Kazunori Yamauchi Talks All Things Gran Turismo

If you’ve followed the Gran Turismo series in any more depth than simply playing the games, you’ve no doubt heard Kazunori Yamauchi’s name mentioned. He’s the series’ creator and rarely will you read something about him that doesn’t mention his obsession with perfection – nothing is ever good enough, which is why his games are frequently delayed (‘sup, Gran Turismo PSP?) and things like vehicle damage have taken so long to be included.

He’s embedded in car culture and his obsession means you’ll be getting a super-polished, ultra-realistic game, even if it did take a long time to finally get into your hands. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue isn’t meant to be a tease for what’s to come, but it is, as Yamauchi describes it, “[I]t’s not really a teaser of things to come. This is the best we can provide at this point in time. It’s just that we don’t consider it up to par, in terms of volume and things like that, to be called a full game by itself – by our standards, not by other people’s standards. That’s one thing we want to make clear for people.”

In an interview with Eurogamer, Yamauchi also once again admitted that he tends to create games in a vacuum, not paying attention to what the competition (e.g. Forza Motorsport) is doing.

“We don’t reference any other games when we’re making Gran Turismo – it’s purely based on what we want to achieve as a game.

“Actually, I have difficulty playing other games for over five minutes. A lot of the low-level quality just stands out so much in other games that I can’t stand them!”

That seems rather harsh, but what do you really expect from a perfectionist?

For those of you who already have your hands on GT5 Prologue, what do you think of it?