View Full Version : The history of Polyphony Digital
Dire 51
10-09-2005, 07:54 PM
My roommate and I were trying to figure out what the deal was with these guys earlier, because right now he's playing a lot of Gran Turismo 4. As most of you know, they pretty much came out of nowhere with the original Gran Turismo, and aside from Omega Boost and an upcoming motorcycle racing sim, Tourist Trophy, GT games are basically all they do. The quality of all their games is so high, though, we have to wonder - where did they come from? Programmers this good don't just show up overnight. Did they defect from any other companies to form their own, like Treasure did? What's the deal? Does anyone know?
Were these the guys from Take-Two. A sucky company that kept selling PS1 games for under 10 bucks.
Oobgarm
10-09-2005, 08:37 PM
They were also responsible for 1996's Motor Toon Gran Prix, a pre-Gran Turismo title, if that helps.
roushimsx
10-09-2005, 09:19 PM
I've been wanting to track down Motor Toon Grand Prix, but I heard it really wasn't nearly as good as Motor Toon Grand Prix II (which we got as Motor Toon Grand Prix).
oh look, videos (http://www.roushimsx.com/stoofoo/videos/Motor_Toon_Grand_Prix_-_Gulliver_House_II.avi). Videos rock (http://www.roushimsx.com/stoofoo/videos/Motor_Toon_Grand_Prix_-_Haunted_Castle.avi). Hope you're not doing that codec pack shit...all you need is ffdshow and matroska splitter (http://x264.nl/).
One of these days I'll record a video of the Gran Turismo prototype mode.
Gamebrain
10-09-2005, 09:21 PM
The guy who worked on Motor Toon worked on all 4 Gran Turismo games. Thats really all I know about Polyphony Digital.
Richter
10-09-2005, 10:22 PM
from IGN, and a bit old:
Formerly known as Polys Entertainment, an internal developer at SCEI - under that name, they developed the two Motor Toon Grand Prix racers for PlayStation. After the completion of their next project, the monumentally successful Gran Turismo, they were granted a greater degree of autonomy by SCEI and renamed Polyphony Digital. Under that name, they developed Omega Boost, Gran Turismo 2 (another astonishing success) and are currently working on Gran Turismo 3 A-spec for PlayStation 2. Led by Kazunori Yamauchi, director of GT. Considered one of the premier developers on PlayStation 2 and SCEI's greatest internal development asset.
from IGN, and a bit old:
Formerly known as Polys Entertainment, an internal developer at SCEI - under that name, they developed the two Motor Toon Grand Prix racers for PlayStation. After the completion of their next project, the monumentally successful Gran Turismo, they were granted a greater degree of autonomy by SCEI and renamed Polyphony Digital. Under that name, they developed Omega Boost, Gran Turismo 2 (another astonishing success) and are currently working on Gran Turismo 3 A-spec for PlayStation 2. Led by Kazunori Yamauchi, director of GT. Considered one of the premier developers on PlayStation 2 and SCEI's greatest internal development asset.
Yeah they've done amazing work. Makes you wonder how well theyd do making a different type of game.
Gemini-Phoenix
10-10-2005, 05:37 AM
I was always led to believe that Polyphonic Digital evolved from the now defunct Psygnosis after Sony took them over. Didn't a load of the employees from there then form Polyphonic Digital? Or am I thinking of another company? (Sony Computer Interactive perhaps???)
Oobgarm
10-10-2005, 07:15 AM
I was always led to believe that Polyphonic Digital evolved from the now defunct Psygnosis after Sony took them over. Didn't a load of the employees from there then form Polyphonic Digital? Or am I thinking of another company? (Sony Computer Interactive perhaps???)
http://www.the-underdogs.org/company.php?name=Psygnosis
According to them, their European branch was bought by Eidos, and the US brancg became 989 Studios.
AFAIK, the team of Polyphony Digital is all Japanese. I could be wrong there, though.
I've always wondered what these guys would do in a different genre such as a platform/ adventure game or FPS. They seem to be able to do it with one hand tied behind their backs, like Rare.
I just bought a sealed copy of Omega Boost in the wild for $10 Canadian. (at an old Zellers store)
Dire 51
10-10-2005, 10:36 AM
This is all very interesting. I had no idea they did Motor Toon GP. Did they do parts 1 and 2, or just one of the two? What were they called then, anyway - I don't think it was Polyphony Digital, was it?
roushimsx
10-10-2005, 10:44 AM
This is all very interesting. I had no idea they did Motor Toon GP. Did they do parts 1 and 2, or just one of the two? What were they called then, anyway - I don't think it was Polyphony Digital, was it?
They were responsible for both of them. Just noticed that mobygames' info on Motor Toon Grand Prix incorrectly references the Japanese title as well. I'm tempted to submit a correction but it'd probably be more touble than it's worth.
I tried to submit corrections for Dead or Alive and Metal Gear Ghost Babel's titles in the past and it was a complete clusterfuck.
Oobgarm
10-10-2005, 11:10 AM
This is all very interesting. I had no idea they did Motor Toon GP. Did they do parts 1 and 2, or just one of the two? What were they called then, anyway - I don't think it was Polyphony Digital, was it?
PD is not credited for Motor Toon, at least not in the manual or anywhere on the outer packaging. Perhaps it's in the intro, I can't remember.
Kazunori Yamauchi, the main PD guy, is listed as the producer, though.
Kid Fenris
10-10-2005, 11:13 AM
I could be wrong, but I remember hearing that Yamauchi and other future PD staff members worked on Sony games during the 16-bit era --Skyblazer and the SNES version of Hook were possibly their creations.
Then again, the source on that was the second generation of Gamefan. The generation that I hated.
roushimsx
10-10-2005, 11:45 AM
PD is not credited for Motor Toon, at least not in the manual or anywhere on the outer packaging. Perhaps it's in the intro, I can't remember.
Kazunori Yamauchi, the main PD guy, is listed as the producer, though.
They weren't called Polyphony Digital until after Motor Toon Grand Prix 2 came out. Before that they were just an internal team at SCEI sometimes refered to as "Polys Entertainment".
Doubt many of them worked on Hook, but it looks like a lot of guys that worked on the SNES version of Hook went on to work on Metal Slug 2nd Mission.