Kazunori Yamauchi discusses the future of Gran Turismo 7

With Gran Turismo 7 celebrating its first anniversary in just a couple of months, fans have been wondering what the future holds for the game. As reported by GTPlanet, Japanese media recently had the opportunity to quiz series creator Kazunori Yamauchi in a wide-ranging interview about the future direction of the series.

Future GT7 updates might not be monthly

Since GT7 launched back in March, monthly updates have added a raft of new cars, race events, and gameplay features including the ability to sell cars. Future updates may not be monthly, however.

Speaking to Japanese media, Yamauchi revealed that GT7’s updates are not intentionally released every month – it’s just a coincidence that updates have rolled out on a monthly basis.

When asked if GT7 will continue to receive monthly updates, Yamauchi acknowledged that future updates could be more spaced out or closer together.

GT7 may have fewer cars than GT5 and GT6

Because cars in Gran Turismo are so meticulously detailed, they take 270-person days to build from scratch. On average, Polyphony Digital makes around 60 new cars per year according to Yamauchi.

But as GTPlanet notes, GT7, GT7 has only received 30 new cars in the last nine months from the Ferrari Vision GT to the fan-favourite Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak.

GT5 and GT6 featured over 1,000 cars, but GT Sport and GT7 haven't matched these numbers. This is mainly because the majority of cars in GT5 and GT6 were carried over from GT4, complete with low-resolution textures. Since GT Sport, every new car has been built from scratch.

Will GT7 have over 1,000 cars one day? While Yamauchi says there’s no specific target for GT7’s car count, it “may end up happening anyway” – but possibly not in GT7’s lifetime.

Notably, this is the first time Yamauchi has acknowledged GT7's post-launch support will end eventually. This suggests Polyphony could soon prioritise developing Gran Turismo 8 instead of supporting GT7 with live-service updates.

SUVs could come to GT7

Gran Turismo significantly impacted car culture when it launched in 1997. But with the industry transitioning to electric cars and SUVs dominating sales, Yamauchi thinks some players requesting old cars Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IV in GT7 “take it for granted that car culture will continue into the future.”

“If all you want is old cars that’s fine, but that will never last,” he said. “The types of cars are changing a lot. In the past, car enthusiasts drove sports cars. Nowadays, car enthusiasts often drive SUVs. I think we have to cover such cars.”

With sports car sales declining, nearly every performance carmaker has an SUV in their lineup with models like the Lamborghini Urus, Mustang Mach-E and Aston Martin DBX.

Even Ferrari is jumping on the SUV bandwagon this year with the upcoming Purosangue performance SUV. Yamauchi's comments suggest that SUVs could come to GT7 in future updates, reflecting the rapidly changing car culture.