Gran Turismo 5 Brakes In The Home Stretch, Delayed To 'Holiday Season'

It was already reputed for its unusually long development period, and now it seems fans will have to wait yet a bit longer for Sony and Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5. Originally slated for a November 2 release, the title's been pushed back to a nonspecific "this holiday season." The news comes via the official PlayStation Blog, in a statement from Sony Computer Entertainment America producer Taku Imasaki. "We sincerely apologize to GT fans for the delay," he writes. "However, creator Kazunori Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the perfect racing experience, and we are confident that this ambitious game will exceed expectations when it launches." Although the delay announcement comes from SCEA, Sony's since confirmed to numerous media outlets that it applies globally. The game was first revealed at E3 2006, with two years of time already behind it; by 2009, series producer Kazunori Yamauchi said Sony had invested $60 million in its development over five years. When it showed at E3 in 2009, fans and media believed a launch was reasonably imminent; it was expected in Spring of this year for some time before the November date was officially decided. At that time Yamauchi also said five years "doesn't seem like that long a time," given the console transition. The team needed to discard Gran Turismo 4's code and start from scratch, he said: "That's the amount of time it takes to get it right." The racing franchise has long been defining to Sony's brand and platform, reputed for its special attention to graphical fidelity and vehicle simulation. From a marketing perspective, installments in the franchise have borne the implicit mandate to push tech and visual barriers since its universally-impressive 1997 debut. As of December 2009, the franchise in total had sold 55.45 million units, solidifying it as one of gaming's top-selling properties.