Production Issues Blamed for Gran Turismo 5 Delay, Yamauchi Issues Apology

As reaction to Gran Turismo 5’s delay spreads around the web, one very important question remains unanswered: why? A detailed explanation will most likely never be given, but that won’t stop us from speculating. First up, Taku Imasaki (North American GT5 producer) offers a vague look at what’s been happening on the “inside” via an interview with the New York Times:

“We’re really close, but this was an executive decision that was made yesterday. Realistically, we thought we had a good date. We’re not happy over here.”

This somewhat confusing statement wasn’t lost on the Times editor, who didn’t hesitate to add “there was also speculation that Sony might not have sufficient supplies of the game to meet demand in November”. This speculation was later supported by a comment from a Sony Canada spokesperson to Reuters Canada, clearly stating that “production difficulties were to blame for the delay”.

On a similarly positive note, I have been privately informed that review copies of GT5 were only briefly postponed and should still be in reviewer’s hands within the next few weeks. I can also report Sony is targeting a new release window within approximately 8-12 days after November 26th (“Black Friday” in the United States).

Regardless of what’s really going on, Yamauchi has personally apologized to fans via Twitter (translation via Brian Ashcraft of Kotaku):

“Apologies for the delay. It’s because time and labor were spent ironing the kinks out of a complex system. I’m really sorry. Everyone, it’s inexcusable… Wait a little longer.”

We’ll find out exactly how long a “little longer” is very soon.

UPDATE: An associate journalist of GameReactor, Gregor Wildermann, is currently in Tokyo and offers an even more detailed explanation of what happened via communication with Polyphony Digital.

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Comments (43)

  1. ~SubZeroRacingTeam~

    PD is a software development company. It’s not a BluRay factory. The same way Honda doesn’t produce tires, the car is done, but if you miss your scheduled slot from the wheel company, your car can’t get shipped to the dealer and no driving can be done until the next slot opens.

    Now if Toyota, GM, and Mitsubishi are scheduled in, u might have a wait on your hands… Likewise, there are other games and BluRay movies scheduled for release during the month of Nov. thus the Dec. release date.

  2. Gran_Turismo

    Well… On the bright side for me. It gives me more time to save up to be able to get the cam, PS3, and a TV for it.

  3. AudioProject

    I’m still skeptical. GT5 was “90% done” last fall and set for a winter release…but here I am 12 months and two delays later still waiting for it.

  4. Umm no

    So if it was actually due to not having enough copies to meet the demand by November 2nd/3rd they would have only had to delay it a week or so to deal with that. Should the next release date they give mean anything to us?

  5. - Ice -

    I apologize Kaz’, you’re not completely to blame. Here’s praying that I’m alive & able to enjoy GT5 upon it’s official release. It’s likely that when GT5 releases that I will be a father. Was hoping to be able to enjoy freely before all my attention & dedication would necessarily be turned towards my 1st & newborn child. Here’s hoping u nail that new release.

    Dueces…

  6. R35-Vspec

    Relax guys, no need to be disappointed like yesterday. I really feel good .. just look how Kaz replied to us. He’s so polite :D

  7. Stig Junior

    Demo version at least, not in stores, on PSN, that would be reasonable and helpful to wait for the day that never comes!

  8. wsoul

    Well, at least it is within the same month it was suppose to release… But, dammit all, Black Friday week… I remember my last Black Friday almost getting ran over by old people in carts and cars who thought that they WERE Gran Turismo and I was just a roadbump. Hopefully, my trek to GameStop won’t kill me…

  9. Tim

    Sounds like now that the game/Simulator is ready and that this delay is Sony’s fault , so i am not going to blame polyphony this time.

  10. GT'ireland

    at least we got an explaination as to what happend,weve waited this long so another month or so doesnt hurt,fingers crossed its all sorted out..the dissapointment is gone,happy days.

  11. joel

    it seems that kaz missed sending of the game for production by a few days… this happens, but it only puts the game back a week or so. this would have put it alongside black ops. so it seems sony have taken the decision to release it a couple weeks later than black ops and hot pursuit just to maximise sales… just my take.

  12. GSlooney

    Nice to see them behaving responsibly and advising on the Issue. Frustrating as it’s been for a number of us we all know that it will be worth the wait.

    Now do I have time to do Prologue again from scratch :)

  13. sjwk

    What it sounds like to me was that PD were 3 days late in delivering, meaning they missed their allocated slot in the DVD pressing plant so now have to wait until the next slot comes up. Hopefully something else was ready for production and moved forward and GT will just take that slot…
    Didn’t think it would be adding new features or fixing a bug as (unless it was a bug that prevented installation) that would just be dealt with via updates.

    1. ~SubZeroRacingTeam~

      BluRay, this ain’t LameBox 360.
      DVD’s can’t contain 1/5th of GT5’s awesome’ness…

      It’s ok tho’, I 4give u… (jokes)

  14. Dan

    I just think it is embarrassing if anything. However, I really don’t mind waiting despite being disappointed by this delay.

  15. Damien

    lol it’d be funny if they just did like Nintendo would do, blame production issues in an attempt to cause riots and increase demand.

  16. J

    I hope I’m wrong, but I think they mentioned “Holiday Season” as the release period (and not “Christmas” specifically) because the game won’t make December…
    I’m mentally ready for a 01/11 release.

    1. Stune

      Actually I imagine thats more to do with political correctness gone mad in some countries. Now people are adverse to saying Christmas as it signify a specific religious event whereas ‘holiday season’ doesn’t.

      I still think we are on for first or second week of Dec

  17. The_Rpg_Moogle

    Don’t blame Polyphony for wanting missing the production window!

    Those complaining right now might be better off with buying EA games, always there on time yet half-assed most of the time,

    And I think it’s very wrong to keep accusing Kaz for this, the guy is trying to make a ‘perfect’ game, who can blame him for wanting to give us the best. The guy and his team have been working on this for years, and I find it most unrespectful to flame him on such a small issue. Everyone complaining about this, claiming he or she is a GT fan should very much be ashamed of themselves. You’re no fans whatsoever because at the slightest problem you start trolling on Kaz like he’s never done anything right.

    Just shut up already, you know Kaz, you know Polyphony and what they did the past 13 years was deliver nothing less than outstanding quality games. GT is still the king of racing. And on top of that, GT’s got quantity and quality. Now name me one other racing game that balances this equally good…

    I’m off playing Grid now, an absolute blast to play and in comparison to other games on the market it’s absolutely perfect in every way. That is untill GT comes around the corner again and proves that there’s even a step beyond perfectionism…

    Now I want a loud salute from all real GT fans around the world who support Kaz and Polyphony in this situation!!!

    1. The_Rpg_Moogle

      By the way did I mention this kind of behaviour is also extremely childish and disgusting?

      God, I thought this site was called GTPlanet and not FlameKazPlanet…

    2. jcmc

      You know, I bet if you went to a car company like Lotus and gave them limitless time and limitless budget they would come up with something that was faster and better looking than any Ferrari.

      The fact they don’t is because that luxury doesn’t really exist in the real world, there comes a point when the returns you can gain fall short of what you are spending on development.

      PD have probably had as close to a limitless time and money budget on making this game than any other games company. I have said on here before that I think they have tried to do too much, they could have added in half of the new content and cars and shipped GT5 18 months ago and then put in the rest for GT6 to ship now. I think we all would have bought both games and not felt ripped off by what we were getting. But no, PD have wanted this to be the ultimate game but one they can’t really sell for more than £50 whatever else goes in.

      But having spent $80m or whatever on development there comes a time when you say stop, we reach Beta and we do not add new content and we concentrate on fixing bugs. The ability of a games studio is judged not just on graphics and visuals and gameplay, it is based also upon their ability to maintain discipline and finish something and PD have failed badly here and deserve to be criticised.

  18. madaz75

    Given Sony’s past track record with Console and Major title releases. The next thing you know they’re going to say some markets will get an alternate later release date to meet the demand for GT5 in Japan and US.
    Suddenly Europe won’t get it till January 2011, and Australia and the remainder of the World gets it in March 2011.

    1. boblikepie

      Indeed this will probably be the case. It’s annoying how the PAL world always gets screwed and we are the friendly region

    2. eggs

      Back in the days of gt4 aus/nz was left with later release dates. In this current gen it’s not the case at all, aus/nz generally gets the games the same time or even 1-2days earlier.

  19. Hawkmoon

    Hmmm sounds a bit like ‘omg what am I gonna tell ’em….err hmmm err I know I’ll blame the guys in production’.

    Well I have a lil’ thought of my own………..
    Maybe the Russian delay has upset their plans for a worldwide release and so they have delayed the rest of the world until they can release in Russia.

    I do hope this is not the reason for the delay but it just seems funny that it worldwide delay comes just after the anounce ment of problems with the Russian release.

  20. Mar

    Man I’m tired of this bull#$%&!!!
    I’m afraid by the time this game finally comes out, I will be too frustrated to really enjoy it as one should!
    Sorry guys but… had to get this off my chest!

  21. Navarro

    Yeah, because the release of some crapy B-Movies is more important than the most anticipated PS3 game of the year.

  22. eMke3

    Ahhhhhhhhhh (sigh) what you gonna do…. I guess I’m just gonna go with my life, after all it’s only a game. Eventually it will come out and MOST of us will be very happy.Poor Kaz I’m sure he’s under a lot of pressure, I know that’s not what he wanted to be. It’s OK you’re still the MAN :)

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