GT5 Release Date

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.

Before any of you “Down Under” line up at your local game stores on November 24th, take note: Gran Turismo 5 won’t actually be released in Australia or New Zealand until November 25th, according to each country’s respective PlayStation websites. Of course, taking time zones into consideration, we’ll all be getting our hands on the game at roughly the same time – just be glad this rumor was wrong!  Thanks to all who sent this in (…and yes, I’m delighted to have the opportunity to post this video again)!

Via Twitter, GT series creator Kazunori Yamauchi confirms that GT5’s release date is “about to be announced” (translation via Karooo in our forums). This matches up perfectly with private information that I was provided with earlier this week, and would make sense given Sony’s already set to ramp-up marketing efforts next week.  Expect more updates within the next 24 hours…

On October 6th, Sony launched a giveaway competition for a free Gran Turismo 5: Signature Edition package. Since that time, the competition was set to end on the old Australian release date, November 4th. That end date has remained unchanged (confirmed by Google’s cache) – until now. The legal terms and conditions have just been quitely updated to list a new ending date of December 9th.

A GameReactor associate in Tokyo, Gregor Wildermann, has reportedly made contact with Polyphony Digital and Kazunori Yamauchi for further clarification on Gran Turismo 5’s production status:

Eurogamer has some interesting comments from financial and industry analysts on what the delay means for Sony and the PlayStation brand this fall during the critical Christmas sales season.

Fans are still feeling the sting from Gran Turismo 5’s postponed November release date, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out the game’s new date according to this tweet by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe:

Via the official PlayStation US Blog: