With over 26 years of experience and closing in on 100 million units sold, the Gran Turismo franchise is still soaring to greater heights. It also crossed the threshold from games to cinema, like Uncharted and The Last of Us. And in 2024, the most exciting news for fans is that things aren't slowing down for the legendary series. Especially now with rumors of a PC version on its way.
An alleged Nixxes Software employee, a Sony-owned PC porting company, has leaked information about a handful of PlayStation-exclusive games that will soon come to desktops.
The leaker mentioned The Last of Us Part II, God of War Ragnarok, Demon's Souls, Ghost of Tsushima, and, of course, Gran Turismo 7. The best part is that this would coincide with an older Nvidia leak from 2021, where these titles also came up.
This isn't mind-bending for people "in the know" about Sony's plans to bring their bangers to PC. However, the good news is that these recent leaks finally shed some light and pin a release window on all these fantastic games.
If indeed these prophecies come to fruition and we'll see Gran Turismo on PC in 2024, one huge change it should have to make the competition quiver in its boots is ray tracing. GT 7 already features RT in some game modes, but not during actual racing.
Photo: GRAN TURISMO TV
If Polyphony Digital and the team behind the alleged port introduced ray tracing during gameplay, fans of the game and the genre would be over the moon. Provided their rigs could run the game at ultra settings with RT on.
While we're on visual fidelity, this week, Gran Turismo 7 received its first major content drop for this year. Update 1.42 introduced the BVLGARI Aluminum Vision Gran Turismo, the 2018 Suzuki Jimny, and the Genesis X Gran Berlinetta Vision Gran Turismo Concept.
Aside from looking like automotive beauty incarnate, the Berlinetta Vision concept is not to be trifled with on the track. It's packing a Lambda II V6 engine that delivers 870 hp and 790 ft-lb (1,071 Nm) of torque. It also has a Yasa E motor that generates 201 hp with 196 ft-lb (266 Nm) of torque. In total, this poetic beauty outputs 1,071 hp with 986 ft-lb or 1,337 Nm of torque.
Usually, anyone would think that designing such a car for a video game would mean that it never leaves the digital realm. And if not for Polyphony Digital's latest video, we would still think this way. But what the design team at Genesis managed to pull off could even be considered mind-blowing. The collaboration between the car manufacturer and the game developer studio really went to extreme lengths just to create a single-car model.
At minute 0:53, "Purity of Intent" is written on a whiteboard, which suggests the high level of work ethic the Genesis designers infused in the design phase.
Photo: GRAN TURISMO TV
The first aesthetic approach was to make the car look like it was going 100 mph even when it was utterly still. Not to go overboard with compliments, but as a GT 7 fan, after glancing at the concept, you can see that the level of passion and craftsmanship is at the top of the industry standard.
Hans Lapine, Director, Design Operations at Genesis, was also part of the team, along with various Genesis engineers from Korea and Europe that collaborated with Polyphony Digital. Very few other games manage to translate the feel of a concept vehicle like Polyphony Digital. I can't help but think what similar models would have looked and felt like in a Driveclub sequel.
Not only does the project cross the 2D realm into the 3D one, but the team's ambition took the Genesis X Gran Berlinetta Vision Gran Turismo Concept to the next level. They made life-size replicas, interiors included.
All this was to better understand how this car would perform in real-life conditions. It's one thing to see it in-game, but for it to actually be in front of you with its beautiful poetic aerodynamics is a whole different story.
This way, the team saw precisely how the airflow interacted with the body and made even more improvements. The engineers built a silver and an orange model, both looking pristine from the outside. It was all inspired by what Genesis calls their "characteristic Athletic Elegance design philosophy."
Photo: GRAN TURISMO TV
Fortunately, this wasn't just a shell of a car. The interior wasn't left out of the picture; the same level of care and passion was also poured into that design. If you have a VR headset, make sure you don't skip on the gorgeous minimalistic look of the cabin. The best parts are the side and rear-view mirrors, or better said, lack thereof.
To see what's behind you, the team thought it would be ideal to make the dashboard screen display everything. The concept is not only beautiful but practical too, because the display reaches all around the cabin, giving you a huge, detailed view.
There is no doubt both Polyphony Digital and Genesis thought this model through and through. To get the Genesis X Gran Berlinetta, you need 1,000,000 Cr. PC players shouldn't be gatekept from this game anymore, so let's hope the leaks and rumors are true, and 2024 is finally the year when Gran Turismo comes to PC for the first time in 26 years.
Don't forget to pray we also get ray-traced global illumination and reflections during races, because this could very well come to the rumored PlayStation 5 Pro also, as part of an update at some point.
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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