Gran Turismo on PS3 to feature vehicle deformation

[Triv1um]

Via Playstatic

The Gran Turismo racing franchise has just been revitalised here in Europe thanks to the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the demo version of the impending full scale title, with the sampler hitting the PlayStation Network just yesterday (Friday, 28th March). But what extras can be expected in the final version, which is due to be launched sometime during 2009?

Speaking with GamerTV, it seems that the creator of the Gran Turismo series, Kazunori Yamauchi-san, has gone on record to discuss a few aspects of this eagerly anticipated fifth main entry. One particularly intriguing snippet from his interview was about how gamers looking for vehicle deformation will certainly not have to wait too long indeed.

“We really, really want to put damage onto our vehicles. We’ve had a lot of discussions with the manufacturers and, although at the beginning they hated the idea of deformation, now they’re slowly coming around to it. We’ve still got a few to convince, but we will. Expect deformation in the very near future: very, very soon. Obviously, we wanted to do a next-gen Gran Turismo. When the PS3 appeared, we realised that we needed a lot of time to develop properly on this hardware, so we gave ourselves four years to come up with a complete programme. As a result, you’re not going to get Gran Turismo all in one go, but gradually, adding online elements and features as we go. The good thing is that it’ll have a long, long lifespan.”

Yamauchi-san did offer up some words of apology since some people have been expecting a next generation version of Gran Turismo all in one helping, rather than in small portions. However, he did state that the PlayStation Network releases will help to extend the lifespan of the game in the long run and lets his team gather any necessary feedback from users in order to implement as much as possible into future releases.

Other subjects covered by Yamauchi-san are how, jokingly, his team puts so much more research into the cars than the average manufacturer, as well as how an online element has been top of his priority list since the release of Gran Turismo 3. And then finally it seems that Sony’s Home has inspired the team for its garage feature, with it being based on an “avatar system like Home. We’re keen to work with avatar systems like Home, and in turn have been inspired by them.”

[Napalm-Death]

Since this is going to have Home integration, I hope that I can drive a car into my friends' houses.