He's been on the Motor Trend Power List of the 50 most influential people in the automotive industry since the list started in 2005. Last year, he was at position No. 29, ahead of such industry heavyweights as Takeo Fukui, CEO of Honda, Bill Ford, Jr., and Jay Leno.
Anyone who questions why Kazunori Yamauchi -- president of Polyphony Digital and creator of the highly successful Gran Turismo series of racing simulators -- continues to be ranked so high year-after-year need only examine his body of work, and more importantly, his plans for the future.
As he demonstrated for us last week at the 2007 SEMA show, Yamauchi is ready to take the Gran Turismo franchise to the next level. In doing so, Yamauchi will further blur the distinction between the virtual and real world, and expand the definition of what is called gaming.
GT5 Prologue, the teaser to the fifth iteration of the wildly successful PlayStation series, boasts massive improvements to the gaming experience, including:
- Photo realHi Definition video at an output at 60 frames per second (twice the rate of broadcast TV)
- Improved artificial intelligence
- 16 competitors per race, up from six
- New tracks including Daytona Motor Speedway
- New models and manufacturers, including Ferrari
But there are other key advancements that go beyond the scope of the traditional gaming experience. Take the new GTTV feature, which is essentially a viewer that utilizes the PlayStation3 networking ability to provide car related video segments. Forget to TiVo the last episode of Top Gear? Can't find the latest Best Motoring DVD? Head to GTTV, where both of these popular automotive series, and many more, including Super GT (formerly JGTC), D1 Grand Prix drifting as well as in-house GT produced content, will be available on demand and advertisement free.
And this creative use of video doesn't stop there. Car buyers who visit virtual dealerships inside GT5 will have the opportunity to view segments on their prospective purchases. Can't decide between GT-R or the Z06? Want to see highlights of new STI before buy it, either in the game or the real world? Hit up the manufacturers in-game for a private viewing of their wares.
The key to understanding why these new features exist and how they came to fruition is that fundamentally, Yamauchi is a car fanatic of the highest order. He put in a Top Gear and Best Motoring viewer, because he likes to watch those kinds of shows. He made it possible to preview all the features of a vehicle before you buy it, because that's the kind of research he does before buying a car. He made it possible to unveil a car simultaneously in the virtual world as well as the real world, because, well, he thought it'd be cool (more on that later). Clearly, Yamauchi is a passionate car enthusiast in a position to create his own vision of automotive nirvana. But don't take my word for it, check out these highlights from our conversation:
On the Tokyo Motor Show car unveilings:
"We are kind of merging the real and virtual worlds. Unveilings of the GT-R and Impreza [WRX STI] took place in real life at the motor show, and synchronized in the gaming experience. For players, before it was unveiled, it was locked. After it was unveiled - please have a go. That's one angle of the two worlds coming together. Taking that another step is our concept of the online dealership."