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I recently watched the newly released movie Gran Turismo, which tells the story of a video game player who becomes a famous race car driver. Compared to Barbie, another film released during the same period that ostensibly advocates feminism, this story that seems apocryphal lacks some popularity and gimmicks. However, its selling point of being based on a true story attracted me. I felt like “This is awesome!” after watching it.

In the film, the male protagonist Jan Mardenborough who has dreamed of becoming a race car driver since childhood immersed himself in the game world all the time - a typical family issue causing parental disapproval. Nissan and Sony PlayStation jointly founded GT Academy, which held 8 seasons from 2008 to 2016, providing opportunities for gamers to embark on real professional racing careers. Jan Mardenborough participated in the online qualifiers and offline national finals of Gran Turismo, eventually winning at the starting line and achieving his dream. He has since set foot on the path to becoming a British professional racer.

A Game of Life

This is not a film review, so I won’t describe how thrilling and exciting the plot development was, or repeat the old adage about young people pursuing their dreams and how parents should communicate with their children. What I mean to say is that this movie fully demonstrates that life is like a game, or rather, a game is like life. It’s hard to believe that an outstanding game player can embark on the real track to participate in the extremely dangerous sport of car racing. The racing game Jan Mardenborough played was Gran Turismo, developed by former car designer Kazunori Yamauchi back in 1997. It is known for its ultra-realistic graphics and racing simulations.

From tabletop games to VR games to the metaverse gaining popularity in recent years, the video games evolve rapidly like technology, providing players with an increasingly realistic experience. This year, Sony launched a device called MONOPI that can easily capture motions. With just six 8-gram sensors attached to a user’s hands, feet, forehead and waist, it can capture full body movements. This greatly facilitates creators in applying metaverse technologies to produce movies, animations, VR, VTubers, etc.

Continued Growth in Gaming Market

The gaming research firm Newzoo reported that global gaming revenue in 2022 reached $184.4 billion, down 4.3% year-over-year, which marks the first time the annual gaming revenue has declined. But it should be considered in light of most countries having lifted pandemic control measures that year, meaning the benefits of staying home during lockdowns have faded. At the same time, the number of global gamers hit a new record high in 2022 to reach 3.2 billion, a nearly 50% increase. In addition to gaming consoles, players are focusing on various gaming hardware and software. Better games require faster processing speeds, so the GPUs are especially important. This is evident from the performance of Nvidia, one of the world’s two largest chipmakers. Powered by the AI technology, Nvidia’s revenue more than doubled to $13.51 billion in Q2 this year and is expected to reach $16 billion in the next quarter.