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Yamauchi reveals GT5 details to Car & Driver
Auto industry tome Car and Driver made the trek out to Japan for a feature on Gran Turismo creator Polyphony Digital studios in its August 2007 issue. Among the obsessively detailed descriptions of the Polyphony offices and some ridiculously simplistic analysis of the console wars, the article managed to squeeze in a few details about Gran Turismo 5 from creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Among the salient news: Programming detailed car models on the PS3 is a ridiculously time-consuming process. "For Gran Turismo 1, one car was one day's work for one man," Yamauchi said. "For GT3, one car was one man's work for 30 days. For GT5, one car is one man's work for 180 days." Since programming 700 new cars for GT5 would take the Polyphony team five years, the game will launch with what the article calls a "a much smaller collection," with downloadable updates to follow. This seems to somewhat confirm earlier rumors of a focus on downloadable content for the GT series. Yamauchi said the PS3 is powerful enough to handle in-game car damage , but implementing it realistically would require "double the work" in physics and artistic modeling. So will it make it into the game? As the Magic 8-Ball might say, signs point to no. While comments from Sony seem to indicate a vague Spring '08 release for GT5, the Car & Driver article speculates that Sony might have to indulge Yamauchi's artistic temperament, "even if it pushes Gran Turismo 5's release date to the end of 2008 or beyond." We just hope the game doesn't get shoveled over to the PS4, or worse, end up in perpetual vaporware development like Gran Turismo Mobile.
