In junior high, he started making video games; at 14, inspired by heroes like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he founded his own movie production club. His love of that craft is obvious in the first moments of any “Gran Turismo” game. The cinematic intros feature real and virtual race footage from all eras, animated engine internals, moving assembly lines and smelting plants, all set to a rousing score.
Kaz, as he’s commonly known, started his career in 1992 at Sony’s small yet growing video game department, where he created “Motor Toon Grand Prix.” A cartoony, go-kart take on racing, it nevertheless contained the bones of the future series. In 1997, the first “Gran Turismo” was released for PlayStation. 10 million copies later, Sony suggested he start his own company; in 1998, Polyphony Digital was born.
“Gran Turismo 2” came out a year later, featuring 650 carefully rendered road and race cars and 27 tracks. But it wasn’t until 2007’s “Gran Turismo 5 Prologue” that things began to get interesting. With it came the Nissan GT Academy, a competition that turns gamers into real race car drivers.
After “GT5,” manufacturers were all in. Chevrolet gave Polyphony Digital early access to the C7 Stingray Corvette to digitize it, complete with camo body cladding. The covers were pulled off simultaneously in the game and at the Detroit auto show.
http://autoweek.com/article/autoweek-awards/kazunori-yamauchi-2018-autoweek-car-culture-award
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