Polyphony Digital Inc. is an internal Japanese first-party video game development studio for PlayStation Studios. Originally a development group within Sony Computer Entertainment's Japan Studio known as Polys Entertainment, after the success of Gran Turismo in Japan, they were granted greater autonomy, reestablished as an individual company and renamed themselves Polyphony Digital. It currently has four studios: two studios in Japan, one studio in the Netherlands, and another one in the United States.

Company overview

The studio is best known for the Gran Turismo racing game series. Led by Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo became the most successful racing series for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. The Gran Turismo series is designed to be a realistic driving simulator, offering realistic driving physics. In 2006, Polyphony released Tourist Trophy, in an attempt to bring the realism of Gran Turismo to motorcycle racing.

Games developed

As Polys Entertainment

As Polyphony Digital

Other projects

Polyphony Digital has also been involved in real life automotive projects. They have developed special versions of their Gran Turismo games for many car manufacturers as demonstrators for their cars. Nissan also commissioned them to design a special body kit for their 350Z coupe, which first appeared in 'GT Concept: 2002 Tokyo – Geneva' as the "Nissan 350Z Gran Turismo Aero", later becoming the "Fairlady Z NISMO S-Tune Concept by GRAN TURISMO" in GT4. There was also a faster 'Z-Tune' version with minor styling revisions and 400PS. The S-Tune was later sold in real life by NIS****MO (NISSAN MOTORSPORT) as a tuning package for existing owners. In 2007, they were contracted to design the multifunction display on the new Nissan GT-R, which displays performance information such as G-forces, acceleration opening, brake pedal pressure, steering angle, an "optimal gearshift map," to emphasize economical vehicle operation. When Nissan was looking for a company to develop the GT-R's user-friendly 'multi-function meter', the carmaker says Polyphony was the obvious choice because of the simple menu systems applied to video games such as Gran Turismo. "If you think about the GT-R's multi-function meter with the g-force information and everything else, we wanted it to be very easy to read, very easy to use," says Nissan's global vice president of communications, Simon Sproule. "It's really about the logic of how video games work and their menu systems – which anyone can use – and then applying it to the car." Seiichi Ikiuo from Polyphony Digital encoded and decoded the movies for various SCEI games, such as The Legend of Dragoon, Everybody's Golf 2 and the Japanese versions of Roll Away and the original Crash Bandicoot games for the PS1.

Recognition

In 2012, IGN placed Polyphony Digital at number 24 on their list of the 50 greatest developers of all time. In the March 2015 issue of GamesTM magazine, the company was number 34 on their list of the "50 Best Developers In The World". In 2014, Polyphony Digital made a long-term partnership with Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for a plan to launch an official FIA Online Championship in 2015.