Kazunori Yamauchi Q&A
IGN: This is the first full-blooded Gran Turismo title for the PlayStation 3 – obviously the extra processing power has helped make the game look absolutely gorgeous, but how has this extra power helped under the bonnet?
Kazunori Yamauchi: The physics calculations have improved in precision quite a bit with the move to the PlayStation 3, and of course being able to do that for 16 separate cars is really something.
IGN: You've said previously that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will not only offer full online race support, but will eventually go on to foster a community of car-lovers. How is that going to happen?
Kazunori Yamauchi: Where we're at now is only half of what we imagine for the game, and we have the other half to work on. The community feature which you refer to is something which we're working on.
IGN: Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a taster, but can we expect to see downloads in the future boosting the content, and is there a timeline for these?
Kazunori Yamauchi: I can't say exactly right now, but we're looking at fall this year for an update that will complete Gran Turismo 5 Prologue as a game.
IGN: We've held off from this, but surely everyone's been asking about damage in Gran Turismo 5. You've said previously that it's something you're considering, but is it something that's being actively worked on by Polyphony at the moment?
Kazunori Yamauchi: Maybe by fall we'll be able to implement it.
IGN: As a feature of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue?
Kazunori Yamauchi: Yes.
IGN: Obviously Gran Turismo is the stand-out title in its field on the PlayStation 3, but do you ever look at the competition elsewhere, such as Forza on the Xbox or GTR on PC?
Kazunori Yamauchi: I know there are a lot of titles out there, and some of these do things we haven't done yet. But what we're trying to do is perfect every part of what we have so far, and then move on to the next part which we will perfect, and we're doing this in steps, and we'd like people to look forward to those steps.
IGN: You've got a London track in Prologue that looks absolutely lush. We often fantasise about what course a London GP would take – how did you come up with the layout?
Kazunori Yamauchi: I come to London very often, and I've walked the streets and I know them, so that helped a lot. The course that we have in the game at the moment is actually half the size that we originally thought, it's a short course basically, so in Gran Turismo 5 we'll have the longer course in there.
IGN: You've got the F2007 in Prologue, and a lot of people would love to see Polyphony work on a Formula 1 title in the future. Is that something you'd be interested in?
Kazunori Yamauchi: The F2007 is currently I think the most precise simulation of an F1 car in existence, and I think it's something that everyone should try out. We've had to implement a lot of new physics into the game, and a lot of mechanisms that we had left out before that we had to add to simulate the car properly, and it's something we're looking forward to having everyone experience. As for F1, of course we've always wanted to add more F1 cars, and to make an F1 game, but we haven't made any movement to acquiring the license, so there's no set timeline for it yet, but it's something we're looking at.
