efforts for the new 2014 Corvette Stingray, which includes an interactive film and website with keyboard-and-mouse challenges.

Each year at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the Gran Turismo Awards are held to honor some of the best custom vehicles on display – one of which gets immortalized in a Gran Turismo game.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe kicked off a #BestOfGT week on Monday to celebrate 15 years of the Gran Turismo series. Via the EU PlayStation Blog:

An interview with Polyphony Digital’s Takuya Asano has shed light on the “Gran Turismo Explore Studio”, a specialized creative space designed to help the company develop collaborative projects with other brands such as those seen in the recently announced Vision Gran Turismo project.

Last month’s Jalopnik Film Festival was an interesting and successful event for a lot of reasons. Although there were no major GT6 details announced or revealed, Kazunori Yamauchi spent a fair amount of time talking and interacting with journalists from a wide range of backgrounds.

During the Tokyo Game Show last week, several media outlets were invited to tour Polyphony Digital’s new Tokyo offices (the company is actually headquartered in Fukuoka, Japan).

Last week’s Jalopnik Film Festival was a smashing success, and became a unique intersection between car culture, filmmaking, and the Gran Turismo series.

Unveiled at the opening night of the Jalopnik Film Festival inside Classic Car Club Manhattan was a film documenting Polyphony Digital’s own Kazunori Yamauchi, entitled “KAZ: Pushing the Virtual Divide”.

Kazunori Yamauchi will be the star guest of the premier discussion panel at the Gran Turismo-sponsored Jalopnik Film Festival this Wednesday, September 18.

Reuters recently published an interesting article which offers an interesting look at the fascinating but rarely-discussed business of racing games, which are becoming increasingly important as auto makers look to reach out to consumers.