While the long-running franchise has always been about simulating real-life racing, Gran Turismo 7 will take a step further on PlayStation 5 by using real-time weather to impact natural elements and even the racing tracks themselves.
Speaking with Eurogamer in a recent interview, franchise creator Kazunori Yamauchi stated that “the air temperature, the humidity, and the road surface temperature” will be directly affected by real-time weather changes.
The focus on immersion will not stop just there. Gran Turismo 7 will furthermore simulate real-life rainfall where rain will create a level of water over racing tracks.
“When a car passes over it, it will spray aside, and so the racing lines will dry quicker than the other parts of the track,” explained Yamauchi before pointing out that wet tracks will “affect the grip of the course accordingly as time goes on, and the track begins to dry in different places.”
Gran Turismo 7 will be releasing for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Yamauchi assured that all next-generation features like dynamic weather and time, as well as others, will be available on the previous-generation PlayStation 4 console as well. Both versions will hence be the same. However, when it comes to quality, players will see a clear difference when playing on PlayStation 5.
Gran Turismo 7 was previously revealed to require a mandatory internet connection. Yamauchi confirmed that to be just for the single-player campaign mode in order to “prevent cheating” and to ensure that players are not able to modify the save data.
Gran Turismo 7 remains without a release date but has been slated for somewhere in 2022. Expect developer Polyphony Digital to start opening the information flood gates soon, and to showcase just how the new game incorporates natural driving physics.
