Gran Turismo Sport producer is aiming for 240 frames per second graphics

You look at the racing games of today, dial back the clock a decade and the difference in visuals is simply astounding. We’ve gone from pixel art to boxes on four wheels, more recognisable shapes to digital vehicles which at first glance are now indistinguishable from the real deal. Many a game has pushed what’s possible with current hardware to the bleeding edge, and you can count Gran Turismo amongst those genre-defining games which look impossibly good.

So what’s next for the franchise and Gran Turismo Sport in particular? With the PlayStation 5 on the way and rumours of TRUE 8K POWER doing the rounds, it’s not hard to imagine Gran Turismo Sport aiming for retina-searing resolutions. Not so, says producer Kazunori Yamauchi! The man behind the franchise has his eyes set on a higher goal currently, as he’s convinced that the future of games looking damn good lies not in the number of pixels on the screen but rather at the rate they throw them at your face. “I think, display resolution-wise, 4K resolution is enough,” Yamauchi said to GTPlanet.

In terms of frames per second, rather than staying at 60 fps, I’m more interested in raising it to 120 fps or even 240 fps. I think that’s what’s going to be changing the experience from here on forward.

That’s a hell of a high bar to strive towards, and something that neither Microsoft or Sony have really mentioned in the build-up towards their next-gen console releases. In an age where a standard 4K resolution can’t be decided upon as multiple manufacturers throw all kinds of fancy format buzz-words at consumers, racing towards a universal resolution ceiling seems like the logical choice. And that’s without mentioning the fact that an 8K TV will cost you almost as much as a new smartphone these days. MATHS HEYOH!

Yamauchi also reckons that with the new console generation, we’re going to be seeing a visual leap that isn’t that far removed from what we have today on the best consoles such as the Xbox One X or the PS4 Pro. “Going from PS1 to PS2 there was a hundred times the performance difference between the two console generations. An advancement like that is no longer possible,” he said.

I’m still trying to figure out if my eyeballs (which are properly good thanks to laser surgery which sadly didn’t make me an X-Man like I was hoping for) can even see regular speed visuals at such a bonkers framerate. Can it be done? Absolutely! Will it be done soon? Not a chance, but it’s a dream that should be worth the wait.

Last Updated: February 19, 2020