Gran Turismo 5

It’s been quite a roller coaster as we wait for confirmation regarding Gran Turismo 5‘s appearance at next week’s E3 2009.  Things started out good, when our own Amar212 shared some cryptically optimistic information regarding an E3 announcement, but hopes were dashed when Sony’s biggest franchise was missing from their lineup for the show.  Today, we’re back up again, with encouraging words from an apparently reputable French PlayStation magazine, PSM3.

A rumored list Sony’s list of games to be presented at E3 2009 has popped up, and it has a lot of people talking – not for the games that are on the list, but for the game that is not: Gran Turismo 5.  We have anxiously been waiting for what Sony has called one of their “biggest events in the past 11 years“, and many legitimiate sources have hinted that GT5 and Gran Turismo Mobile for the PSP would both be making an appearance at the show.  Of course, it makes sense, given the fact that it has been so long since we’ve heard any news about the development from Kazunori Yamauchi, and the next big game show (Tokyo Game Show) doesn’t hit until September.

In a revealing statement from last week’s Game Developer’s Conference, SCEA Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller mentioned that Gran Turismo 5 will be released across “all platforms” when it “makes the most sense”.  The comments came from a Q&A session and were just picked up by VG247:

Looking for a new job?  If you’ve got a background in marketing and a passion for Gran Turismo, you might want to consider applying for this position with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe:

GTPlanet monitors news about Gran Turismo on a daily basis.  It’s interesting to watch how a story ‘evolves’ across the web, but when a ‘bad’ piece of news makes the rounds, misinformation can spread far and wide.  That’s exactly what happened with an old  Kazunori Yamauchi interview by Import Tuner.  The interview was significant because Yamauchi mentioned a 2010 release date for Gran Turismo 5.  It’s not too exciting, though, because that’s what he was saying 5 months ago.  GTPlanet has been referenced in many comments by folks who are trying to correct the journalists and bloggers jumping on the ‘news’, so let’s take a look at how everything went down:

GTPlanet prompted a flurry of media reports after we first discovered an SCEE executive’s comments on a Christmas 2009 Gran Turismo 5 release date.  Unsuprisingly, the story has rapidly spread across the web, making its way right back to Sony where it originated.  From a statement to VideoGamer.com today:

In yet another confirmation of the Top Gear test track appearing in Gran Turismo 5, the show has launched a contest giving away 5 free copies of GT5 Prologue.  It’s easy enough to enter – just answer 9 automotive news and Top Gear questions correctly before September 1.  As you might expect, however, only UK residents are eligible, but it’s exciting to see the BBC acknowledge the GT series once again.  See Top Gear’s website for all the questions, terms, and conditions.

In a very interesting statement at E3 today, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi brought us both good and bad news.  The good news is that he confirmed that the Polyphony Digital team was focusing nearly all of their efforts on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, working hard to bring us features like vehicular damage, private online races, new tracks, and more cars.  Of course, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and he added that these updates could push the full version of Gran Turismo 5 back into 2010.  He also confirmed that Gran Turismo Mobile, for the PSP, is still in “active development” but probably not be released until after Gran Turismo 5 (in other words, 2011).

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