Gran Turismo Sport PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Sony announced Gran Turismo Sport overnight, the first entry in Polyphony Digital's gargantuan simulation series on the PlayStation 4. In the wake of the announcement, we just assumed that it was Gran Turismo 7 under a new name, but speculation has been rife online that this is actually just a Prologue-esque stopgap. In truth, it sounds like it's neither.

"[Series director Kazunori Yamauchi] has been making these games for some considerable time now," SCEE boss Jim Ryan told Eurogamer.net. "I think that it's reasonable to assume that something else might come down the road. Is it a Prologue? No, I think that it'll be more than that." Alright, so what is it then?

"The old days, when the games were offline, the experience was defined by what's on the disc," he continued. "You had a distinction between a Prologue and a full GT, it was very stark. When the game becomes more of an online connected experience, that distinction blurs. This will be much more than a Prologue type experience."

So it sounds like the game will be adopting the DriveClub model of being supported like a service, with new cars and events presumably being implemented over time. But it still doesn't answer the question of what the game will include? Fan website GT Planet claims that there'll be three modes: Campaign, Sports, and Arcade. The main draw, though, will be its online.

As announced overnight, you'll be racing for your home nation and favourite manufacturer. Tournaments will be governed by the FIA, and winners will be invited to collect their championship winning prizes alongside real drivers like Lewis Hamilton. So, it sounds like an evolution of the GT Academy concept which has been running for a few years now.

What is Gran Turismo Sport, then? Well, it honestly sounds like something new. With the emphasis on online racing, it'll perhaps be lacking the Pokémon-esque car collecting that has defined previous entries, but with all of the periphery guff removed, perhaps it will allow Polyphony Digital to hone in on the most important aspects of its series – the car and the road.

[source eurogamer.net, via gtplanet.net]