Famitsu interviewed developer Polyphony Digital who confirmed that Gran Turismo 4: Mobile Edition for PSP has been given an indefinite release date.
Back in May of 2004 Sony sent out some promotional material for the PSP that included the above “screenshot” and boxart that described the game as “Gran Turismo Anywhere – Gran Turismo 4: Mobile, coming from the Gran Turismo series, is the PSP version of the real driving simulator. Its product quality is not at all inferior to its PS2 counterpart, and is compatible to competition over wireless LAN, a unique feature to the PSP.”
It’s a bit painful, but in a way the PSP is getting a Gran Turismo game soon, since when you hook it up to the upcoming HD version on PS3, you can use your PSP as a rear-view mirror. But in here lies the reason for the delay…
Back in April 2006, 1UP interviewed the head of developer Polyphony Digital (also Sony Computer Entertainment executive) Kazunori Yamauchi (KY).
1UP: Finally, can you give us any update on Gran Turismo PSP?
KY: We are in the works. It is going forward. It does exist. We’re working on it. We don’t have a release date, of course. A question for you is do people out there really have high hopes for a GT version on PSP?
1UP: I think so, yeah. Back when it was first talked about, people got really excited. I guess it’s kind of fallen off the map because it hasn’t really been talked about since then, but it’ll be big news.
KY: Another question. Which do you think would you or the users would like to have first: a PS3 version of Gran Turismo [HD] or PSP version of Gran Turismo [Mobile Edition]?
1UP: I guess the PS3…but what you could do is have the PSP version around August and then hit the PS3 launch in November…
KY: [laughs]