Gran Turismo 4 Mobile: A History of Nothing

As we begin the runup to Wired's annual Vaporware Awards, I thought I'd take some time to chronicle the history of one of the most egregious examples of vaporware ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public: Gran Turismo 4 Mobile.

Gran Turismo 4 Mobile was one of the first PSP titles ever announced when it was shown off at E3 2004. It was only available as a video demonstration, but Sony gave it special attention. They showed off the game's box and UMD disc, which were emblazoned with the following paragraph:

"Gran Turismo Anywhere" -- Gran Turismo 4 Mobile, coming from the Gran Turismo series, is the PSP version of the real driving simulator. Its product quality is not at all inferior to its PS2 counterpart, and is compatible to competition over wireless LAN, a unique feature to the PSP.

They even showed off a special GT4-branded PSP hardware. It's safe to say that GT4 was, at the time, the strongest argument in favor of buying a PSP. Which made it all the more ridiculous that it apparently never existed.

Typical of the breathless coverage by the games media was this article from IGN, ironically titled "GT4 PSP is Real." And who could blame them? From all appearances, it was real -- as real as anything else on PSP, given that the vast majority of the software was video-only at that point. It was enough to make Nintendo DS look old and busted, no matter how much fun Metroid Prime Hunters was at that show.

But that was all we ever heard about it. Realizing that they had to say something, Sony's Japan offices kept delaying the game by bits and pieces. First it got pushed back to Spring 2005. Then, after E3 2005 came and went with nary a mention of the game, it got pushed to 2006. Two Tokyo Game Shows came and went with nothing. Meanwhile, developer Polyphony Digital was announcing and shipping other games, like the motorcycle racing game Tourist Trophy, and now Gran Turismo HD for PlayStation 3 (which was cancelled, turned into a downloadable "concept demo" to be released this month, and replaced with Gran Turismo 5).

1up interviewed the series' producer Kazunori Yamauchi in April 2006 and asked point-blank what was going on. Yamauchi's answer indicated that they weren't anywhere near close to completion on the game, and indeed brought into question whether it was even going to happen at all:

1UP: Finally, can you give us any update on Gran Turismo PSP?

KY: We are in the works. It is going forward. It does exist. We're working on it. We don't have a release date, of course. A question for you is do people out there really have high hopes for a GT version on
PSP?

1UP: I think so, yeah. Back when it was first talked about, people got really excited. I guess it's kind of fallen off the map because it hasn't really been talked about since then, but it'll be big news.

KY: Another question. Which do you think would you or the users would like to have first: a PS3 version of Gran Turismo or PSP version of Gran Turismo?

That really should have ended anyone's hopes for Gran Turismo 4 Mobile. At this point, Yamauchi's suggestions (and just the fact that they've stopped talking about Mobile) would seem to indicate that if they ever do bring out a Gran Turismo game for PSP, it won't be GT4 Mobile. But the damage has been done, as they say. You can pre-order it at Wal-Mart!