In a new press release, Sony Computer Entertainment has announced the official sales data for Gran Turismo 5. As of December 6, 2010, GT5 sales exceeded 5.5 million units worldwide – or 423,000 copies sold per day for 13 days. That’s half a million more copies than what GT5: Prologue managed to sell in nearly two and a half years, and more than double what Gran Turismo PSP has sold since last October. GT5 is also now halfway along to GT1, GT2, and GT4’s total sales (approximately 10 million per title), but still has a ways to go to match GT3’s 14.8 million.

The web-based portion of Gran Turismo 5’s social networking features revealed at TGS 2010 have been quietly launched on Polyphony Digital’s official Japanese and Hong Kong websites. Fortunately, the Hong Kong site is entirely in English and is fully compatible with all PSN accounts from around the world – sign in here to give it a try.

The first-ever United States GT Academy is about to kick off on December 20, 2010, and Sony officially opened registration earlier this week. Click the big “Register Now” button right here to get started (you must be 18 years of age or older as of December 6, 2010 to enter – see the official rules for more). Once you provide your personal information, you’ll be assigned to one of four different national regions:

Brazil loves motorsport, but they’ve had to wait just a little bit longer to finally get their hands on Gran Turismo 5. It’s finally out today (December 7, 2010), but there probably won’t be a big rush on stores for the game, considering PlayStation 3 consoles cost nearly $1,200 in the South American country due to local taxes and fees. Regardless, thousands of you visit GTPlanet from Brazil every day, so there is definitely a strong fan base in the country looking forward to GT5. Enjoy!

Fire up Gran Turismo 5 and you’ll be prompted to download another new update, version 1.03, weighing in at 149MB in size. No information has yet been released about exactly what this update contains (though the official PlayStation blog hinted at incoming damage tweaks earlier today, thanks @hankolerd), and GT5’s online servers are currently offline until 11:00PM EST. I’ll update this post as soon as more solid information is made available.

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GTPlanet user NISMO_GTR_ noticed something looked a bit odd when he flipped his Mine’s R34 Skyline: Phillips-head screws, an AUTOart logo, and a bit of text that read “1/18 Nissan Skyline R34”. AUTOart, of course, is a large manufacturer of die-cast car models – a popular feature around the Polyphony Digital offices.

Just when you thought you’d explored every nook and cranny of GT5 Prologue and finally laid the game to rest, it’s back from the dead with one more surprise up its sleeve: a super-secret “Special” menu. As revealed by @Mathieulh on Twitter, the Special menu gives you access to lots of hidden features. Notably, it shows several more tracks in the game such as the Nurburgring Nordschleife, Circuit de la Sarthe, and Tsukuba (though they can’t actually be selected). You can make all the cars available, create a race and specify the make and model of each of your opponents, tinker with visible menu options, and more.

PlanetaDeJuego snagged the first official shots of the new “official” GT5 Thrustmaster T500 RS steering wheel. Notably, the T500 appears to feature a “reversible” pedal mount, which can be used in either a top or bottom-hinged configuration. Thanks to all who sent these in!

Kazunori Yamauchi has continued to reveal interesting bits of information on Twitter about the new official Gran Turismo 5 steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS. Unlike the last “official” wheel, the Logitech Driving Force GT, it seems Polyphony Digital will now be endorsing a premium product which commands a considerably higher price tag. According to Yamauchi, the T500 RS will sell in the range $500 (keep reading…), with the separate gated shifter sold separately for a still undisclosed amount of money.

A brand new steering wheel, the Thrustmaster T500 RS, first popped up in the game’s settings, as noted by TomN here in our forums. Today, Tom also discovered this teaser animation on Thrustmaster’s website, revealing the T500 RS’ new logo alongside official GT5 branding. The teaser provides us with our first peek at the new wheel (aside from the in-game icon), though many details remain unknown. What we do know, however, is that the T500 RS will feature “unmatched steering accuracy, thanks to the built-in H.E.A.R.T (HallEffect AccuRate Technology)” and “16-bit resolution with 65,536 values in the wheel’s rotation”.

Kazunori Yamauchi has been fielding questions from fans on Twitter over the past few hours. The tweets are in Japanese, but with a little help from Google and medhi_san, we can get a pretty good idea of what he’s talking about. Here’s the highlights:

You may recall the video performance analyses of the GT5 Time Trial demo and GT5 Prologue by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry. They’re back in action for GT5, and once again offer a technical evaluation that helps explain various challenges Polyphony Digital would have faced throughout the game’s development. They also go in-depth to uncover how the game performs differently in 3D, at various resolutions, in different on-screen situations, and even put it up against Gran Turismo 4 with surprising results…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdRby4frgJA

If you’re in the UK, head to your local HMV electronics store and keep an eye out for their 3D GT5 display. In co-operation with Sony, HMV is launching a nation-wide competition, giving customers in each participating store a chance to post a hot lap on their regional leader-boards between November 27th and December 6th. The top two players from each region will then be invited to HMV Oxford Circus in London, to compete in a national finals event hosted by BBC F1 presenter, Jake Humphrey. Winners receive a full 3D GT5 set up and an all-expense-paid luxury holiday trip to Madrid, Spain (see the official site for more).

As was quickly reported here in our forums, the latest 1.02 update for Gran Turismo 5 has just made available for download. 1.02 allows the game to take advantage of Polyphony Digital’s upgraded server infrastructure while enabling maximum power and weight restrictions for online races.

First, the good news:  Yamauchi announced at yesterday’s press Q&A session that many updates and patches will be issued at the “first of December” (though it wasn’t entirely clear to me if that literally meant December 1st or early within the month). Polyphony Digital has also posted this notice on their website to reassure us that the game’s online services will continue to be optimized and upgraded to handle the additional load generated by players around the world.

I just got in from the Gran Turismo 5 launch party here in Madrid – packed with media representatives from around the world, it was a fitting way to celebrate the end of GT5’s long and dramatic development. Here’s what I learned:

The international Gran Turismo 5 launch party is here, and GTPlanet readers have a front row seat to all the festivities! I’ll be sharing lots of pictures and news from the event on Twitter and Facebook, so keep a close eye on my updates over the next few hours.

After more than 5 years of development and two painful delays, I am thrilled to announce that today – November 24, 2010 – Gran Turismo 5 is finally released to the public.