- The former PlayStation Chief, Shuhei Yoshida, says he helped save the first Gran Turismo
- Yoshida said that the game simulation aspects were “extremely advanced” and suggested the creator Kazunori Yamauch to mitigate them
- He adds that he likes to think that “he played a small role in his success”
Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida has revealed that he convinced the creator of the first Gran Tourism The game, Kazunori Yamauchi, to mitigate the simulation elements of the game.
Speaking in a recent interview with PlayStation Inside, Yoshida was asked to mention some of his best moments of his career in PlayStation. After briefly discussing the award -winning game of thatcompany Journeythat he was “really proud to have played a role in his conception,” the former chief of reproduction revealed that “partially saved” the original Gran Tourism.
“Talk about a ‘success’ in my career that has not been mentioned enough, if it does, I will give you an anecdote that I had never said in public,” said Yoshida.
“They were the first days of the first playstation, and Kazunori Yamauchi was working on the first Gran Tourism. You will remember that on the cover he said that the game was the ‘real driving simulator’. And you know, I am not a game designer, I am a producer above all.
“During development, Kazunori Yamauchi showed me a prototype of Gran Tourism, and I was among the first to play it. And to tell you the truth, he really spoke seriously when he spoke about simulation!”
Yoshida explained that what he played was “extremely advanced, perhaps too much” due to realism, but it was not after the game tests and that Yamauchi used his comments to modify the 1997 game.
“At first, Kazunori Yamauchi did not receive my comments to the letter, so he gathered about thirty consumers to try the game. And as expected, everyone crashed without exception in the first turn, because the gameplay was very difficult,” he said.
“I was on the back of the room with Kazunori Yamauchi, at which time he turned to me and told me that he was right, and that was when he reduced things and attenuated the aspect of pure simulation to get the great tourism you know today in PS1.
“In a way, I like to think that I partially saved the fate of Gran Turismo, and that I played a small role in its success.”
In the same interview, Yoshida played the Nintendo Switch 2 and said that the recent increase in the cost of the games “was going to happen sooner or later” due to the costs of inflation and production, but believes that “a balance between production costs and game prices must be found.”
