Gran Turismo 2 is a 1999 sim racing game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the original PlayStation, serving as the sequel to the genre-defining 1997 original. As the first title ever released under the newly formed Polyphony Digital studio name, it dramatically expanded nearly every aspect of its predecessor, packing in a staggering vehicle roster and a far larger selection of tracks while staying true to the realistic driving simulation that had made the franchise such a phenomenon. In this article, we’ll cover its development, gameplay expansion, commercial success, and lasting reputation among racing game fans.
A New Studio Built on Unexpected Success
Gran Turismo 2’s existence traces directly back to the surprising commercial breakout of the original Gran Turismo, which had sold two million copies in Japan alone by mid-1998. Following that success, the small internal team responsible for the original game, previously operating under the name Polys Entertainment, was spun off into its own dedicated studio: Polyphony Digital. Gran Turismo 2 became one of that new studio’s very first releases, arriving alongside the unrelated 1999 title Omega Boost.
With the franchise’s foundation already firmly established, lead developer Kazunori Yamauchi set out with clear ambitions for the sequel, reportedly aiming to make Gran Turismo 2 “an even better product” in every conceivable way. Sony’s marketing team shared that same confidence heading into launch, with SCEA marketing director Ami Blaire predicting the game would become one of the season’s hottest titles, while sales vice president Jack Tretton expected it to outsell the original entirely.
A Massive Expansion in Scale
If there’s one word that defines what Gran Turismo 2 set out to accomplish, it’s scale. The game featured nearly 650 different automobiles spanning 36 manufacturers, ranging from familiar names like BMW and Honda to more specialized brands like Venturi and Ruf. For comparison, both the original Gran Turismo and its eventual successor, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, featured fewer than 200 cars each, making GT2’s vehicle roster an outlier even within its own franchise.
Track selection expanded considerably as well, growing to 27 racing circuits, now including dedicated rally tracks for the very first time in the series. This rally content represented a genuinely new direction for the franchise, broadening the kinds of driving experiences available beyond the tarmac-focused circuits that had defined the original release.
Refining Rather Than Reinventing the Core Experience
Despite this massive expansion in content, Gran Turismo 2’s underlying gameplay, physics, and visual presentation remained quite similar to its predecessor. The most noticeable mechanical change involved braking behavior, which became considerably less prone to locking up and triggering unwanted oversteer compared to the original game, a refinement that made the driving experience feel more forgiving without abandoning the franchise’s commitment to realistic handling.
The game retained its now-signature dual-mode structure: Arcade Mode, which let players freely select any combination of vehicles and tracks without restriction, and Simulation Mode, called Gran Turismo Mode in Japanese and PAL releases, which required players to earn driver’s licenses, purchase cars with in-game currency, and accumulate trophies in order to progressively unlock new content. One notable convenience added in the sequel allowed players to enter individual events separately rather than being locked into competing through an entire tournament structure, removing the previous requirement to “qualify” for each race before being allowed to compete.
A Rushed Holiday Launch That Brought Real Problems
Gran Turismo 2’s development schedule was tightly bound to a planned holiday season release, and that compressed timeline came at a real cost. Early copies of the game shipped with multiple glitches and bugs, the most significant being incorrect vehicle restrictions in certain races. In the game’s 30-lap Trial Mountain endurance event, for example, a 680 horsepower Vector M12 LM Edition could sometimes appear despite the race’s intended restriction limiting entries to vehicles producing no more than 295 horsepower.
To Sony’s credit, the company didn’t ignore the resulting player frustration. SCEA publicly acknowledged the issues and offered replacement discs to any players who encountered these problems, helping mitigate what could have otherwise become a significant launch controversy for one of the platform’s most anticipated holiday titles.
A Cut Feature That Wouldn’t Return for Years
One particularly interesting piece of Gran Turismo 2 trivia involves drag racing, which was originally planned as a feature for the game but was ultimately cut due to time constraints during development. Leftover assets, including a Drag Racing mode button still present within Arcade Mode’s game data, confirm the feature existed in some form before being removed. As a result, Gran Turismo 2 remains the only mainline entry in the entire series to feature dedicated drag racing-specific vehicles despite the mode itself never actually being implemented, a feature the franchise wouldn’t properly introduce until Gran Turismo 7, released decades later.
Regional Differences and an Unusual Two-Disc Format
Gran Turismo 2 holds the distinction of being the first entry in the series to feature significant regional differences, most notably including region-specific vehicle naming conventions designed to display cars as accurately as possible depending on which market the game was sold in. The game also shipped across two separate discs containing major portions of gameplay content, a structural choice shared by only a small handful of other entries in the franchise’s history, including the Spec II edition of Gran Turismo Sport and the PlayStation 4 version of Gran Turismo 7.
Interestingly, Gran Turismo 2 and the later Gran Turismo 5 remain the only two entries in the series to feature an International C driving license, while its included Rally license stands as one of the least common license types in franchise history, since most other entries simply blend dirt and snow conditions into other existing license categories rather than separating them entirely.
Universal Critical Acclaim
Gran Turismo 2 received what Metacritic classifies as universal acclaim upon release, holding an aggregate score around 93%. Four separate critics at Electronic Gaming Monthly each awarded the game perfect 10/10 scores. GamePro’s Air Hendrix praised the experience as “another awesome ride,” while fellow GamePro reviewer Uncle Dust acknowledged the game was showing its age in certain areas but still considered it as close to authentic real-world driving as a console game could deliver at the time. Official UK PlayStation Magazine later ranked it as the fourth-best PlayStation game of all time.
A Genuine Commercial Phenomenon
Commercially, Gran Turismo 2 was an enormous success right out of the gate. The game sold 815,430 units in Japan during its very first week of release alone. In the United Kingdom, it sold 130,000 units and grossed £4.3 million during its opening weekend, surpassing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to briefly become the UK’s fastest-selling video game at the time, eventually reaching roughly 250,000 units sold within its first week in that region. In the United States, the game crossed one million units sold within just six weeks of release, eventually reaching 3 million units by early 2001.
By April 30, 2008, Gran Turismo 2’s total lifetime sales had reached approximately 9.37 million copies worldwide, encompassing 1.73 million units across Asia, 3.96 million in North America, and 3.68 million in Europe. The game’s UK sales performance was substantial enough to earn a “Double Platinum” award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, reflecting at least 600,000 units sold domestically, and it eventually joined Sony’s Greatest Hits lineup as recognition of its sustained commercial success.
A Foundational Entry in a Billion-Dollar Franchise
Gran Turismo 2’s massive success helped further establish the broader Gran Turismo series as the best-selling video game franchise under the entire PlayStation brand, a franchise that has gone on to sell over 100 million units combined since its 1997 debut. The game was also a finalist for “Console Game of the Year,” “Console Racing Game of the Year,” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design” at the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, recognition that reinforced its standing as one of the most significant racing games of its generation heading into the franchise’s eventual leap to PlayStation 2 with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.
Final Thoughts
Gran Turismo 2 proved that sometimes the most effective sequel strategy is simply doing more of everything that already worked, expanding the original’s vehicle roster, track count, and overall scope dramatically while keeping the core driving experience players had already fallen in love with intact. Despite a rushed development cycle that introduced some early bugs, its massive content expansion, refined handling, and genuinely staggering commercial performance cemented it as one of the defining racing games of the PlayStation era, a worthy foundation for one of gaming’s most enduring and successful franchises.