Gran Turismo 4 goes gold
The racing sim is ready for its December 3 release in Japan. Also, Yamauchi drops hints about upcoming GT games.
TOKYO--Gran Turismo series producer and Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi announced the completion of Gran Turismo 4's development at a special party dedicated to the game yesterday. During the party, Yamauchi took to the podium to make a number of comments on the game, and also mention a few things about the future of the racing series.
"You need to be familiar with cars from a young age to really get to like them," Yamauchi said. "So I'm thinking of a project called 'Gran Turismo for Boys,' which will be a Gran Turismo that's arranged for children. I want to introduce cars to children using Gran Turismo as an entertainment tool, so that they'll become car lovers when they grow older. Although it will be limited to kids under 8 or so years old, I want it to be low-priced, if not free, with disregard to profit. I really want children to get to know cars and to love them. This is the return of gratitude that I can make to the car industry."
Yamauchi also talked a bit about the PSP release of Gran Turismo 4, which is slated for release in the spring.
"The PSP version will be a little scaled down in comparison with the PS2 version, but it won't be any different from the Gran Turismo series that everyone's known," Yamauchi said. "I think that the greatest trait of the PSP is that it can be carried around and used for communication. Communication between people will probably be one of the key aspects of the PSP."
Surprisingly, Yamauchi also made a short comment about Gran Turismo 5, confirming his interest in making more installments in the racing simulation series. Interestingly, he talked about collision damage and effects such as cars crashing and rolling over, which has been avoided in the GT series to date because the games feature licensed cars.
"There are a lot of things that need to be done in GT5," Yamauchi said. "Calculating and displaying damage from collisions is one of the elements that I'd like to work on. I think it will be a major theme in GT5."
Gran Turismo 4 will be released in Japan on December 3 and in the United States on December 14.
