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Gran Turismo Creator Hoped For 'Something More Incredible' Than PSVR

Gran Turismo Creator Hoped For 'Something More Incredible' Than PSVR

Gran Turismo Sport is coming out later this year, but the promised PlayStation VR (PSVR) support is sounding increasingly underwhelming. From the sounds of it, the game’s developer isn’t too impressed either.

Speaking to VentureBeat, Gran Turismo creator and director Kazunori Yamauchi noted that he had hoped current VR technology like PSVR would be better than it currently is.

“The first head-mounted display was created before I was born, around 1962,” Yamauchi explained at E3 last week. “I’ve been waiting for more than 50 years. After all that time, I’d hoped it would be something more incredible than it is today. But we’ve done the best we can with what’s currently available.”

Gran Turismo Sport’s ‘best’ is a VR tour mode offering around a third of the game’s tracks in which every car can be driven in one-on-one races. If you want to race with more cars then, sadly, you’ll have to take the headset off.

Still, Yamauchi has high hopes for the future: “Once we get to dual 8Ks, it’ll be pretty nice,” he said. “Dual 8K and about a 200Hz refresh rate. Maybe in another 50 years?”

Currently PSVR has a 1080p OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, so it has some ways to go before it hits Yamauchi’s expectations, though we doubt it will take 50 years. The Gran Turismo series is known for its pursuit of visual and mechanical perfection, so we can understand the developer’s frustrations, but it’s disappointing GT Sport won’t offer more robust PSVR support as seen with games like DiRT Rally and Driveclub VR. Even with the limitations of the display, racing games remain one of VR’s most immersive genres, especially with a racing wheel peripheral, so we’re still keen to check out the limited support. It was at least a cool tech demo for E3.

Gran Turismo Sport is expected to hit PS4 this fall.

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