While much of the gamers of the “Gran Turismo” car racing video game franchise were pinning their hopes that “Gran Turismo 7” will officially come out of the PlayStation 4 this year, their hopes and optimism were shattered to pieces by game developer Polyphony Digital when it announced that it would instead be rolling out “Gran Turismo Sport.”
During the Paris Games Week held in October last year, Polyphony launched “Gran Turismo Sport” although it did not disclose the game’s official roll out date to the PlayStation 4.
What the developer said back then was that a beta version of “Gran Turismo Sport” shall be released this year before its full version comes out exclusively on the Sony gaming console.
Fans thought back then that “Gran Turismo Sport” is actually “Gran Turismo 7,” but no less than Jim Ryan, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, debunked those notions, reports the Day Herald.
He also quashed perceptions that “Gran Turismo Sport” is to be the prologue of “Gran Turismo 7,” saying that the two are completely different car racing video games but obviously from the same bloodline.
The distinguishing factor
Kazunori Yamauchi, the game director of the “Gran Turismo” video game franchise confirmed that “Gran Turismo 7” is a completely different game from “Gran Turismo Sport” but he admitted that only a fine line distinguishes one from the other.
He explained that back in the old days when the games were basically played offline, the experience was defined by what’s on the disc so gamers can easily differentiate between a prologue and a full GT game, describing the difference as very stark.
However, he added that when the games became more of an online connected experience, the distinction also became blurry.
Yamauchi assured fans and gamers of the “Gran Turismo” video game franchise that “Gran Turismo Sport” shall be more than a prologue type of gaming experience.
Running naturally on the PS4
He also said that the upcoming seventh installment of the series shall be running naturally on the PlayStation 4.
“Gran Turismo 7” shall exclusively roll out on the PlayStation 4 but what Yamauchi was pointing out is that it was a bit easier for the development team to develop the game because of the technical capability of the current generation gaming console from Sony.
He added that it would have been more difficult had they developed the game on the PlayStation 3. He explained that the high quality of data that they have rendered on the PlayStation 4 is going to make an incredible difference which gamers will surely notice once the game comes out, details the Ecumenical News.
Incidentally, there are also reports going around lately that “Gran Turismo 7” could actually debut sometime next year or in 2018 already able to support the PlayStation virtual reality (VR) technology.
The reports stemmed from the statement made by Sony PlayStation President Shuhei Yoshida during the EGX 2015 when he said that he wants “Gran Turismo” to come out on the PS4 and is already capable of supporting PlayStation VR.
Sony has yet to confirm when the VR technology would finally make it as a feature of its gaming console.
Incidentally, because of the delay in the release of “Gran Turismo 7” to either in 2017 or 2018 in light of the impending release of “Gran Turismo Sport” this year, there have been rumors going around saying that Polyphony Digital has already cancelled the former game.
It seems that there is no truth to those rumors as Kazunori Yamauchi himself has confirmed that there will be a “Gran Turismo 7” and it will be an entirely different game than “Gran Turismo Sport.”
The series creator wants to keep the rumors in check with regards to “Gran Turismo 7” since Polyphony Digital is not saying anything official about it after announcing “Gran Turismo Sport” in October last year. Apparently, the game developer does not want to be bothered by gamers who have been ceaselessly asking them regarding “Gran Turismo 7” and its eventual release date on the PlayStation 4.