Kazunori Yamauchi has just confirmed, via Twitter, the release date of Gran Turismo 5’s next update, presumably version 2.04.

The latest Seasonal Events have just gone live in Gran Turismo 5, and they’ll be putting your fastest B-Spec drivers to work! Here’s a closer look at the new races:

US automotive giant Ford is the latest car manufacturer to acknowledge the effect that video games have on brand recognition and vehicle sales, particularly in the 20-30 demographic.

Nissan Europe has today issued a press release detailing the campaigns their three GT Academy graduates will be driving in the 2012 season.

WRS Week 51 is Posted!

In an unusual twist following on from yesterday’s news that GT Academy is rumoured to be returning to Europe this March, German website Speedmaniacs reports that Germany is to get its own GT Academy for 2012 rather than being part of the European GT Academy. This rather unique situation is corroborated by an article posted on the German PlayStation Blog site.

The brakes have barely cooled down on the GT Academy Dubai 24hr team‘s Nissan 370Z, but it seems GT Academy 2012 may be just round the corner – at least for the Europeans.

The latest Time and Drift trials have just become available in Gran Turismo 5’s Seasonal Events, both of which feature the new Toyota 86 that was added to the game last month – for free – in update 2.02. Here’s a closer look at what’s new:

Kazunori Yamauchi has recently  revealed via Twitter that the inspiration for the location of the latest GT5 track “Route X” was the port of Hakata, near the new Polyphony Digital offices in Fukuoka.

Polyphony Digital’s custom “stealth” race cars in Gran Turismo 5 are some of the most difficult to acquire in the game. Available as pre-order and Signature Edition incentives, they’re simply not available to the majority of players.

GTPlanet’s Weekly Race Series (WRS) is the longest running online Time Trial competition dedicated to the Gran Turismo series. Having run continuously since its humble introduction in February of 2003, the WRS has been run for nearly 9 years and boasts 445 completed weekly time trials! For the first time in its long history, the WRS began hosting live, weekly online racing events shortly after the start of this year. Each week, participants from around the globe race against one another in live competitions organized by GTPlanet’s very own team of race administrators.

Have you got the newest DLC yet? Now available world-wide, the Car Pack 3 and Speed Test packs are going over well within our community, giving players a new track to test their cars’ abilities, and more of them to record numbers from! The Photomode section has naturally taken to the new content as well, and some of our themes this week even allow use of these new cars and location.

After a busy 2011 for Polyphony Digital, including a move and expansion to new offices in Fukuoka, the studio has recently started to advertise for new “Gran Turismo staff”. According to this translation of their home page, PD are after a number of GT-specific staff, including:

Disturbing laws are being proposed in the U.S. Congress which threaten the Internet we know and love, including GTPlanet and hundreds of thousands of online communities and social networks like it. Known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), these bills grant unprecedented control over the Internet to the entertainment industry and the U.S. government while attempting to thwart online piracy.

The two latest DLC packs for Gran Turismo 5 are now available in the North American PlayStation Store. Here’s a quick review of the new content that’s available:

The latest Gran Turismo 5 update, version 2.03, weighs in at 225MB and is currently going live around the world. 2.03’s new features were leaked, but have now been officially confirmed by Polyphony Digital:

Reports have been surfacing the past few weeks of a glitch that dramatically affects online play in Gran Turismo 5.

This short, 1’42 video shows the first action seen at Gran Turismo 5’s new “Route X” track, announced earlier in the week.

After 24 hours contending with the heat, dark and fireworks of Dubai, the all-GT Academy team of Lucas Ordoñez, Jordan Tresson, Bryan Heitkotter and Jann Mardenborough managed to bring their RJN Motorsport Nissan 370Z home in a creditable 3rd place in class and 26th overall:

It’s the calm before the storm: after the surprise leak of 2.03’s updates, and more specifically, the details of the new DLC were confirmed, excitement in the community is running high. The Photomode competitions area is no exception – you can expect lots of images of the new cars next week, undoubtedly! But for now, what themes are there for you to take part in? Let’s take a look!