The Gran Turismo franchise didn't have a whole lot of luck on the PlayStation 3, with the sixth instalment (which didn't reach the system until the PlayStatoion 4 had already been released) selling even less copies than the fifth. Now, creator Kazunori Yamauchi has spoken out about that, and it sounds like bringing the racing series to that console proved to be a major issue for Polyphony Digital.
"We always have the pressure that we have to sell numbers," he explained in a recent interview with IGN when asked if the poor performance of previous chapters has now increased pressure for Gran Turismo Sport to succeed. "At the same time, the conditions for GT6 were really against us, mainly because the PlayStation 3 hardware was a very difficult piece of hardware to develop for, and it caused our development team a lot of stress. So [GT]5 and [GT]6 was really a nightmare for us."
Fortunately, Yamauchi is more confident in the capabilities of the PS4, a relief considering the fact that Gran Turismo Sport is right around the corner! "Compared to that the PS4 is a piece of hardware that really has the ability to answer to our expectations. I’ve said this over and over again but this, Gran Turismo Sport, it really has the level of innovation you haven’t seen since Gran Turismo 1 and we’re having a lot of fun developing it, and we’re discovering a lot of things as we develop it."
In case you missed it, here's the epic gameplay trailer for the next instalment from this year's E3.