Friday 31st August 2012

Kazunori Yamauchi interview in full

Following our Gran Turismo feature here's the full transcript of our chat with figurehead Kazunori Yamauchi

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Securing some one-on-one time with someone as busy as Kazunori Yamauchi ain't easy but by the power of PH we managed it and, from that, explored the influence the man and his game have had over the cars we now buy, drive and modify in the real world. A few of the comments that followed expressed surprise at how little quoted contribution Kazunori made to the piece so, for those that wanted a bit more from the man himself, here's the transcript of his chat with Nick Gibbs.

In fairness we didn't get long and the interview was conducted through an interpreter, which is never the ideal way of doing it and often much of what you get in such conversations doesn't crop up in the general Q&A bit. But here you go...

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Kazunori Yamauchi
Via a translator

Did you think GT would have the impact it did?
"I never thought about the impact on western car markets. When I was making the game I was making what I really liked. I never imagined that things I was creating will affect people in the west, and have such an impact. Now we have good synergy effect, between car culture and the car manufacturers. A mutual effect now exists between GT and the car industry in the UK. GT and the industry progressed together."

What made you choose the cars you did?
"The first title was born from the car culture in Japan. It is true there are many JDM cars, but now there are more and more foreign cars, so further GTs were well-balanced between Japan and foreign cars. When I first developed the game, I didn't even have a chance to look at the European super sports cars. I called directly to the automobile manufacturers, can you meet me, I asked. I would see anyone available. It was a bit of luck - lucky to get to know that car. No deep meaning, just about getting to know that car. I loved cars. I read lots of car magazines ever since I was at junior school."

How did you get hold of the few western cars in the game?
"When I found out GT will be released in Europe, the Sony Enterprise Europe offered to include some European or American cars and those cars in the game are the ones I could include, time-wise. I went to Europe and America to research those cars. One car per day."

What's in your garage?
"It didn't change much for the last five years. I have a Nissan GT-R, Porsche GT3, Honda S2000 [racing car], SL55 AMG, two Ford GTs, a white one and a silver one."

Favourite cars from that 90s era?
"I like the Nissan GT-R consistently, also the Toyota Supra, and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. If you would tune up the Supra [in the game], it would be 1,000hp."

Why did you include tuning?
"Tuning has been at the heart. Every single game has a tuning function. Each car has a different method of tuning to reproduce that proper way of tuning. In life you can't purchase a Ferrari from the beginning. You have to start with a Honda Civic. Then GT is not a game, it's a car-life simulator."

 

 

[decadence]

Not one question about the 'standard' cars?.................

[golders]

He has two Ford Gt's, must be for investment reasons?

[hairykrishna]

"n life you can't purchase a Ferrari from the beginning. You have to start with a Honda Civic. Then GT is not a game, it's a car-life simulator."

Part of what made the earlier games great and made GT5 slightly less brilliant. In the early ones you had to start with something crap and you had no options beyond learning to drive it properly and scraping together enough credits for some decent brakes etc. Basically every version of GT5 came with some 'special edition' cars you had right from the beginning. It made the early races much less compelling when in the back of your mind you know you can just think fk it and drag the Murcielago out of the garage.

[MissChief]

I stil have a soft spot for the first car I picked in GT1, a Honda Prelude 2.2.

[vdubbin]

I loved that grind up the first few rungs, it felt part of the "Japanese RPG" experience. You had to be very careful with how you spent your Cr, which prize cars you sold, and which you could use later.

There was always that one race that would return a high value prize car, so you repeated that one until you made your first million, then you could race any way you liked after that. By throttling your progress and forcing a practice regime, it meant that you were a better driver byt the time you took on the high powered cars at the end of the game.

[snorkel sucker]

I too look fondly back to the early versions where you had to use and tune a cheap, slow car to make any meaningful progress. But, progress is exactly why the newer versions of the games don't have this feature.

The demographic and user-type of those who buy the game, as well as their lifestyle and the lifestyle and attitute towards gaming generally dictates that they want a plug in and play type game. You switch on your PS3, hop in your supercar and win races. Kids these days don't live in a world where moving up through the ranks appeals to them. Gran Turismo has had to move with this.

Is the game any worse for this? No, I don't think so. You only have to go onto somewhere like GT Planet and enrol yourself into one of the many racing leagues there and you open up a world of options to race slow, fast, tuned or standard cars. A level playing field if you will.

[Wadeski]

I always got bored after the first few hours of the game. When it stopped being cars I had built, and became DTM cars (and really, really long races) I got bored.

I think i started in a Suzuki Alto, then moved onto an RX-7 and an Evo...happy days...

[decadence]

I'd look smug aswell and have a a garage full of super cars if i'd managed to sell shed loads of copies of GT5 which has 80% of the game scaled up from GT4 with a few premium cars added to keep the sheep happy.......

Unitll this guy realises the consumer wont be conned again then GT6 will be the same half arsed lazy product as GT5....... but that will never happen cause of the fanboi's....

[Dave81]

decadence said:

I'd look smug aswell and have a a garage full of super cars if i'd managed to sell shed loads of copies of GT5 which has 80% of the game scaled up from GT4 with a few premium cars added to keep the sheep happy.......

Unitll this guy realises the consumer wont be conned again then GT6 will be the same half arsed lazy product as GT5....... but that will never happen cause of the fanboi's....

Yep.

GT2 and 3 for me were the best (maybe my age??), huge leaps forward in all area's of the game. GT5 was a huge letdown.

Have to say for pickup and play Forza 2 felt liked it picked up the mantle and carried on the genre (sold the Xbox before 3 was out).

I would say that KY is lucky that the games have stuck to there original respective systems. If Forza was available on PS3 he may not be so happy!!!

[anonymous-user]

This man is partly responsible for getting a lot of kids in my generation (like me) into cars, for that he will always be someone I admire. If you look back to GT1, GT2 and GT3 there was nothing else out there like his games until Forza arrived and adopted the basic game for Xbox.

I remember spending all the money I had aged 11 for GT2, I played that game for years until I got a PS2 in 2004.

[rhinochopig]

Should have asked what he thought about the negative reviews of GT5? Threads on PH about it suggest it was a backward step from 4 and actually quite poor in a lot of areas.