PlayStation format barring the PS Vita, with GT Sport hitting PS4 recently at the time
of writing. Reading. Speaking. Whatever time this is.
Almost every PlayStation has a GT in its top
two best-selling games of all time, and the only two that dont are the Vita, which
never had a GT, and the PS4, which at the time of making this has GT Sport with sales
figures I do not know. Still, its safe to say this is an unpopular
and terrible series nah Im just kidding its great. And now heres 20 things you may not know
about Gran Turismo, and if you do maybe you just want to hear them again who knows. Number one, those sales figures Might as well start by filling you in on what
I was bleating on about a second ago - the original Gran Turismo is the highest-selling
PSone game of all time with 10.85 Million copies shifted, Gran Turismo 3 is the PS2s
second top selling game ever with 14.89 Million copies shunted, and Gran Turismo 5 made it
to second place in the PS3s highest sales for games with 11.94 Million copies shun-ifted.
The PSPs Gran Turismo, meanwhile, sold
4.66 Million copies and was the underrated handhelds second place seller. Not what you would call a bad run for the
series. BONUS FACT. On average, including the Prologue spin-offs,
Gran Turismo sells 6.4 Million per game.
Thats more than the averages - per game
- for the Zelda series (4.14 Million per game), the Uncharted series (5.24 Million per game),
the Halo series (5 million per game), Assassins Creed (5.55 Million per game), and almost
as much as the Need For Speed series, which averages at 6.81 Million sales per game. All of these figures come from before the
last release for each game mentioned, because getting up to date sales figures is like pulling
teeth from a rock. Still it's no wonder Sony puts so much stock
in the bloody thing. Number two, not a one-game studio Polyphony Digital is known as the Gran Turismo
studio, likely because it has made about 32 thousand different versions of V Rally.
Gran Turismo. Whatever its called. But it is not a one-game studio, with a whopping
four other games flooding like a literal flood from its doors. Motor Toon Grand Prix and its sequel, Omega
Boost and Tourist Trophy.
Yes, three of them are racing games, but hey
- a giant robot thing! Thats branching out if ever Ive seen
it. BONUS FACT. For all the resolution fans out there, Tourist
Trophy shares the distinction of being one of only four titles for the PS2 capable of
1080i output. The others are Gran Turismo 4, Valkyrie Profile
2 and err Jackass: The Game.
Number three, the prototype sort of The earliest version of Gran Turismo is said
to have been in the works for the Nintendo PlayStation, but I couldnt corroborate
anything about that so will just ignore that and leave it as a statement uttered by a buffoon. However, those playing Motor Toon Grand Prix
2 were privy to Polyphonys ambitions for the racing genre - at least if they completed
the game on expert. Those doing so were rewarded with the goodie
of Motor Toon Gran Prix R; a mode of the game that replaced the bouncy Mario Kart-alike
racers with realistic vehicles and realistic physics. Naturally I wasnt good enough to complete
the game on expert, even though I have it, so this footage isnt mine.
Sorry. NO BONUS FACT. Number four, boys club Kazunori Yamauchi revealed at Gran Turismo
4s launch party back in 2004 that he and his team were working on a new entry to the
series: Gran Turismo For Boys. Aimed squarely at children - well, male children,
apparently, Yamauchi intended the project to create car lovers from a young age, stating:
"If we don't grow to love cars in youth, we become adults who are uninterested in cars." And apparently girls and women cant be
interested in cars, or something? Anyway, it never came out and, instead, morphed
into Gran Turismo on PSP.
Sort of. Girls were allowed to play it, as far as Im
aware. BONUS FACT. Gran Turismo received the Golden Marker Special
Award at the Japan Car Design Awards in 2016, and I quote, For being an instrument about
learning how to drive a car for those who are below the legal driving age and for learning
about cars in general, and For giving opportunities to car designers around the
world while broadening the vision of the market.
So it seems Yamauchi didnt even need his
sexist Gran Turismo spin-off, huzzah! Number five, dee oh double-gee For Gran Turismo 3, Snoop Dogg penned the
track Doggs Turismo 3 for the game. It is, as you would expect, utterly superb
in all the wrong ways. And I quote: Its all about winning yall know whats
up PlayStation 2 taking you to a whole new dimension
where the cars look fly and they got good suspension I take the lead while others crash the
wall Doggy D-O-double G in the motherfucking Gran
Turismo 3 the coolest game doin things,
Im picking up speed while Im switching lanes If I lose Im gon turn it off and
get right back choose a whole nother car
a whole new course with tunnels and trees. Sure Feeders Just A Day may have become
popular thanks to GT3 - though it also may not have - but its all about Doggs Turismo
3; gamings greatest song.
NO BONUS FACT. Number six, PRICEMOBILE. The single most expensive real vehicle ever
featured in the Gran Turismo series is the Honda Accord! Wait no, the moon buggy. Yes, Lunar Roving Vehicle LRV-001 from Gran
Turismo 6 cost 38 million dollars to build back in the early 70s.
Adjust that for inflation - because thats
what you should do - and you get a fairly princely sum of 228 million, 750 thousand
dollars. Stick that up your Bugatti. NO BONUS FACT. Number seven, accu-race-ey ha ha ha ha haaa The number of polygons in a car in the original
gran turismo was 500.
By the time gran turismo 6 released in 2013,
that number had increased to one people still pretended to care about. For the original Gran Turismo, one car was
one day's work for one person. For GT3, one car was one person's work for
30 days. When GT5 rolled about, one car was one person's
work for 180 days, or six months if you want to be informal.
Gran Turismo Sport also took the devs six
months per car, but while GT6 featured 1,197 cars at launch, GT Sport has 162 - so a lot
more work has gone into each vehicle. That man who done Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi,
said: We are building for future versions of the console, not the one we see today. So, like, well be seeing these models re-used
in the PlayStation 9 I guess? BONUS FACT. Gran Turismo 6 featured accurately positioned
stars in the night sky, for some reason.
I have no idea if GT Sport keeps up the tradition. Number eight, Name Recognition Gran Turismo has model car kits, concept cars
- a lot of which cant actually be built yet because technology isnt good enough
- a cafe, and even a street in Australia named after it. Thats Gran Turismo Drive in Bathurst
at the Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit, so not exactly an unexpected naming there. Meanwhile, Kazunori Yamauchi doesnt have
cars and concepts and cafes named after him right now, so he just has to settle for a
street of his own in the town of Ronda, Spain.
Look out for Paseo de Kazunori Yamauchi if
youre ever around there. BONUS FACT. Speaking of name recognition - you can spot
a mention of Konami on the 1990s version of Fuji Speedway on Gran Turismo 4. Obviously it has to be in the past, because
the only mention of Konami you get these days is a sentence starting with the company name
and ending with is a bit of a shitter these days, innit? Number nine, This Game Aint For You The GT series often gets a bit of stick, especially
from the non-believers and those who pretend Forza is a better franchise, for being a little
bit, shall we say, nerdy.
Theres a real air about the games that
theyre almost embarrassed to be video games and instead should just be left alone as car
porn for those obsessed with gaskets. Well, theres a bit of truth to that - see,
Yamauchi himself has said he never intended Gran Turismo to enjoy mass appeal, with the
first game intended, initially, only for petrolheads, or dieselarses or whatever theyre called. It wasnt until Taku Imasaki, now long-time
producer on the series, then just producer on the first game as none of the others existed,
got his hands on GT that things changed. Sensing the ever-belittled US audience wouldnt
get on with the game as it stood, he was instrumental in the decisions to up the speed of the game
by some 25 per cent and altering the in-game gravity so you would get cars leaping higher
and further than they should.
He also had a big hand in introducing arcade
mode to the game, as he figured Americans wouldnt be into the role-playing ladder
climb of Gran Turismos core mode. I mean, he was wrong, but its pretty funny
just how patronising that is. And now? Well, now we have GT Academy, in which people
who are really good at the game have a chance to become an actual, real racing driver. People who probably didnt think they were
that into cars - at least not as much as Yamauchi expected players of his game to be - are now
professionals.
Fun times. BONUS FACT. Gran Turismo 2 could only be completed to
98.2% In US release as drag racing was removed. The European release, meanwhile, could be
completed to 100.9% Thanks to the addition of Vauxhall and Opel manufacturer races, which
were absent in any other version.
GT4 had a similar issue, meanwhile, with the
US and Chinese releases sometimes only allowing 99.8% Completion. Number ten, Word of Mouth Never underestimate the power of telling people
about stuff - on a totally unrelated note dont forget to share this video and tell
all your friends about the healing power of Bransfield! Anyway, Gran Turismo has been cited by some
Japanese car manufacturers as a reason for increased popularity in certain models they
produce, with the likes of Nissan, Subaru and Mitsubishi all declaring the game directly
responsible for an uptick in interest. Mitsubishi chap Takashi Kiuchi said, back
in 2002, Theres no doubt that Gran Turismo played a huge role in our decision to launch
the Lancer Evolution in the United States - the car wouldnt have attracted as much
attention as it has in the US without the game. Outside of Japan theres a similar picture
- RUF, the brand known for modifying and releasing its own versions of Porsches lineup, wouldnt
have been half as well known as it is were it not for its inclusion in earlier Gran Turismo
titles.
Those being the ones where Polyphony couldnt
get the actual Porsche license, because EA. Was doing its usual thing of just having all
the licenses for everything ever. Even here in Britain things were impacted,
with the first GT game seeing TVRs sales increase six-fold after its release. I mean, correlation isnt causation and
all that, but the Cerbera was a lovely little car in that game, so...
BONUS FACT
You can actually find a model of Porsche in Gran Turismo 3, as the 911 996 GT3 was intended
to be in the game until EA signed its exclusive Porsche license and the horseless carriage
had to be removed. Its data is still present, though, and you
can unlock it with some pokery and an Action Replay or Gameshark. Or if you download a save like I may or may
not have done. Number eleven, CONTROVERSY.
Gran Turismo isnt a series that courts
controversy. Much as I love it, its barely a series
that courts anything beyond mild surprise. While microtransactions in GT6 put some people
off, complaints were limited - but Gran Turismo Sport nudged things into outright outrage
territory by requiring players to be online whether they were playing the game in multiplayer
or not. What you might not have picked up on is the
why behind all of this - now dont get me wrong, I dont want to be an apologist for
always-online, as Im not big on multiplayer anyway and I dont just listen to whats
said and automatically go oh right thats a good reason god I love these faceless company
decisions! But I do pay attention to reasons when theyre
actually interesting - Gran Turismo Sport requires you to be always online because of
the motor sport governing body the FIA.
GT Sport includes FIA-endorsed online championships,
you see, so the game itself has to actually follow very strict rules and regulations for
it to be taken seriously by the governing body. And I quote: In order to ensure fair racing
for all, GT Sport will require an internet connection for the majority of functionality. This connectivity requirement is to ensure
that progress car availability and driver ratings are properly maintained at all times. Basically, its so you cant be a scamming
little cheater and cheese your way to victory offline, before loading your times up into
the online mode.
Why this applies to modes that dont link
in with the FIA competition, though, I do not know. BONUS FACT. I didnt believe this one, so sourced an
original copy of Gran Turismo 2 to check it out and, yep, its true. The GT Mode disc has a scratch and sniff effect
to it - if you give it a bit of a rub, it lets off a scent of well, its a bit
like asphalt and tires, basically.
Fifa 2001 had a similar effect, with a grassy
disc smell. Ah, the past. Number twelve, Try Before You Buy The accuracy of Gran Turismos simulation
has always been a big selling point, but its quite clearly more than just marketing gumph. I mean, the real world ties to racing events,
racing drivers and car designs just sings that fact happily.
And Im sure BMW was overjoyed to discover
it could get away with a much cheaper, easier way of letting potential 1 Series customers
have a test drive: handing out a specially-made Gran Turismo 4 demo disc. The BMW 1-series Virtual Drive Disc, as it
was known, allowed potential buyers to choose from two cars, the 120Dse and the 120i, and
race on three tracks, including the Nurdburg.. Nurenb.. Nerd Burger King..
Whatever that famous one
is called. All with a three-minute time limit on each
track. I sincerely doubt anybody actually bought
a car based on a Gran Turismo 4 demo - please do correct me if Im wrong there - but it
was a cool little thing to happen all the same. NO BONUS FACT.
/ And that, friends, is a big list of facts. I know theres plenty more - its a 20-year-old
series, I was bound to miss more than I could ever fit in. But wasnt that interesting? I think it was. You should agree.
If you dont, thats fine, but also Ive
conned you into watching this for however long this video lasts. HAH. Gran Turismo is cool because its so nerdy,
gotta love that series. Thanks for watching, do like, share and subscribe
if you want to because its a nice thing to do and it helps me bring in money on this
horrible oversaturated platform so I can slowly save up for a TVR Speed 12.
I deserve that, dont I? I mean, I cant even drive so its a little
bit pointless but then you cant expect me not to-BYE! I now have a Patreon, which you can find the
link to in the description. If you like my work and youve got a bit
of change spare, consider chipping in. If you cant or dont want to, thats
also fine. I still love you.
Id like to give a big ol thanks to the
following folks for their five dollar or more support on Patreon - without you, Id be
dead! Alright maybe not dead, but you get the point. Videobrains - or Jake Tucker Robbie Sabo Lola Osman - WOOF. Jake Laverde Youre all good people, except for the one
whos a dog. Youre a good dog.
Thank you for your continued support and I
hope to never make you cry..
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