Monument of realistic racing games, Gran Turismo marked several generations of followers of the genre. Today’s fans have fun with Gran Turismo 7 (available from €44.99 on Amazon.co.uk), regularly updated by Polyphony Digitaltitle whose quality comes from 25 years of experience from the Japanese studio.
Gran Turismo first of the name was indeed celebrating this week his 25th birthday, which was released on December 23, 1997 on PlayStation in the Archipelago. Kazunori Yamauchi and his teams celebrated this quarter century with an article from the PlayStation-Blog, in which the director reflects on the genesis of the franchise, as well as a commemorative video, reflecting on its evolution and the continued support of the community. And given its lasting success, the exclusive license to playstation still has a bright future ahead of it.
I am very happy to celebrate our 25th anniversary since the first release of a title in the Gran Turismo series.
In 1992, Gran Turismo was the first planned project I created, out of almost 100 others I had imagined when I started my career in this industry, so it means a lot to me.
Although I started making video games when I was 10 — as a hobby — I never imagined making a career out of it.
I started a film production club when I was 14, and I was producing films, so when I joined Sony I was hoping to create image-related products. But the department they assigned me to was not at all what I expected.
This was a department in which the PlayStation console was just about to be released, and it was a place where Kutaragi-san worked feverishly to bring the concept of the PlayStation to life.
This place was not what I had hoped for, but looking back, you can say I was very lucky.
I was fascinated by the real-time 3D graphics that many expected, and I created and presented plans for all kinds of video games, not just racing games but RPGs, adventure games, action games , puzzle games, and more.
As a result, Gran Turismo took on a more “fantasy” format as a racing game in the “Motor Toon Grand Prix”, becoming one of the first games developed in-house for PlayStation; but if a plan for something other than a racing game had been approved, there is a high probability that I would be working on something other than Gran Turismo today.
After that the Gran Turismo project started by bringing together a team of two part-time artists and three engineers.
From there the number of comrades has continued to grow for more than a quarter of a century, and today we have become Polyphony Digital, a company with more than 200 members in its team.
I don’t think there are many video game franchises in the world that have persisted for 25 years with the same title and the same team.
The founding members of the company are still working hard, and I am filled with gratitude and pride that our 200 team members are a real team with the same drive and love that the company had in it at its beginnings.
Over the past 25 years, total cumulative sales for the series have reached and surpassed 90 million copies, as of November 16, 2022.
And this result is not something that we could have achieved alone.
Behind this figure of 90 million copies, there are all the media people who have shared the appeal of Gran Turismo with their readers. There are the folks at PlayStation who passionately sold GT for us around the world, and there is the incredible support from the dealers who communicated directly with our users.
I owe them immense gratitude, all of them, for their support.
And above all, I can’t thank the GT users and people in the GT community enough who have played our new titles, even those who at times could be considered very experimental.
If we are here today it is thanks to all the people who supported us.
I believe that the Gran Turismo series has always sought “Beauty”. The beauty of cars, the beauty of circuits, the beauty of lighting, the beauty of driving, the beauty of sounds and music, and the beauty of graphics.
The “pursuit of beauty” is the motivation behind the creation of Gran Turismo.
We have a renewed determination to continue our progress in the future, with a strong sense of determination.
We appreciate all the support you have shown us over the past 25 years. Thank you.