On December 23, 1997, the first entry on Gran Turismo video game franchises go on sale in Japan. As of November 16, 2022, the cumulative sales of these titles totaled over 90 million copies. To mark the 25th anniversary of the series, developer Polyphony Digital released a video showing the experience’s evolution over the years. Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi also posted a statement about the milestone at Playstation blog.
When he joined Sony, Yamauchi had been part of the film production club since he was 14 years old. He wanted to work in the company’s imaging products division, but the business assigned him to the department that made original PlayStation consoles. “That place wasn’t what I expected, but looking back now, you could say I was very lucky,” he wrote on his Instagram account. Playstation blog.
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Gran Turismo development began with him, two part-time artists, and three engineers. Today, Polyphony Digital has a staff of over 200 people. The founding members of the team are still with the company.
After the original Gran Turismo launched in Japan, people around the world had to wait a few months to play the game. It goes on sale in Europe on May 8, 1998. North America got the game on May 12, 1998. The title was a huge success with approximately 10.85 million copies sold worldwide.
Gran Turismo 7 is the newest game in the franchise. It launched on PlayStation 4 and 5 on March 4, 2022. Since then, Polyphony Digital has been supporting the title with monthly updates, including new cars, tracks, photo backgrounds and other features.
Given Yamauchi’s initial passion for film production, he’s probably excited Gran Turismo films that are being produced. He is the executive producer on the project. Filming begins in November for the theatrical premiere planned for August 11, 2023.
This film tells the true story of Gran Turismo player Jann Mardenborough who took part in the GT Academy competition and became a professional car racer. The cast includes David Harbor and Orlando Bloom. Neill Blomkamp is directing.
