Gran Turismo’s Yamauchi Kazunori, the PS3 Concept Site, and Revolution

There’s a little-less-than-10-minute interview featuring Kazunori Yamauchi over at PlayBeyond, the new PlayStation3 Concept Site. For those not familiar with him, well, let’s just call him the guy from Polyphony Digital who’s making Gran Turismo HD. The video is all in Japanese, so while we’re waiting for QJ’s otaku to translate the whole thing, here’s a brief summary of what the video’s about.

• Yamauchi-san said that the PS3 is a high-definition (HD) platform and that he was surprised by the jump between the the PS2 and PS3 resolution capabilities.
• He talked about the network: the PS3 will let you race other players, but he’s thinking more along the lines of building a community of car lovers all around the world.
• He talked about the physics calculations that are possible with the PS3 (for better realism in the objects and environment).
• In a driving game, the PS3 allows you to see hundreds of meters away. That is, you can see the fine details of distant objects (past racing games only let you see a few meters ahead). HD will become popular, he thinks, because of HD gaming. This is related to his statements about how games have to have better details, the challenge of developing for a next-gen console, and how games and movies are becoming equal in stature.
• Gran Turismo is a very open game because the PS3 allows for data transmission. This will let the game change and it will continue to evolve.

The video didn’t really seem like an interview; it was more of a featurized documentary or something complete with segments where he walks around and they play racecar sounds in the background. Still, the ending made us sit up because it’ll be interesting to see whether Sony and the PS3 lives up to his brave words: the PlayStation is an engine for revolution.

(Thanks, Badam, for taking the time to tell us about this interview.)

There’s a little-less-than-10-minute interview featuring Kazunori Yamauchi over at PlayBeyond, the new PlayStation3 Concept Site. For those not familiar with him, well, let’s just call him the guy from Polyphony Digital who’s making Gran Turismo HD. The video is all in Japanese, so while we’re waiting for QJ’s otaku to translate the whole thing, here’s a brief summary of what the video’s about.

• Yamauchi-san said that the PS3 is a high-definition (HD) platform and that he was surprised by the jump between the the PS2 and PS3 resolution capabilities.
• He talked about the network: the PS3 will let you race other players, but he’s thinking more along the lines of building a community of car lovers all around the world.
• He talked about the physics calculations that are possible with the PS3 (for better realism in the objects and environment).
• In a driving game, the PS3 allows you to see hundreds of meters away. That is, you can see the fine details of distant objects (past racing games only let you see a few meters ahead). HD will become popular, he thinks, because of HD gaming. This is related to his statements about how games have to have better details, the challenge of developing for a next-gen console, and how games and movies are becoming equal in stature.
• Gran Turismo is a very open game because the PS3 allows for data transmission. This will let the game change and it will continue to evolve.

The video didn’t really seem like an interview; it was more of a featurized documentary or something complete with segments where he walks around and they play racecar sounds in the background. Still, the ending made us sit up because it’ll be interesting to see whether Sony and the PS3 lives up to his brave words: the PlayStation is an engine for revolution.

(Thanks, Badam, for taking the time to tell us about this interview.)