Gran Turismo 7 unlikely to hit this year, but here are some of Polyphony's plans

Gran Turismo 7 will likely not be released this year, but developer Polyphony Digital plans to keep around cars that have been present in the series since the PlayStation 2 era,  producer and Polyphony CEO Kazunori Yamauchi told Eurogamer.

Last year, shortly before the launch of Gran Turismo 6 on PlayStation 3, Yamauchi told Top Gear that the following franchise title could hit as early as this year, with a 2014 release the "best-case scenario." However, Yamauchi recently stated that although development on the game is underway, a 2014 launch looks unlikely.

"We are working on the title," he said. "I don't think it'll make this year!"

Yamauchi also confirmed that there won't be a Gran Turismo 7 Prologue — a small-scale "teaser" version of the game released ahead of the full game for Gran Turismo 4 and 5 — and Polyphony is still working to overhaul all audio for Gran Turismo 6 and its successor. In a recent Reddit AMA, Yamauchi stated that this audio update would be coming with GT7 and not to expect it with the July update to GT6. The seventh installment will also keep the standard set of car models that have been featured in the games for the past ten years.

"I doubt that we'll be throwing away the standard cars," Yamauchi explained. "Each car has its own fans. So I think we'll hang on to the archive. In the meanwhile, some of those cars we may be able to make into Premium cars as they become available — but basically we're more focussed on increasing the number of premium cars."

But while Gran Turismo will likely keep the same suite of cars, its track selections will continue to evolve — namely, include both replications of real-world tracks and original, Polyphony-created fantasy tracks.

"Though I think real, existing tracks are important, I also think that fully designed tracks are also very interesting and have their own place so I think that's something to look for in GT7," he said.

Yamauchi also briefly mentioned in the AMA that he is "not pleased with the current rendition" of the series' photo mode, and that for the PlayStation 4 version he is hoping push the feature to its limits.

"I know how good it was in Gran Turismo 4, but it just so happened that the architecture of the PS3 wasn't really suited for this feature," he said. "But in PS4, I'm going to try to make sure that there's a photo mode that can satisfy any connoisseur of photography and you can really look forward to that — because as a photographer, I'm really not satisfied with what we have yet.

"So regarding the next generation PS4 and beyond, there's always ongoing research going forward at Polyphony Digital and Sony," he added of the studio's approach to new games in teh series. "There might be some technologies that may change the world and until recently I was thinking that video games might reach a saturation point but I found out that there's much more to come and much more to look forward to in terms of technology of the future — not that I can discuss any details right now."

Gran Turismo 6 launched last December exclusively for PS3. Check out our review for more details.