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.

Ten years ago, GTPlanet first made its appearance on the web. Since that time, it’s grown to a scale far beyond what I could have ever imagined and, in the process, has made a profound influence on my life’s work and interests. Though the site remains a one-man show behind the scenes, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has played a role in the success of this community over the years.

A tiny delay this week, but here we are, Week 9 of the Photomode Competitions. Like always, I’m here to bring you a quick overview of what’s going on in this particular sub-forum of our community. Want to take part? This previous News article covered just about anything you could need, but the community is always available if you have more specific questions. So what’s in store this week? We’ve got a Head2Head theme involving two of the craziest British marques in PMC, a look back in time in 2.0, and… a new competition. Oh, and two prizes still to be won for those first two comps. Read on…

After more than a month of grinding away at Tsukuba, Rome Reverse, and Cape Ring, the top regional drivers in GT Academy USA have finally crossed the finish line – see here for all of the official results. I’d like to congratulate all GTPlanet readers and members who made the cut, and a special thanks to everyone using their GTP_ “tagged” PSN accounts which can be found throughout the leaderboards (nice work, GTP_potatochip for being the highest-placed tagged driver).

According to several users in our forums, Sony has started sending out surveys inviting participants to “Help Gran Turismo 5 Stay on Top of Its Game”. In addition to basic demographics, the questions are focused around your progress in the game, how much you’ve been playing it, and which in-game events you enjoy the most. The invitation email goes on to say “your opinions may change the way new games are created”.

It’s been a long time coming, but GT Academy finally arrived in the United States last month to, apparently, a very warm reception. According to the PlayStation Blog, over 50,000 players have registered since it kicked off just one month ago. Though registration is still open, if you need to act fast if you want in – Round 1 ends this Sunday, January 23rd, at noon EST.

Ahoy ahoy everyone! Approaching the two-month mark for the competitions, we’ve settled in as people are really starting to crack how to best get shots out of the game, and the rush to discover all GT5 has to offer means now we finally have more cars to shoot! This was all readily apparent last week as we had a record number of entries (and votes) in the competitions. Haven’t entered before? This previous News article should cover everything you need to know, and the knowledgeable community can answer any additional questions you have. We’ve got some interesting new themes this week that leave plenty of opportunity for creativity, and just like last week, I’ll be putting prizes up on offer for those who walk away with the most votes in the poll. So, what’s in store this week?

One of the more interesting and unusual GT5 features announced before release was “Remote Races” (also known as “Gran Turismo Anywhere”), enabling you to control your B-Spec races on your PS3 from your PC or mobile device. Obviously, this was missing from the game when it shipped last November, and its future has been uncertain – despite the fact that it remains listed (with this screenshot) on Polyphony Digital’s official GT5 feature list.