Gran Turismo HD Forerunner To New Next-Gen GT

Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi spoke about the next Gran Turismo title in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu. There were two points of interest in the article. First, the parenthetical "working title" has been dropped from the name, implying that Gran Turismo HD is indeed the final title. Second, while Yamauchi lavished praise on the game's high-definition graphics, he stated that the game was not the true next-gen heir to the popular racing series' crown.

In the article, Yamauchi called Gran Turismo HD a "port" of the data from Gran Turismo 4, upgraded to take advantage of the PlayStation 3's graphical capabilities. He also said it is "a step in the process of developing a next-generation GT game."

Yamauchi also implied that development on that next-gen game is already under way, albeit at an early stage. "We are working on a version of GT that supports the full PS3 specification," Yamauchi said, adding, "but in this transitional version, I think you'll get a taste of the potential that next generation games hold."

Yamauchi said the idea for the game actually came from an unlikely source, the Photo Mode in GT4, which allowed players to take high-resolution stills. "I thought it would be incredible to see these stills animated in real time," he said. Running at 60 frames per second in 1920x1080p resolution, Gran Turismo HD supports the very highest resolutions available to Japan's newest HD televisions, according to Famitsu.