IRL Cars and Tracks to Be Part of Gran Turismo 5
This news comes from VirtualR.net, a website devoted to sim racing. Their report claims that the next issue of Playstation Magazine has a huge feature on GT5, including the ‘revelation’ about IndyCar being included in the game.
This continues an interesting relationship that Polyphony Digital (GT5’s developer) started with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when they announced that IMS would be playable in their title, but at the time they trumpeted only NASCAR. Last month, GT5 released a demo of their game including a couple of cars and the original road course layout for IMS. Along with the demo they started a competition which will see the person setting the fastest lap time awarded with an all expense paid VIP experience at the 2010 Indy 500.
Polyphony certainly has had an expansive vision for this title, but the timing for its release will be less than ideal for the Sony and its Playstation 3. It is a PS3 exclusive title and will help sell consoles, probably more than any other game except for the Final Fantasy series. But Sony’s problem is this console exclusive is occurring late in this round of the console wars, where Sony lags behind their competitors at Nintendo and Microsoft.
No word has yet been given on a release date for the game, but projections are for either Summer or Christmas 2010. Until then, you can play the demo or buy GT5 Prologue on the Playstation Network.
All said though, this is more positive news for the IndyCar series as the Gran Turismo is the premier console racing sim and has a huge following of fans.