ONE of the world’s best-selling video games marked its 15th anniversary this week with the announcement of a sixth edition. Joe Willis looks at the history of the Gran Turismo (GT) series and the attempts by a North-East games company to take its crown as the king of racing simulators.

IN 1992 Japanese computer games designer and car fanatic Kazunori Yamauchi began work on a new game for the Sony PlayStation.

He was later quoted as saying: “It took five years. In those five years, we could not see the end. I would wake up at work, go to sleep at work. It was getting cold, so I knew it must be winter. I estimate I was home only four days a year."

The first GT game was released to instant critical acclaim in December 1997. It has since become PlayStation's biggest hit and the best-selling racing game series on any format of all time, with more than 70 million copies sold.

The game’s appeal lies in its sumptuous graphics which are often used to show the full capabilities of the PlayStation console. The designers have obsessed over the detail of the hundreds of available vehicles. The cars’ handling is modeled on the vehicles’ real-life attributes, while every car can be endlessly upgraded and tweaked. Even the sound of the vehicles’ engines is based on recordings of the real thing.

This week at an event at the home of British racing at Silverstone Circuit, Sony announced the launch of a sixth GT game, which will be released on the PlayStation 3 in time for Christmas. The game will feature new tracks, including Silverstone, and new cars from manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi and Bugatti. A new interface is also promised, as well as greater integration with smartphones and tablets, and improved social and community features.

Sony is hopeful the latest GT game will maintain its reputation as the top driving simulator on the market and sell in similar quantities to the last five releases. However, the game now has stiff competition, not least from North-East games company Eutechnyx which has recently launched free-to-play online PC game, Auto Club Revolution (ACR).

Entrepreneur Darren Jobling is the Gateshead-based company’s chief commercial officer. He says that although there were racing simulators before GT, the game set the standard for the genre.

“Because it was Sony there was no expense spared. They used GT to encourage people to buy PlayStation hardware units. To them it wasn’t just how many games they could sell - it was designed to drive hardware sales and it’s been very successful at doing that.”

He adds: “What Gran Turismo did very well was the detail of the courses and the way it positioned itself as being technically accurate. They did a very good job at marketing the game. They were very clever in how they presented it. The replays were particularly good. They made you want to go out any buy a PlayStation so you could show your friends Gran Turismo.”

Although he’s a fan of the GT series, Mr Jobling believes the game has its shortfalls and is starting to show its limitations.

“It’s a great product – there’s no doubt about it and it’s interesting to see what they’re going to do next.

“But the industry has moved on. People now want social interaction and you can only do so much social interaction at present on the console.”

This is where Mr Jobling hopes ACR can take a lead in the racing simulator market, which represents a significant share - about 11 per cent - of the total games market, behind only shooting and sporting games.

“There was a gap in the market for a PC driving game and that’s where we came in. Auto Club Revolution is GT quality but you can get it for free.”

Explaining the business model of the free-to-play market, Mr Jobling says 90 per cent of users will pay nothing, but their use is subsidised by the ten per cent who are prepared to pay to move quicker through the game.

These players will potentially have less time on their hands and are happy to pay for the new cars and upgrades, rather than earn the money in the game to buy them.

After a test period, ACR has now gone live and is being played in 180 countries around the world with more in the pipeline including a deal signed in Russia and another major breakthrough due to come shortly in Asia.

Time will tell if ACR is as big a hit as GT, but the early signs are that it could leave its competitors behind in a trail of pixelated burning rubber.