Sony is celebrating the 15 years of its epic racing game Gran Turismo with a documentary about the game’s creator Kazunori Yamauchi. The doucmentary was directed by Tamir Moscovic, and is entitled Kaz: Pushing the Virtual Divide. Sony is using the documentary to look at the process of creating the game franchise and how it evolved over the years.

The game franchise has been one of the best-sellers for the PlayStation consoles, selling more than 70 million copies since the game first launched in 1997. The series has been instrumental in bringing a more realistic level of racing to consoles, with features like being the first console game to show a 360-degree view of a 3D-rendered car, or letting players choose from a huge variety of cars rather than just a small set of cars on one type of track.

Sony said the documentary is “about drive,” on the “Gran Turismo TV” online channel, and how Yamauchi’s passion “forever changed the gaming and automotive landscape and in doing so, redefined how we perceive the relationship between art, entertainment and culture.” The movie first debuted on Hulu in January and is now available for free on YouTube, as you can see in the version embedded here.

Sony is also developing a movie treatment with producers Mike De Luca and Dana Brunetti, who are currently producing Fifty Shades of Grey.

The most recent version of the game, Gran Turismo 6, was released on December 5, 2013 for the PlayStation 3. Sony will be bringing the franchise to the PlayStation 4, as developer Polyphony Digital (Yamauchi’s company) has already announced Gran Turismo 7 will be arriving for the PlayStation 4 sometime in 2015. The addition of this documentary and a possible feature film will certainly serve as good marketing tactics, generating higher enthusiasm among current fans and helping a significant number of people become new fans of the game.

Source: Variety