The latest GT5 update, v1.08, has just gone live in Europe and North America (it became available in Asia earlier today). According to Polyphony Digital, this small patch only fixes one issue that has become something of a hot-topic in our forums over the past few days. Known as the “SSR7 glitch” or the “online money glitch”, it allowed players to quickly accumulate a lot of money and A-Spec experience points – check the video above to see how it was done.

After a short period of verification and clean-up, the official GTPlanet Registry Qualifier is once again open for submissions! 

SCEE has granted a product licensing company known as “Musterbrand” the rights to produce GT-branded shirts and outerwear in an online “Gran Turismo Boutique”. The products range in price from $24.00 to $199.00 (shipping not included).

GT Academy officially returns to Europe today, with a new, custom “Eifel” track specially designed for the competition by Kazunori Yamauchi himself. Participants will be piloting a Nissan 370Z around the new course, featuring sweeping, high-speed corners with plenty of helpful camber (check out the video above for a complete lap).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caAW1oZXQnc

The recent 1.06 and 1.07 updates have provided improvements to many areas of GT5 and even new features which have expanded its appeal and accessibility. However, it appears that these latest updates have made it even more difficult to conduct a fair and clean time trial competition of significant size where adherence to regulations and restrictions can be suitably monitored and enforced.

Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed via Twitter early this morning that “game saves during endurance races” are currently “under development” for Gran Turismo 5. Here’s a translation of the tweet kindly provided by our own Shirakawa Akira:

Winner of the first GT Academy, Lucas Ordoñez, has just been announced as a driver with Team Signatech Nissan, to compete in the 2011 International Le Mans Cup – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans! He’ll be piloting their ORECA O3 LMP2 car at ILMC events around the world, starting with the 12 Hours of Sebring next month.

If you fired up GT5 and read the in-game news feed this weekend, you’ve probably already taken note of Polyphony Digital’s latest tweak to v1.07. If not, listen up: the restriction on trading (or, specifically, “gifting”) cars worth more than 1 million credits to others has been temporarily lifted until March 3rd.

The third and final round of time trials in GT Academy USA finally came to an end Sunday evening after an intense (and thankfully drama-free) week of competition. Only 32 players (the top 8 from each region) remain, all of whom will be now be moving on to Round 4, the “National Finals”, next month.

In a surprise GT5 update (v1.06 was released just one week ago), Polyphony Digital has made a few more tweaks to the game, including a fairly major revision to the car gifting/trading system. Here’s the official list of what v1.07 (a 47 MB download) contains:

Over the past few weeks, users in our forums have been organizing a digital Gran Turismo magazine, made up entirely of user-generated articles and content. Now, all of their hard work has finally come together in the first issue of GTlife, and I think any GT fan will find it an enjoyable read. Topics range from car comparisons, car reviews, tuning tips, “fan fiction”, community interviews, and more. It’s available for free on issuu.com, or you can download the full PDF file (15.1 MB) from GTPlanet’s servers.

Photomode image courtesy of EDK.

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: