In context: Every console producer has its hardware sellers—games that they use to showcase their console. Nintendo has Mario, but more recently, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become the company’s “look at us” franchise. Microsoft has Halo as its unofficial spokesmodel, while Sony’s has long been Gran Turismo series. In two days, we will get a good look at the upcoming Gran Turismo 7, just one month before we can get our hands on it.
With the launch of Gran Turismo 7 creeping upon us, Sony decided that now is a good time to hype up one of its longest-running console sellers by featuring it in the next State of Play. Sony’s Content Communications Manager Brett Elston noted that the upcoming streamed event would have more than 30 minutes of never before seen Gran Turismo 7 footage.
Gran Turismo 7 takes center stage in an all-new State of Play, arriving Wednesday at 2pm Pacific: https://t.co/Yo0Iq8udFH pic.twitter.com/F3ASOpmpeQ
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) January 31, 2022
Gran Turismo has long been one of Sony’s shiniest exclusives. The game spawned in 1997 and spans all PlayStation consoles with two primary releases per generation. Gran Turismo 7 will be the first available on the PS5. The game has consistently pushed the limits of each generation’s hardware to deliver graphics that come progressively closer to photo-real with every iteration.
This time around, the PlayStation 5 provides a lot more power for Polyphony Digital to play with, and from what we have seen so far, it shows (above). Even still, we are only just over a year into the PS5’s lifecycle. If the first game looks this good, it’ll be interesting to see what developers can do in a few years after nailing down the ins and outs of the new hardware.
After several delays due to the pandemic and simultaneously developing for the PS4 and PS5, Gran Turismo 7 will finally launch on March 4, 2022. Until then, you can drool over what Sony is ready to show off the game this Wednesday, February 2, at 2pm PST.