Gran Turismo 6's audio likely to be patched post-release

The engine noises in the release version of Gran Turismo 6 likely won't see a significant improvement over those in Gran Turismo 5 - though series creator Kazunori Yamauchi hopes to improve them in a post release patch.

Gran Turismo's audio has long been a source of criticism, with its weak engine notes paling in comparison to the more full-throated tune of competitors such as Forza's cars. That situation will most likely remain when Gran Turismo 6 launches in December later this year.

"I think I mentioned this in the past, but we're really working to change the fundamental way that the engine sound works," Yamauchi said in a press event at Polyphony's offices in Tokyo. "Right now I have a feeling that it might not make it for day one for GT6."

There's still hope that improved audio will be patched in at a later date. "There's a good possibility that we might do this," Yamauchi said when pressed on whether it'll be part of the post-release support, and Gran Turismo at least has good form in this regard - Gran Turismo 5 benefited from a series of updates that resulted in a much improved version 2.0.

Data from Gran Turismo 5 won't be recognised by Gran Turismo 6, though, and any progress made in the last game in the series will be lost by those making the jump. "For Gran Turismo 5 to Gran Turismo 6 there'll be no real transfer of data," Yamauchi said. "The main reason for that is the GT5 save data has been cracked already, so we can't really confirm the validity of the save data. So my hope is that between GT6 and GT7 we can transfer some of that across."

Gran Turismo 6 introduces a new physics model that fundamentally changes the handling of the game to good effect, and it's to be supported post-release with regular updates - one of which could introduce day/night cycles to more tracks. On release, only Spa, Nurburgring and Le Mans will support the feature.

"Unfortunately it's not for all the tracks that [a day/night cycle] will be implemented," said Yamauchi. "Obviously we want to include day/night racing for all tracks, but that won't make it for day one. For the day one, all the tracks that are known for 24 hour races, all those tracks will be made available for day/night racing."

Night racing has improved for Gran Turismo 6, though. "The dispersion of light from the headlights has advanced greatly from GT5 to GT6," said Yamauchi. "So night racing should be a lot better in GT6."