Polyphony Digital has finally updated their official software title list to include GT5, and the numbers are even higher than previously reported. As of December 2010, the game has now sold/shipped more than 6.37 million copies around the world, pushing totals for the series past 63 million.

The previously delayed Round 3 of GT Academy USA finally kicked off today at 9 AM! After all the drama in Round 2, the 512 participants who made the original cut are eligible to compete, but only the top 8 from each region will be moving on to Round 4 (the US National Finals). The winners will once again be determined by the fastest combined lap times on two different circuits with two different cars:

The latest version of GT5, v1.06, became available early this morning, and it’s a big one. As promised, remote B-Spec racing (“GT Anywhere“), the game save file bug, and corner-cutting and collision detection algorithms have all been addressed. Notably, the update also introduces “multi-monitor” support, allowing you to play the game using three different screens! Here’s all the details via the official announcement:

First mentioned at GT5’s Madrid launch party, the next round of the European GT Academy has been officially announced! The online time trials kick off Friday, March 4 and will continue through Sunday, April 17th. Players from 10 different countries, grouped by “territories”, will be eligible to participate:

Each month, nearly half a million of you visit GTPlanet from a mobile device. Now, it’s easier than ever to stay on top of the world of Gran Turismo using the GTPlanet App on your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or Android smartphone! Better yet, it’s completely free for everyone.

Photomode image courtesy of EDK.

UPDATE: Kazunori Yamauchi has addressed this issue via Twitter, confirming that it will be fixed in the next game update to be released on February 18th:

Mark your calendars! Kazunori Yamauchi has just announced via Twitter the next update will be made available for Gran Turismo 5 this coming Friday, February 18th. Via Google Translator:

GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi gave an interesting speech at D.I.C.E. 2011 yesterday, titled “On Gran Turismo and I”. Hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit is designed to “bring together the top video game designers and developers from around the world and business leaders from all major publishers to discuss the state of the industry, its trends and the future.”

Woops! Borrowing a page from PD there, we didn’t have an update last week about the 10th week of the Photomode Competitions. We’ll be back to our regularly-scheduled program next week, but for now, here’s what’s going on this week in the Photomode sub-forum:

They’ve been an unusually long time coming, but Season 7 of GT5’s special online events are now available. You’ll find 12 new races the next time you fire up the game: three sets of three races with drivetrain restrictions, and one special set of three races featuring the game’s Ferrari F1 cars:

Wow! In an unprecedented move (and on a Sunday morning, no less), SCEA has just announced the cancellation of Round 2 in GT Academy USA, due to more abuse and “wall-banging” on Rome and Madrid. All participants who qualified for Round 2 will be automatically moving on to Round 3. The start of round 3, previously scheduled to begin on February 14th, is now “subject to change” pending the next GT5 update, which has been confirmed to introduce more sophisticated corner-cutting and wall-banging detection mechanisms to “prevent this type of inappropriate driving”.

It’s been a rough week for GT Academy USA. After corner-cutting at the Indy Road Course prompted SCEA to replace the track, most assumed the debacle was behind us. However, a few noted that on the new course, “Eifel 102A”, the grass could still be used as a runoff area without in-game penalty. This wasn’t particularly alarming to most participants, as many of top drivers used the grass to run wide at a notorious corner on Cape Ring in Round 1 (and nothing was done about that).

On their Japanese website, Polyphony Digital has formally announced they’ll be pulling the plug on GT5 Prologue’s servers June 30th of this year. The game had a very good run, selling over 5 million copies since its release in Japan back in December of 2007.

Sony and Polyphony Digital have, fortunately, acted quickly to resolve the issues with corner-cutting in round 2 of GT Academy USA. All times for the Indianapolis Road Course have been removed, and the track has been replaced with a new custom-built circuit known as “Eifel 102A”. As with Indy, the  Nür (R34) is the only available car. The round will still end at its regularly scheduled time (February 6th at midnight, EST).

Photomode image courtesy of Anghammarad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQK3eWW55Bs

The second round of GT Academy USA kicked off Monday, this time with two car/course combos: the Indianapolis Road Course in a GT-R V-Spec II Nür (R34) and a Toscana Tarmac circuit in the XANAVI NISMO Z Super GT race car.

If you’ve been following the online reviews and chatter surrounding Gran Turismo 5 you know how contentious most of it has been. Between the “fanboys”, the trolls, and the rest of us, it’s very difficult to actually see what most people really think about the game or how it could be improved. It’s even more difficult to pass along your feedback to Sony Computer Entertainment or Polyphony Digital, and – unless they ask you directly for your opinions- your thoughts may just get lost in the noise.

As you’ve probably heard by now, Sony has just announced the true successor to the PSP. Code-named the “NGP” (Next Generation Portable), it features some impressive hardware specs and the titles announced so far look great. Popular games such as Uncharted, Killzone, and Call of Duty were all confirmed to arrive on the NGP when it’s released at the end of this year, but one special franchise was nowhere to be found this time: Gran Turismo.