French media outlet PlayStation Inside (now PSI) had the honour of interviewing Shuhei Yoshida, former president of PlayStation. It was an opportunity for the Japanese to share his views on today's video game industry, as well as an anecdote that will be of particular interest to retrogaming enthusiasts.

Remember: the release of Gran Turismo was a veritable revolution in the era of the first PlayStation. It was a revolution in terms of both graphics and simulation-based gameplay - an unusual choice at a time when racing games were largely arcade-based.

If you're one of those people who went straight into the first corner without thinking about braking, rest assured: you weren't alone. Even the president of PlayStation was surprised by the rigid gameplay, even more so than in the final version of the game.

You'll remember that on the cover it said that the game was a ‘real driving simulator’. And you know, I'm not a game designer, I'm a producer first and foremost. During development, Kazunori Yamauchi [President of Polyphony Digital, editor's note] showed me a prototype of Gran Turismo, and I was one of the first to play it. And to tell you the truth, he was really very serious when he talked about simulation declared Shuhei Yoshida.

It was extremely advanced, perhaps too much so. But at first, Kazunori Yamauchi didn't take my feedback at face value. So he brought together around thirty players to test the game. And, as I'd expected, they all crashed at the first turn, because the gameplay was so difficult.

I was at the back of the room with Kazunori Yamauchi. At that point, he turned to me and said I'd been right. It was from that point on that he softened the edges and reduced the pure simulation aspect a little to bring out the Gran Turismo you know today on PS1. In a way, I'd like to think that I saved Gran Turismo's destiny, at my level, and that I contributed a little to its success concludes the former PlayStation president.

A destiny saved, then, for a franchise that has sold over 90 million copies worldwide, and which remains a racing game behemoth to this day, to the point of being adapted into a film in 2023.

We highly recommend that you read the full interview with Shuhei Yoshida on the PSI website, which is both fascinating and informative.