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Gran Turismo 5 demo races to PSN on December 17
2004: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy comes to an end (winning 11 Academy Awards in the process), John Kerry runs for US President and whales explode. Oh, and Gran Turismo 4 releases on PS2. Five years later, the public is finally able to get their hands on Gran Turismo 5 with the first non-Prologue demo. The downloadable demo will be available on both the European and American PSN on December 17th. In Europe, the demo will allow players to enter the "GT Academy Time Trial" contest, in which the top 20 players from select countries will be eligible for a chance to enter the GT Academy. The GT Academy training program will prepare the ultimate GT fan to compete in the European GT4 Cup in a real race-spec Nissan 370Z. In America and Canada, the winner of the time trial will get a trip to the Indianapolis 500. Sure, these are tantalizing grand prizes -- but we're more excited to see that GT5 is becoming a real game. Now, how about a release date? %Gallery-71410%Source - GT Academy 2010 Launches December 17th - PlayStation.Blog.EuropeSource - PlayStation.com - GT5 Time Trial RulesSource - Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge Announced
2009 Gran Turismo Awards choose 1970 Ford Mustang 'Trans-Cammer' for inclusion in GT5
The 1970 Ford Mustang "Trans-Cammer" you see above will soon be getting the digital treatment in Gran Turismo 5 after taking home this year's Gran Turismo Award honor at SEMA. For the seventh year in a row, a handful of judges (including Gran Turismo 5 lead Kazunori Yamauchi) chose a car from the auto event for inclusion in an upcoming Gran Turismo title. Yamauchi said of the event, "We have been very pleased with the high quality of vehicles vying for the award the past seven years, and look forward to having this 1970 Ford Mustang 'Trans-Cammer' join our list of distinguished past winners as part of the Gran Turismo franchise." The 1970 Ford Mustang "Trans-Cammer" by Philip Koenen follows Marcel Horn's HPA Audi TT in 2007 and Brian Filoteo's high-performance Infiniti G37 in 2008, both seen below in the gallery. [Image credit] %Gallery-77804%%Gallery-71410%
Gran Turismo 5 cost roughly $60 million to develop
At the annual SEMA car show in Las Vegas this week, Gran Turismo 5 creative lead Kazunori Yamauchi was on-hand demoing his game for showgoers and talking to the press. Amidst a torrent of questions from Autoweek, Yamauchi roughly calculated the cost of creating Gran Turismo 5: a cool $60 million. That's what five years of development on a single game has cost Polyphony Digital thus far, an amount Yamauchi says was totally justified in order to "get it right." "We threw away the legacy code from GT4 and started from scratch ... It's been five years from [the release of] GT4, and that's the same amount of time it took to develop the first GT4." And rather than dodging the reasoning behind the lack of a solid GT5 release date anywhere outside of Japan, Yamauchi flatly offered, "That's more depending on SCEA marketing decisions." Allow us to venture a guess – first half of 2010, perhaps?%Gallery-71410%[Via VGChartz]
Rumor: Gran Turismo 5 to feature track editor
The site E4G reports that Gran Turismo 5 will include a very exciting option: The ability to create your own tracks or edit the existing tracks. Eurogamer checked in with Sony to confirm this new feature, and, while Sony refused to confirm the news, the company also refused to deny it, in a carefully worded statement that makes the news suddenly seem more plausible: "We haven't confirmed this and aren't offering any other comment at this time," Sony told Eurogamer. We contacted SCEA but have yet to hear back, so this rumor is going to have to remain a rumor. Hopefully we'll find out before the game comes out, although Sony also has yet to announce the release date beyond a possible "early 2010." Okay, we'll simplify the whole thing: Gran Turismo 5 is an unconfirmed rumor. %Gallery-71410% [Original image credit]
Gran Turismo 5 making-of video reveals mysterious packaging [update]
It's quite clear to us that Gran Turismo 5 creative director Kazunori Yamauchi knows way more about cars than we do. Take, for instance, this latest making-of video discovered by GT Planet (embedded after the break), where he gets down to the nitty gritty on the inclusion of Mercedes' 2011 SLS AMG in his game. Before he delves into the possibility of the car appearing on the game's cover, he's shown with co-workers handling a box with three disc cases -- one blue, one red, one black. Though he makes it clear over the course of the clip that this isn't the final packaging, he doesn't exactly spell out what these mysterious cases might hold. Millions of cars? Top Gear episodes? Micro Machines?! Our best guess is that it's a Collector's Edition of some sort, though we'd love for such a thing to include a miniature SLS AMG (just sayin'!).Getting back to the SLS AMG, Yamauchi says that the to-be-released car is in the running for a starring role on the game's cover. "The foremost reason is that the SLS AMG will probably be the most exciting car in the world when Gran Turismo 5 is released ... Also, in terms of styling and driving performance as well, it's probably the hottest car around right now," Yamauchi teases. We've asked Sony for details on the mysterious three-case box and will update this post when we hear more.Update: Sony has responded by declining to comment. And now we play "The Waiting Game."%Gallery-71410%[Thanks, Sean]
Gran Turismo 5's Yamauchi: 'We could release it any time we want'
Gran Turismo 5's Kazunori Yamauchi says he could give you his studio's next entry in the venerable racing-sim series right now ... but he won't. Speaking with Famitsu last week (translated by 1UP), the Polyphony Digital studio head explains that while "We could release it any time we want," he's more interested in trying to give the game "that classic GT-style." And though "daily progress is slow," the Japanese developer assures us that "it's still going forward at a steady clip."Unlike the PSP iteration's somewhat lackluster feature set, Yamauchi intends on going "way beyond gamer expectations" with GT5, even confirming the export of cars earned in GT PSP to next March's PS3 sequel. We're hoping he goes way beyond our expectations as well and delivers the game to other territories in a more timely fashion.%Gallery-71410%
Buckle up for some more GT5 screenshots
Click to see the hi-res gallery. Hope your chair has a seatbelt. SCEA has released a brand new batch of Gran Turismo 5 screenshots, this time focusing on the world-renowned Ferrari and Lamborghini brands. Considering these cars go for at least $200,000, GT5 will be the closest you'll ever get to ever being inside the cockpit.%Gallery-74699%
TGS 2009: The Recap Post
Last week, the Tokyo Game Show brought in over 100 posts worth of news, previews, interviews, galleries, and videos. Clearly, a lot happened. If you're looking for a comprehensive list of all the goings-on during TGS 2009, Joystiq has you covered -- and organized! Click on a platform below to scan the highlights: (On the far right: that's "News" and "Culture" on the top and bottom, respectively)
TGS 2009: Interview: Gran Turismo 5's Kazunori Yamauchi
During Tokyo Game Show last week we crashed Polyphony Digital's studio and chatted up Kazunori Yamauchi about ... Gran Turismo 6? Wait -- what? Just watch the interview.Selected excerpts below:Joystiq: Are there any plans to bring Gran Turismo PSP's "Party Mode" to GT5?Yamauchi: I'm glad you noticed that. What we really worked hard to make the PSP portable fun and interesting is in those types of details. Obviously, these are ideas we worked hard on and they will be carried over in some form into GT5.In Gran Turismo, with its ten years of history, the people that who good at playing the game are really, really good at playing the game. Of course, there are a lot of first-time players that want to get into the game, and it was a major theme for us to develop the game so it would be easier for them to get into it. With the party races and these game modes we've developed for the PSP, we've come to one solution for that aspect.
Gran Turismo 5 international release likely early 2010
Sony announced a March release for Gran Turismo 5 at Tokyo Game Show last week, a release window that was specifically targeted for the Japanese market. However, don't expect a surprise 2009 release (sorry Amazon!). "I don't think it's going to be that different for US and Europe," Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi told journalists at a GT5 event last week. "Marketing is still discussing their issues," which is the reason why a specific date hasn't been pegged yet for those markets.Yamauchi then went on to list a befuddling list of features that should ship on the disc next year. GT Mode will return with all the features of classic GT games, like the garage, the car dealer, the tuning shop, and license tests. However, more exciting are the new features, such as a brand-new physics model that includes damage and deformation for all "normal" cars. Hybrid and electric cars are going to be added to the livery, too, with over 950 cars available on the disc. There will also be over 70 variations of over 20 locations to race through.The online features have been expanded to include both text and voice chat, with support for lobbies and private rooms. There will be online photo albums and online replay albums as well; with the ability to export replays to YouTube. Gran Turismo TV, the video service introduced in Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will also be expanded with a brand new UI, progressive downloading (so you can watch the video content while it downloads), and the ability to export these videos to PSP. While this may seem like the kitchen sink of features, Yamauchi teased, "we have much more planned."Considering it's been five years since the release of Gran Turismo 4 on PS2, fans of the franchise are expecting only the best, if not more.%Gallery-71410%
Overheard@TGS: At least someone's happy ...
While rushing to make an appointment to get hands-on time with Crackdown 2, we overheard two Microsoft exhibitors discussing the reception of the recently released Forza Motorsport 3 demo.Microsoft Rep #1: "Seems like a lot of people like the demo."Microsoft Rep #2: "Yeah, well we really like that GT5 release date!"With Gran Turismo 5 launching in 2010, it looks like Forza Motorsport 3 won't have much traffic to contend with when it launches this October. And boy, is Microsoft happy about it.
TGS 2009: Gran Turismo 5 coming to Japan in March 2010
Announced just now at the second -- that's right, the second -- Sony press conference at Tokyo Game Show, Gran Turismo 5 will be coming to Japan in March 2010. Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi announced the launch window without specifying any other regions. We'll pester Sony and Polyphony Digital all this week for more info. Promise.%Gallery-71410%
PS3 sales up 300% for first week following price cut in US
Sony Computer Entertainment America has some good news and some bad news to share. The good: Sales of PS3 hardware at its "top retailers" jumped 300% for the first week of September versus the week before the system's price was cut to $299 for the 120GB "slim" unit. The bad: Um, well ... okay, we lied. Everything's pretty good for a change at SCEA HQ, considering people are actually buying its console. (Although 300% pales in comparison to Europe's totally legit 999% increase ... or Japan's 7,350% increase). The hardware maker also noted that, as of August, five of consumers' top 10 most-wanted games (as surveyed by OTX's GamePlan Insights) -- Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII, God of War III, Assassin's Creed 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- are on PS3, in case you somehow didn't know this. We would like to note (mainly for Sony's information) that Modern Warfare 2 is also on Xbox 360, and that version was No. 2 in OTX's survey results, whereas the PS3 version placed 10th. (Assassin's Creed 2 for 360 is No. 3 and No. 8 for PS3.) In fact, if you calculate the "purchase intent index" for the top three (all Xbox 360 games) and the lower five (all PS3 games) they're nearly identical. But still, we'll give it to them. Maybe it's more worthwhile, though, to point out that Uncharted 2 didn't even make the top 25. What's up with that? Source -- GamePlan Insights Survey Data [PDF file]
Rumor: Three different 250GB PS3 bundles hitting the UK in October
The PS3 Slim packing a 250 gigabyte hard disk that was previously uncovered in FCC documents may be arriving as soon as next month -- in the UK. Eurogamer cites a "trusted retail source" who claims the new SKU will appear in three different bundles, each containing the system and one of three titles. The site's source – who says the details of the bundles aren't yet "in writing" – goes on to divulge the games as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Gran Turismo 5 and Assassin's Creed II. Each bundle will supposedly retail for £299 ($494), which is a solid bargain given that the 120GB SKU (with no pack-in) runs £249 ($411). We've contacted SCEE and SCEA to try and find out if there's any more meat on this rumor's bones.
First Gran Turismo 5 screenshots released
Click to embiggen. You know you want to. It's still hard for us to believe that Gran Turismo 5 is actually getting closer to completion. After years of teases and updates to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Polyphony Digital has finally released the first ever official screenshots of the upcoming retail game.The screenshots aren't particularly revealing. In fact, nothing was quite as telling as the game's trailer from E3 this year. Also, the screens look terrific -- but don't be surprised if they resemble Prologue quite a bit.In addition to the first ever screens of Gran Turismo 5 for PS3, SCEA has also provided brand new real screens (unlike the renders provided earlier this year) of the upcoming Gran Turismo for PSP. %Gallery-71410%%Gallery-71409%
Rumor: GT5 listed for Q4 2009 release (update)
The time of arrival for Sony's gorgeous racer, Gran Turismo 5, has been one of gaming's greatest mysteries. However, if a recent pamphlet supposedly handed out at GamesCom 2009 is legit, this ancient riddle might just have a solution -- according to the leaflet, the game is coming in "4. Quartel 2009." Now, we don't exactly sprechen sie den Deutch, but we're fairly sure that translates to "Q4 2009."A bare bones version of the game was demoed at GamesCom 2009, and it will most certainly be the belle of the ball at Tokyo Game Show 2009 -- but we're an impatient lot. We've contacted Sony to see if they can shed some light on the rumored brochure, and the sweet, sweet GT5 release date details contained therein. Update: A SCEE representative confirmed the brochure is legitimate. However, considering recent trends, we still have our doubts on if Sony can deliver on such a (surprisingly) quick release.[Via GTPlanet, Thanks, Marius!]
Gran Turismo 5's cars caught getting crunched on video
The Subaru Impreza that's zipping around the track in a GamesCom video captured by Gamersyde has certainly seen better days, but its suffering is our reward: we actually get to witness the yes-it's-finally-happening real-time car damage taking place in Gran Turismo 5. Sure, it still might not look quite right (there's something about the cars seeming really lightweight) but it's a good start. Of course, there will always be those who won't be satisfied until "The Real Driving Simulator" lives up to its name and features drivers being thrown from their cars during crashes.Head over to Gamersyde to view the video.[Thanks, Colin!]
Gran Turismo 5 will (finally) crush, flip those lovely cars
There have been some big PlayStation-related announcements today: the PS3 Slim, a PS3 price drop and now the Gran Turismo series is really, seriously, finally incorporating visible car damage. On the official Gran Turismo 5 site, the latest spec sheet for the game touts that its physics model "completely renders deformation from crash." Not scratches, not scuffs, but deformation. (Backing up what we saw in the E3 trailer for the game.) The site also reveals that, in what seems to be an attempt to make up for the absence of spectacular crashes, cars will flip and even land upside-down in reaction to collisions. Of course, all of this will be for naught if a simple bump -- the kind that, in GT5 Prologue, pushes cars aside like they're made of balsa wood -- instantly totals other autos and sends them flying to the moon. We don't think we can wait until GT7 for that to be fixed. [Image]
Gran Turismo acquires the Lamborghini license
As is the norm for all high-profile games, pre-ordering Gran Turismo PSP will unlock some extra bonuses. By pre-ordering, players will get early access to these high-end cars, ensuring GT's multiplayer modes will be unbalanced from the get-go. Don't bring your Toyota Camry to this battle: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 '09 Ferrari Enzo Ferrari '02 Citroen GT by Citroen '08 NISSAN GT-R Spec V (R35) '09 Lamborghini Countach LP400 '74 Wait, what? Looks like Sony stealthily announced it has acquired the Lamborghini license, making Gran Turismo PSP the first GT game to feature cars from the famed automaker. "And as you can imagine, this won't be the last Lamborghini in a Gran Turismo game, either," Stephanie Yoshimoto, Senior Product Marketing Manager wrote on the PlayStation.Blog. It looks like Gran Turismo 5 just became even more comprehensive.%Gallery-64985%[Thanks, Mark!]
No DLC for Gran Turismo PSP
Recently on PlayStation.Blog, racers anxious to get behind the wheel of Gran Turismo PSP fired off some questions to the game's producers. Among the topics discussed were compatibility between the PSP game and Gran Turismo 5, and DLC; with the latter being something the PSP game likely won't see. The producers described DLC as "throwing water into the ocean," as Gran Turismo PSP is to feature 800-plus cars right out of the box, which the producers equate to already being a "lifetime's worth of racing."
