If you’ve fretted Gran Turismo 5 might lapse into 2011, here’s your moment of TGIF zen.
Sony says Polyphony Digital’s One Racer to Rule Them All (okay, hypothetically) for the PlayStation 3 will ship on Wednesday, November 24. That’s less than two weeks from today–a delay from the original November 2 release date, but a huge improvement over the November 2 cancellation‘s implicit “we have no freaking idea when it’ll ship now.”
“Gran Turismo 5 is an ambitious project, with challenges and complexities which have made it our version of the Apollo Space Program!” joked Polyphony Digital President Kazunori Yamauchi in a statement posted to Sony’s PlayStation blog.
“When we created the original Gran Turismo back in 1997, we wanted to set a completely new precedent for the racing genre. With the technological leap onto PlayStation 3, our objective with Gran Turismo 5 was to create another great revolution which would not only satisfy our own high expectations, but would meet or even exceed the anticipation of the fans.”
Yamauchi attributes the game’s delay to “satisfying the loyal Gran Turismo followers,” adding that the decision delay was “one which [the company] did not take lightly.”
“I can only apologize to everyone for making you wait so long, and I hope that when you try out the wealth of driving experiences available in Gran Turismo 5, you will not be disappointed.”
Gran Turismo is the most popular driving sim in video game history. Most games in the series can lay claim to 10 million or more units sold. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, a stripped down version of the final released in 2008 and offering a glimpse of things to come, has itself sold some 5 million copies.
Gran Turismo 5 will be the first in series to offer weather effects, a detailed external and mechanical damage model, stereoscopic 3D support, a course creator, 20 unique race locales, over 70 tracks, and nearly 1,000 cars.
What’s the word, Gran Turismo fans? Still interested after all these years?
Follow us on Twitter (@game_on)