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Gran Turismo 5 delay explained

Sony says postponement was "executive decision"; Polyphony head Yamauchi apologizes, says advanced systems needed to be finalized.

204 Comments

For gamers who have been waiting since 2005 for Gran Turismo 5, yesterday's delay was yet another metaphorical pothole in the game's long road to release. Today, the makers of the long-in-the-works racing title, which appeared to have had an ironclad November 2 release date, tried to explain the reasons for the latest postponement.

Gran Turismo 5's delay was a last-minute
Gran Turismo 5's delay was a last-minute "executive decision," according to Sony.

Sony Computer Entertainment America's Taku Imasaki, the North American producer for Gran Turismo 5, told 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." He reiterated that Sony "is shooting for it to be out by the holidays. You won't see too much more delay."

Meanwhile in Japan, Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi used his Twitter account to apologize to fans and offer a very brief explanation. According to a translation by Japanese gaming blog Andria Sang, Yamauchi said the delay was because the developer wanted to put the finishing touches on some of the game's more "complex systems." When asked by a fan if the game would be delayed until 2011, Yamauchi said, "I believe we won't keep you waiting until then."

First teased at the PlayStation 3's unveiling at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Gran Turismo 5 will feature close to 1,000 vehicles on more than 70 tracks in 20-plus locations. With a massive budget of $60 million, it is also an official licensee of several major racing circuits, such as NASCAR and the World Rally Championship. A sample of the PlayStation 3 exclusive, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, was released in April 2008, garnering decent reviews.

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Avatar image for ProdjectAUSM
ProdjectAUSM

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I believe it's due to some recent hacking... Also why FW 3.42 and 3.50 was released. So it could be a quick decision to compile it with more recent firmwares so it can't be pirated. Yet

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SolidSerpo

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Prologue was awesome and so how can this be worse? I could only think that there are so many cars that some might feel generic when racing them. I hope each car feels different.

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Cyndr08

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I say make it right or go home. Sounds like PD is going to make it right, so I'm alright with the delay.

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schawnneo

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UuWeeeee~

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GodGundamNT1

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Are you aware of the piracy and jail breaking situation going on with PS3 this year. If you were to bust your ass working hard making a quality product only to watch uncounted numbers of people stealing your work so they don't have to pay for it thereby screwing you in process and the future of any development of sequels. Gran Turismo 5 is the product of a lot of hard work being invested and its no surprise that PD and Sony are trying their best to make sure not only that the game is the best that they can possible make but that the game is safe from pirates.

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vguitarman

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Whiners!!! Boo hoo, Sony wont put it's $60 million investment out when I want it to. Look, I really want to play this game, I preorded it over a year ago and have gone into the store to hear that it's been pushed back again and again but honestly, so freaking what?! It appears gamers are spoiled little children who have the patience of a 5 month old puppy. 12 year old scotch? Too long to wait, give it to me in 6 months. I'd rather have it sooner and poorer than later and better. LAME!

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profurio555

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i bought ps3 and dfgt one year ago and just bought wheel stand pro for this game. but sony doesnt keep promises. sorry but i can tell this "loser sony" :(

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fastesttruck

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Guy I work with said this was likely to happen -_- damn him for being right.

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jshore

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Wow, just got my copy of GT5 from the a local store, what a game!! Seems to be a problem with online at the moment but the offline experience is awesome. Is anyone else having problems finding an online game? This has to be game of the year.

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invictuslemming

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I'm just happy I might finally have a more modern racing game that will fully support my G25 wheel... Its been such a long time.

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manslayer2010

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I have preordered 2 games in my life and this was one of them. This is freaking ridiculous. If you want to push back a date you don't push it back 2 weeks before release. Executive decision my a$$ what happened here is they realized that another game that was going to sell like crazy was coming out so they moved the date again. I don't care how many times Polyphony apologizes but this is probably just another effort to get people talking about their game and I am done caring.

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ChromeBallz

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@Incubus420 Gran Turismo 5 audience != Modern Warfare audience. One is a very slow paced car collector's game, the other is a fast paced shoot em up. One's fanbase is primarily in Europe and Japan, the other's fanbase is primarily in the US. I'm 100% certain that both games would have negligible impact on one another, if at all, if released in the same week. Far from every console owner buys every high profile game out there, regardless of price or release date. I predict that actually, PS3 sales will go up in the next few months because there are a lot of people who would only get one for GT5. The bundle being released with the game will probably be the best selling console by far for a month or 2.

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theoardo55

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Hello..., I'm the TIME TRAVELER from 2014, about GT5: GT 5 still not release in 2014... :D:D:D

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robj414

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c'mon guys, polyphony dont mess around, if the games delayed it's most likely cos they need more time! gt5 isnt going to be one of those games that needs 5 patches in the 1st 2 weeks to fix bugs & sh!t that they didnt finish b4 releasing the game... New Vegas i'm looking at u! When this game does eventually land in ps3 (sometime 2012???) i know that it will be as good as they could've possibly made it, it's been quite a few years in the making, whats a few more weeks, that said i wish they would hurry up so i can get my CARGASMS happening again!

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wegotlemonade

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what

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KWHCoaster

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Hmmm, maybe it requires yet another system update that is bricking too many systems. I have Red Dead Redemption, Toy Story 3 and F1 2010 and have yet to play them since I'm afraid I'll brick my PS3.

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KWHCoaster

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This is why I don't pre-order games. Look at the bright side, at least Sony has the first launch title for the PS4.

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trotter_2005

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if this is released for december. it will be the biggest game this year for xmas 2010. and i would think tthey want that for the sales of playstation3s end this year

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trotter_2005

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sounds to me like december guys..

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bolwerk

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I'm hanging for this game to come out, but I'm not the least bit surprised it's delayed yet again... So many GT players have jumped on the Forza bandwagon instead, and with good reason. Polyphony, stop f%#king around and just release it. At this rate we'll be lucky if it's even Playstation 4 launch title!!!

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hesaam

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Lol. No problem for the biggest driving simulator in the universe. Guys, i'll see you on holidays in the tracks.

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Colonel-Snake

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@Incubus420 Dude Call of duty biggest Market is America.... Gran Turismo 5 biggest Market is Europe. Everyone that preordered GT5 I'm pretty sure most of them could care less about Call of duty. If they all preordered it, I'm sure they have the intentions of buying it day 1. You think they preordered it just to preorder it ? I don't understand if someone preorders 2 games around the same month I'm sure the logical thing to do is come up with the money for both games by launch. Like I said before America doesn't equal the world. Gran Turismo is a international game it sells in almost every region in the world. From my understanding the GT5 crowd doesn't care for COD. They are only waiting for one of the most anticipated games this generation.

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BossmanX

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@Incubus420 I think you may be partially right although I really don't think if that was the only reason, Sony would delay release. I think most true gamers would go for modern warfare without blinking, however I think the number of true gamers is only a small fraction of the video game market. From my experience, which is limited I admit, people buying modern warfare are not going to buy GT anyway and vice versa. Most of my friends only buy one type of game, be it FPS, or sports related, or in my case racing. So I don't think that would make a big enough difference to delay a game, however if there was a small problem, I could see sony jumping on a delay just to get some more of that true gamer market.

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Incubus420

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@Colonel-Snake You clearly know nothing about sales. I know I used the term Cannibalize, but that was the closest example I could think of. When determining the effects of something like this you have to not only look at the videogame genres involved but also the economic climate. Most households around the world will not have enough money to shell out 120+ dollars in the last week of October first week of November. And if most gamers had to choose which game to buy I am 100% confident that most would choose Modern Warfare. It is only at this point when you can actualize the genre effect on GT sales. This is similar to a box office release date. For example two really good movies are coming out this Friday. Both completely different genres but one is Spider man 5 and the other is Inception 2. Both movies come out on the exact same day, based on previous data you would expect Inception 2 to over shadow Spider man 5 because of its wild popularity last year. If you move Spider man 5 to another opening night you would expect higher box office sales thus saving your picture from poor box office sales. This is what I was envisioning Sony was thinking about when delaying GT5 this time around. Hopefully you see my point and as you learn more about sales and strategy you can understand why Sony was comfortable with moving this launch date. (Not that this was the reason, I heard that there were some issues with the latest software update to remove usage of unlicensed USB devices)

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BallisstiXXX

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Oh ffs, just get the game ready and stop wasting time with apologizing.

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BallisstiXXX

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@JuSs2Fr3Sh: Wait, are you saying I might offend terrorists? Either way, you win, my original post was taken down.

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JuSs2Fr3Sh

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@BallisstiXXX you have no idea what your talking about... i understand you were just cracking a joke.. but terrorist and all that and russians.... might offend some people...

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BossmanX

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I'm upset, because I don't want to wait any more, however any of you who have played F1 2010 know exactly what happens when a game is released before it is truly ready... Bugs bugs bugs. Frankly I'd rather wait an extra month or two or three and get as perfect a product as possible than get the game and have pit stop issues or corrupt game saves or excessive punctures or unrealistic AI. Those are just a few of the F1 2010 issues, not worth my 60 dollars untill they get the patch out in 6-8 weeks. Just be patient, it'll come

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JuiceMcGoose

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I have GT5 pre-ordered with Walmart and I got another update today: Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) Original release date : 16 NOV 2010 New release date : 07 DEC 2010 December 7 is not a particularly lucky day for the United States. Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese on Dec. 7 1941.

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MAJORMOIST

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Trojans, you're right about the make of the game (I too went to school that was centered around game design). My only thing is don't announce a release date until the game is done. We will all go on living, but this stunt of breaking promises ruins the credibilty the developers to keep their word. Let's say they announce a GT6 in 3d for 2015. Well, we all might say: that really means 2020 so, will go on and buy Forza whatever number and use our only $ on it instead because we know GT series always runs late and we don't have the time to wait for the game genre we want now.

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MAJORMOIST

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See you GT5 drivers online about May 2011.

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JMcN76

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Seriously, this is getting absurd.

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JurgenR

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Again?!!

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PayneKiller

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I guess Gamespot will have to be adding another 10 review to there very short list before the end of this year. At least that is what I think should happen at this rate. Anyway preordering NFS Hot Pursuit on amazon will give me $20 credit to use on GT5, so I'm not too upset about the delay. Unless Hot Pursuit is another NFS flop in which case I'll save my $40 and just wait.

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deactivated-57fce817a4cf5

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I get the impression that this is going to be one of those games that ends up eating hundreds of hours of our lives. 1000 cars? How long will it take just to unlock and drive each of 'em?

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BallisstiXXX

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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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zeta

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Seriously...fanboys are MEGA FAILS... PS fanboys, XBOX fanboys..whoever...go fail somewhere else because us real gamers don't want to hear it..

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trojans

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As a software developer this isn't surprising to me. Its amazing how non technical people do not realize how much work goes into software. Besides, it’s likely only going to be couple of weeks. Those of you who are freaking out about it will eventually get over it and move on with your lives. When you develop software for the masses that is basically your company's flagship, you want to get it right. If it takes a little more time for users to have a much better experience in the game then so be it. If the game gets released and its sucks, then you all can have something to be mad about. Besides, compare the time and delay on GT5 vs Duke Nukem Forever. In that respect, this day is nothing.

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dg3215

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I love you fanboys saying how Gran Turismo 5 delay is just because of how awesome it is, fact of the matter is this game has been in development since the PS3 came out and at the end of the day it is still not done. You want to know why Sony is a fail and they know it right now. But let me guess Uncharted 2 is still the best game ever.. until this comes out of course. Now don't get upset, but Sony once again have shown why they are no longer the #1 console company. PC for life...

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ruZZo

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Jailbreak is the issue. When Sony gets it under control GT5 comes out.

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pszone

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k i cant belive pp saying ganna get this straight GT5 takeing long because tyou get everything includeing mk a track and show it off aslo damge and real time raceing to know he spend on the game and it be worth it get pp that gt5 ganna be the big one sadly i think ganna be the last so im ganna support them and ganna get them so anyway i have over 35 ps3 games so far so keep on rolling my ID Scootermix

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JuiceMcGoose

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Yamauchi is bummed because people may find out that he is making the game in his basement and the delay is because his electricity was turned off because he didn't pay the bill.

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perrybeeinoz

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What a bunch of ass munchers, they have had 5 years to get this out in the market, get all our hopes up and than change the release date again! WTF and gamespot still has the release date on here for November the 4th, I am so over these excuses, let's all of us not buy this game, wait a few months and pick it up on the cheap to teach these companies a lesson, sorry Sony you have lost me, again!

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MagicOneUp

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i say this game will be "release" late 2011... or early 2012

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MagicOneUp

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oh another lame never ending excuses... another month, another excuses. next month, "oh the pirates are hijacking our factories" ..... next year " terrorists blew up our coffee machine....." or they are too busy playing Forza3

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Zoomer30

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I dont think GT 5 was every planned as a lauch title. I know they had planned on having GT4 out as a LT for the PS2, that never happend but it sure sounded nice at the press shows.

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Zoomer30

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@Sam_Kelly The release it on Nov 2 because thats the day they have been hyping for the last 6 damn months, thats why, dont wait till just a few shorts weeks and then push it back 6 months (trust me, 6 month delay, just 1 month at a time). March 2011, unless they find another lame excuse to delay it. Ok we need to delay it again, the discs are not quite shiny enough, they just dont catch the light right.

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wyan_

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1000 cars with 70 freaking tracks in over 20 locations. This is truly epic. This is like every single zombie in Dead Rising being uniquely modeled, textured, animated and spread out over an entire city. They are crazy and obsessed at Polyphony Digital, but I think ultimately we will love them for it. I wish more developers could afford to put insane amounts of detail and scope in their games.

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Zoomer30

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"There are numerous reasons why we need a little more time, but I'm not going to go into them," a spokesperson from Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe told Kotaku. "What matters is that the delay will be a short one and the game will live up to expectations." Oh sure, the reasons mean nothing, sure we have been saying it will be out on Nov 2 for months now, but we still dont need to go into the detials of why we suck. We dont owe gamers anything. Oh, and we say the delay will be a short one WE ARE LYING!!!!

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Zoomer30

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this does not explain anything. Just tells me it was a slow day at PP and they decided to try to break the Internet. Exec 1: God, dull day, nuttin to do... Exec 2: Bet you cant break the Internet E1: Bet I can.....how though... E2: I KNOW, lets delay GT5, been at least a month since we said it was coming in novembver for sure, no one will remember that, God I hate this company....

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