In his interview with Gamespot Kazunori Yamauchi, creator of Gran Turismo, has talked about the new Gran Turismo title, as well as the PlayStation 3.

Gran Turismo Sport, which will launch in November for the PlayStation 4 with PSVR support, will give you the chance to earn an FIA License. This is the FIA Gran Turismo Sport Digital License. To achieve this illustrious license, you have to complete the racing etiquette mode, achieve silver or better results in all the campaign mode events, and then maintain or exceed a certain level of driver class and sportsmanship points. These two factors will be the factor in what rivals you will get on the track. If you drive cleanly, abiding rules (such as the safety car), and flags, you will get other racers who are also fair players. If you drive like Pastor Maldonado on a bad day, your sportsmanship points will drop and get similar people to race with you.

Yamauchi also said that he could have called this game Gran Turismo 7, but as the focus in this title is in the sport, eSport factors, he decided to call his game Gran Turismo Sport. He also had harsh comments about the PlayStation 3. „The age of the PS3 for us was a nightmare. We had to deal with this situation for a while where, ‘This is what we want to achieve, but all we can do is this.’ So there was a lot of frustration that was built up. The PS3 hardware is something that, at first glance, looks like it’s able to do this certain level of things, but in actuality, it can’t. Regarding development, it was difficult and the games, after the development efforts were put into it, were very very low. I think it was just that the balance as a piece of hardware wasn’t very good, but the PS4 is so good. This time, we’re able to do and achieve what we want to do, so it’s fun.”

Yamauchi closed his thoughts about the franchise in general. GT is aimed at people who have never played racing games. This thought was their focus already in 1997, while developing the first Gran Turismo for the PS1. As time – and hardware – passed, the episodes became more serious than the previous games. However, with Gran Turismo Sport, they rebuild everything from the ground-up. If driving seems difficult, it might be the game’s fault. This thought was in Polyphony‘s mind when the team wanted to correct this issue.

These are honest thoughts coming from one of the most influential PlayStation-developers.