How Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi views the intersection of racing and games | The DeanBeat
Kazunori Yamauchi is one of the legends of game development and his Gran Turismo games are a flagship title on every PlayStation game console with lifetime sales above 90 million. And while racing is his passion, he stands at one of the most interesting intersections in gaming.
Racing is a sport and the crossover between sports and video games is getting deeper. The reverb is ringing in my head. I got to experience that reverberation last week while watching Gran Turismo players race each other in an esports tournament using highly realistic racing simulators built around PlayStation 5 consoles. Just outside the esports building at the Rennsport Reunion 7 exhibition, Porsche race cars were roaring around the Laguna Seca track with an incredible volume that added some cool sound effects while I was watching the indoor race.
Inside, Gran Turismo player Randall Haywood shrugged off the sounds and concentrated on winning the tournament, which netted him $15,000 in winnings. It was a surreal moment that reminded me of this summer’s Gran Turismo movie, which tells the true story of how Jann Marborough became a pro racer by learning how to race in the video game.
Back when Marborough was starting out, he encountered resistance from pro racers who felt that a video game racer was going to be too amateurish, endangering other racers on real tracks. In a marketing move, Nissan set up the GT Academy to train video game drivers how to be racers. It lasted for a while until 2016, when creator Darren Cox parted ways with Nissan. It enabled Marborough to go pro.
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