Gran Turismo 5 release date falls in March 2010

29 September 2009

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Posted by:Josh

Gran Turismo 5 for PS3 will be released in Japan in March 2010 announced Sony at the Tokyo Game Show 2009. The good news about this is that the American & European release dates will likely be closer rather than further from that date. (January 2010 Update: Sony has since delayed the game again to an undecided date. D’oh!)

“I don’t think it’s going to be that different for US and Europe,” Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi told journalists at a GT5 event last week. “Marketing is still discussing their issues,” which is the reason why a specific date hasn’t been pegged yet for those markets.

To give gamers something to chew on while they wait, Yamauchi also revealed a number of new modes that fans can look forward to upon release. Here is the list:

* Returning modes/features from previous Gran Turismo games include: GT Mode, the garage, car dealers, the tuning shop and license tests.
* GT5 will feature a brand-new physics model.
* Damage and deformation has been added for all “normal” cars.
* Hybrid and Electric cars are now playable.
* 950 cars total (on the disc).
* 20 locations to race through with a total of 70 variations on those locations.

There are also new online features including:

* Supports both text and voice chat.
* Lobby and private room support
* Online photo album support
* You can save replays to an online replay album. And export replays to youtube in-game.
* Gran Turismo TV (introduced in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue) will be expaned with a new User Interface, progressive downloading (which means you can watch content while it downloads), and the ability to export the Gran Turismo TV videos to your PSP!

What’s even more crazy is that Yamauchi promises that this is only the beginning, and that there is “much more” to come. Color me impressed!

Here is an actual video of gameplay footage, featuring the Ferrari!