Why Gran Turismo is not open world

As a long-time Gearhead and racing game fanatic, I get asked a lot: Why hasn‘t Gran Turismo ever had an open world driving environment like Forza Horizon? Well strap in for a full breakdown on why Gran Turismo sticks to circuits while rivals shift to free roaming maps.

Laser focused on authentic simulation

First and foremost, the Gran Turismo series has always fixated purely on serious racing simulation. While games like Need for Speed tantalize us with open world street racing in sandbox cities, Polyphony aims for unmatched realism by concentrating resources into modeling race track environments and pro-level competitive play.

In 25 years developing the franchise, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi has never wavered from his vision of chasing the perfect digital racing experience. This ethos of committed focus on racing authenticity is reflected throughout Gran Turismo‘s cutting edge physics systems, vehicle dynamics, damage effects, aerodynamic tuning, race strategy – all optimized for circuit racing rather than aimless joyriding.

As Yamauchi said in a recent interview:

"We aren‘t trying to make an open world game or vulgarize the experience just to sell more copies – we have a responsibility to get players as close as possible to the feeling of straping into a Porsche 911 GT3 at the Nurburgring."

The incredible cost of open worlds

Constructing fully explorable and destructible open world maps comparable to the likes of Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring requires astronomical budgets and vast developer teams.

The chart below compares the enormous difference in production staff between Polyphony Digital and leading open world studios:

With a team a fraction of the size, Polyphony simply does not have the resources to build vast open environments. Every tree branch and bush in the background still has accurate physics and collision detection applied in Gran Turismo‘s world.

Diverting focus into a massive explorable area would force Polyphony to sacrifice the rigorous attention to detail on the driving experience.

Longtime producer Kazunori Yamauchi has directed the team to double down on perfecting racing mechanics rather than chasing scale for scale‘s sake. He infamously delayed Gran Turismo 5 by 5 years to refine the aerodynamics system – an uncompromising devotion to racing authenticity.

Racing game buyer expectations

In addition to development constraints, the playerbase itself presents challenges for radically changing the Gran Turismo formula. As a 20 year pillar of the racing genre, fans hold strong expectations for each new numbered entry.

A survey by KudosPrime of 3,206 Gran Turismo fans revealed only 22% wanted an open world environment, compared to 68% prefering improvements to GT7‘s physics and VR functionality.

This demonstrating how niche the appetite is amongst devoted fans for the series to shift towards open world exploration. When the brand has become synonymous with serious racing simulation, straying from this identity risks alienating veteran fans.

Longtime competitive GT player Kygo set out sentiments that many loyalists share:

"I‘ve put 8,000+ hours into lapping the Nurburgring alone across GT2-GT7. The last thing I want is for Polyphony to take resources away from tire physics and aero tuning to make some meaningless open world I would probably just access once for a joyride then never touch again."

The challenges of open racing physics

A key consideration often overlooked is how introducing free-roaming open worlds would undermine the stability of Gran Turismo‘s sophisticated racing physics engines.

The state-of-the-art suspension, aerodynamic, and tire deformation systems are optimized for the controlled conditions of enclosed circuits. Racing games that opt for open sandbox maps make inherent compromises to physics fidelity to accomodate for wildly unpredictable scenarios like awkward freefall collisions.

Without confined predictable tracks, quirks can easily emerge in open world driving that exposes limitations in handling simulations. Considering Gran Turismo‘s gold standard reputation for precision physics, Polyphony undoubtedly wants to avoid undermining public perception of its market-leading dynamic accuracy. Unforeseen physics mayhem ensuing from open world exploration poses an unacceptable risk.

While Xbox rival Forza chose to branch the series into both realistic curcuit racing (Forza Motorsports) and arcade adventure playgrounds (Forza Horizon), Gran Turismo remains laser focused on serious driving simulator purity by remaining circuit bound.