GTPlanet is here in Monaco for the Gran Turismo World Finals and Gran Turismo’s 25th Anniversary event, and we had the chance to sit down with GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi.
A lot has changed since we last spoke to Yamauchi-san, and one of the more interesting developments in the industry is the release of titles from major first-party PlayStation Studios on the PC.
Some of Sony’s biggest franchises have already made their way to the platform, including Santa Monica Studio’s God of WarInsomniac Games’ Spider-Manand Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4with more expected to follow.
Naturally, this has led many to speculate if Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo series could also be making the jump, and we were curious to ask Yamauchi-san if that was something he would consider.
“Yes, I do think so,” Yamauchi replied.
But, there are some caveats.
“Gran Turismo is a very finely tuned title,” Yamauchi-san explained. “There are not many platforms which could run the game in 4K/60p natively, so one way we make that possible is to narrow down the platform. It’s not a very easy subject, but of course, we are looking into it and considering it.”
Of course, Gran Turismo 7 could technically already be considered a multi-platform title. The game runs well on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, and PlayStation 5 consoles, offering slightly different levels of fidelity depending on the hardware. Resolution, textures, and track-side detail are downgraded for the older systems, while the PS5 offers the full 4K/60p experience and even supports ray-tracing in replays and menus.
While there are many popular and highly sophisticated driving games and sim-racing titles available on PC, there is nothing quite like Gran Turismo available on the platform. Such an expansion would be one of the most significant developments in the series’ history, and would introduce many new players to a game which — for the past 25 years — has always required PlayStation hardware to play.
Needless to say, Yamauchi’s comments will encourage us to keep a close eye on PlayStation Studios’ expansion onto the PC platform moving forward. Until then, look for more from our interview with Yamauchi-san here in Monaco very soon.
See more articles on Kazunori Yamauchi, PC Gaming, and Polyphony Digital.