Gran Turismo

Gran Turismo launched in 1997 on PlayStation as a project from Polyphony Digital that set itself apart from louder rivals through a focus on realism - the game billed itself as "the real driving simulator." It paired an unusually large roster of licensed cars, from everyday sedans to exotic sports models, with handling physics more demanding than console racers had offered before, wrapped in a career structure built around earning driving licenses, a used-car dealership, and gradually buying better machinery.

Each entry carved out its own role. Gran Turismo 2 (1999) expanded the car list and tracks and added rally events. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (2001), one of the early flagship titles on PS2, showcased a graphical leap that made the series famous well beyond racing fans and helped sell the new console. Gran Turismo 4 (2004) added more tracks and a photo mode, while Gran Turismo 5's development on PlayStation 3 stretched across a separately released Prologue before arriving with damage modeling and the licensed Top Gear test track. Gran Turismo 6 refined the formula further, before Gran Turismo Sport (PS4) shifted the focus toward online racing and FIA-certified championships, initially at the expense of a fuller single-player career that returned with Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 5. Around Gran Turismo 6, the series also launched the Vision Gran Turismo project, inviting major automakers to design exclusive concept vehicles for the game, some of which were later built as real, driveable show cars.

The series is defined by its sprawling car list mixing everyday models with exotics, physics that grew more precise with each generation, and careful audiovisual presentation, spanning real-world circuits and recurring fictional ones like Trial Mountain and Deep Forest.

Gran Turismo ranks among PlayStation's best-known and most successful franchises and helped establish serious driving simulation as a commercially viable genre on consoles. The shift toward online competition in Gran Turismo Sport, together with an official partnership with the FIA for certified championships, also made it one of the first major racing series with its own esports scene, shaping the direction later taken by rivals such as Forza.