He’s right Valentino Rossi: the Japanese are stylish, perhaps the most striking resemblance to the Italians. AND Grand Touring, made in Tokyo by the very Japanese Polyphony Digital, is a Japanese game to the core. It is no coincidence that Italians, sales figures in hand, have adored since its inception in 1997.
Arrived at the seventh chapter of the classic series (to which the series must be added Sportthe Conceptsome spin-offs and special editions), Grand Touring it transcends perplexities of those looking for the hard and pure simulation (better turn to R-Factor o ad Race trim, in this case) thanks to a feature that distinguishes it from its debut and which, like it or not, lacks the competition: style, as Valentino says.
That is a sensitivity for anything related to the car, an obsessive attention that translates love and knowledge of the world into pixels God from the machine of the series, that Kazunori Yamauchi former professional driver (on real tracks) and awarded a degree honoris causa in Vehicle Engineering at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, where we know quite a lot about engines.
For this it is not forced that the Polyphony series, in general, and the seventh Grand Touring in particularcelebrate themselves by defining themselves as “real driving simulators”: because of the passion for driving, its sensations, the materiality of the racing cars on the track (420 different cars in the seventh chapter) Grand Touring it is the supreme celebration, an almost fetishistic digital declination of the love for the four wheels. No way: those who love motoring always find a reason to take a lookand maybe something more, a Grand Touringas if Yamauchi and Polyphony set a standard every time.
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What has been written up to here (a premise that comes from one of the two Italian commentators of the world competitions of Grand Touringflanked by Andrea Facchinetti) should be understood not as a sviolinata to the latest production of the Yamauchi workshop, and even less as a review (that of Italian Tech is here): because in the face of the passion for motoring that Grand Touring also conveys in live competitions, what we want to emphasize here is that from the Polyphony game they start and intertwine different trajectories of the motorsport of the future. And maybe even sports in general.
To tell why, however, another excursus would be needed: although, due to the fragmentation of the sector, it is complex to be more detailed today than billion dollars in total moved by exports globally (source: Statista, 2021), most of them come from companies such as Red Bull, Amazon, McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Nike, Adidas or Gillette, even from most of the car manufacturers that count, with Toyota, Mercedes and Renault in the lead (in 2019, the first house to do so, Mitsubishi presented the Eclipse Cross Knight to the market, an SUV coupé whose customization “winks at the world of gaming”).
For brands already linked to the competitive field, the investment is logical, while the involvement of companies that produce cosmetics or cars suggests an epochal revolution in tastes and consumption habits: more simply, it is not that the leaders of the multinationals have lost their minds for Pac-man and his successors. The same goes for the IOC, which already in October 2017 launched an opening (later more and less retracted) towards competitive electronic gaming.
It is all alone question of money: today the export reaches the youngest public (between 18 and 34 years, 85% male, says the specialized site Newzoo), an audience that is increasingly difficult for traditional media to intercept. It is the same reason why, at the cinema, lately Iron Man or Batman whiz on racing cars with recognizable badges. Because it is there, between a superhero and a streaming match of LoL, HearthstoneO Fortnitebetter if it is to play with it one like Pow3Rwhich gathers a large part of the buyers of the future.
To be honest, they, the buyers, do not care much about money: it is his money that attracts them to export capacity to generate a perfect blend of competitive spirit and dreams, of the desire to win and the ambition to do it by improving. The fact that video games and watching who does it are the most popular pastimes under the age of 25 is “accidental”, as Hannibal Lecter would say; it is only the sign of the times, which also manifests itself in our parts. Second the Report on esports in Italy, and published in May 2021 by Iidea, the trade association, in our country 475 thousand people (a slight increase compared to the previous survey) follow daily export events, and this catchment area expands to about 1,620,000 people (+ 15%) if we also consider those who claim to follow an esports event several times a week. Also according to Iidea, the total economic impact (direct and indirect) estimated for the export sector in Italy in 2021 amounted to 45-47 million euros.
What does it mean? That the come it matters little: it is probable that massive export does not yet exist, and it is possible that it will never exist, just as there is no sport that everyone likes. It could happen that one tomorrow virtual reality competitions conquer an international audience, perhaps in a mixed or augmented version and in dedicated rooms, such as the Italian WeArena or the The Void project in the United States. More likely, and the process is already underway, videogames will be more understandable even to those not accustomed to eroding the boundaries between everyday and virtual.
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And here the racing e Grand Touring: disciplines whose digital version is little different from the real counterpart. It is no coincidence that i Gt Sport World Championships, the world championships of Gran Turismo Sportare the first electronic tournament to have earned, since 2018, the patronage of the FIA, the one that organizes Formula 1. And it is no coincidence that, before the pandemic forced them to take place remotely, every stage of the World Tour was managed like a TV show: up to 64 drivers chauffeured in every corner of the world (from New York to Sydney), more than 100 staff members of which at least 30 employees just broadcasting (more properly, putting online), and live streaming capable, globally and during the finals of 2019, to touch the 5 million views.
The point is this: as such, motorsport is closer to export than to traditional disciplines, due to a hardware interface, an intermediary, crucial for the competition (cars or motorbikes on one side, joypad or mouse on the other). This resemblance to the real plus the immediate comprehensibility of its staging (after all it is easy to understand a race, whether it is virtual or real it does not matter) the formula of the future. A future that will be dominated by competitions on beautiful and easy-to-follow video games: the spectacular effectiveness could convince even those who are not passionate about video games of their commercial caliber.
Of course, the FIA and some of the sponsors have already understood this: in 2019 it was Olivier Volery, Tag Heuer partnership and brand building manager, to say that “the horizons of motorsport are 3: traditional races, those with eco-sustainable power sources such as Formula E, and digital championships, capable of involving a young public and not necessarily interested in the real counterpart”. Correct: a young audience and not necessarily interested in traditional disciplines. Which is the reason why Nfl, Nba and many Italian football clubs today have export sections in their organization.
When will export conquer the world? On this it is not very serious to express oneself by showing off self-confidence. Those who have done so in past years have sinned with optimism. There truth is that the when will depend on certain factors, such as the consolidation of the interest of sponsors outside the sector, the market for television rights and widespread diffusion in every part of the globe.
One thing, however, is certain and is confirmed by investors like Shaquille O’NealMagic Johnson e pure Michael Jordan, guys who know sports, and who in competitive gaming have poured interest and a few million dollars each: ways and times are yet to be understood. But the sport is here to stay.
The passion for engines distilled in the pixels of Grand Touring and in the compactness of his official competitions there are two of the most evident proofs of this. A matter of style, Valentino Rossi is right.