Gran Turismo series sales top 55 million

Sony showed some life during its October-December fiscal period, reporting a 660.6 percent profit spike on revenues of ¥2.24 trillion ($24.6 billion). As part of that report, Sony said that 47.6 million PlayStation 3 games sold during the three-month stretch, as well as an additional 15 million PSP games and 11.2 PlayStation 2 titles.

It turns out that one of Sony's top-performing titles during the period came from its internal racing studio Polyphony Digital. In a recent update to Polyphony Digital's Web site, Sony revealed that the Gran Turismo franchise has sold 55.45 million units through December 2009. Gran Turismo PSP, which launched October 1, 2009, alongside Sony's heavily revised and tepidly adopted PSP Go, contributed 1.8 million units to the franchise's total.

The portable installment in Polyphony's ultrarealistic racing franchise came replete with 800 cars, as well as 35 tracks and 60 different layouts associated with them. Receiving positive reviews, the game features a variety of challenge modes for single-player action as well as local multiplayer racing for up to four.

Through December, Polyphony has seen three of the four marquee releases in its Gran Turismo franchise break the 10-million-unit mark. Gran Turismo 3 A-spec, which received glowing reviews upon its launch for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, ranks as the franchise's top seller with 14.89 million units. 2005's Gran Turismo 4 has sold 10.98 million units, slightly outpacing the seminal installment's 10.85 million units.

One game not on Polyphony's sales rundown is Gran Turismo 5. It was announced for a March launch in Japan in September, but Sony bumped the game out of its current fiscal year last month. Though the publisher has yet to officially attach a new release date to the game, Sony Computer Entertainment Portugal president James Armstrong indicated recently that Gran Turismo 5 is tentatively scheduled to arrive this fall.

Title / First Release / LTD Sales
Gran Turismo / 1997 / 10.85 million
Gran Turismo 2 / 1999 / 9.37 million
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec / 2001 / 14.89 million
Gran Turismo Concept Series / 2002 / 1.56 million
Gran Turismo 4 Prologue / 2003 / 1.35 million
Gran Turismo 4 / 2004 / 10.98 million
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue / 2007 / 4.65 million
Gran Turismo PSP / 2009 / 1.80 million
Total - 55,450