Gran Turismo 5 Prologue To Arrive In Late 2007
A new downloadable prologue for Sony’s upcoming Online Car Life Simulation could be arriving as early as this Fall for PlayStation 3 owners.
Published: February 13, 2007
Since its first appearance in 2005, Gran Turismo HD had remained a very highly anticipated title for PlayStation 3 owners and car enthusiasts alike. That changed during E3 2006, when GT HD wound up taking heavy criticism by gamers and insiders alike, for looking and feeling too similar to the previous instalments within the Gran Turismo series.
Of course, the GT series has never been a stranger to controversy and complaints. Gran Turismo 4, for example, was both loved and loathed by gamers for its highly impressive graphics, enormous selection of cars as well as its highly derivative (and unchanged since GT 2) artificial-intelligence and complete lack of vehicle damage. Some felt that Polyphony Digital may have gone too far with GT HD, when deciding to offer the retail edition of the game with only a certain amount of tracks and no vehicles. Instead, vehicles would have to be purchased via the PlayStation Store.
By December 1st, it had been confirmed that Polyphony Digital was officially pulling the plug on the new GT HD property, in order to focus their efforts on Gran Turismo 5. Sound familiar to you? That’s because Polyphony did the same thing with GT 2000; a graphically upscaled version of Gran Turismo 2 for the PlayStation 2. This game was ditched in 2000 so that Polyphony could pool all of their resources into completing Gran Turismo 3.
When Polyphony made their announcement regarding GT HD last year, they also stated that a single-player version of the game; entitled GTHD Concept would be released for free over the PlayStation Network. There were also suggestions that regular updates could be implemented for this game, including the additional of new tracks and cars.
According to a new story by Jeux-France today, we could end up seeing a new GT update as early as this Fall, although it likely won’t be related at all to GTHD Concept. The story claims that the new game will be a demo based upon the upcoming GT5 instalment, entitled Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The demo is expected to feature a number of cars and circuits, and will support online play via the Gran Turismo Network. Although nothing has been confirmed with regards to pricing, we can safely assume that should Polyphony follow the same habits from last time, Prologue will be available for free over the PlayStation Store. Gran Turismo 5 is currently slated for a 2008 release.
What’s more interesting about this story is the mention of a “Gran Turismo Network”. Considering that the PlayStation 3 hardly has a front end or a proper infrastructure for online play as is, I wonder if this new GT Network could be apart of Sony’s new online strategy? Let’s hope so. We will have more coverage on this game as it becomes available.
Of course, the GT series has never been a stranger to controversy and complaints. Gran Turismo 4, for example, was both loved and loathed by gamers for its highly impressive graphics, enormous selection of cars as well as its highly derivative (and unchanged since GT 2) artificial-intelligence and complete lack of vehicle damage. Some felt that Polyphony Digital may have gone too far with GT HD, when deciding to offer the retail edition of the game with only a certain amount of tracks and no vehicles. Instead, vehicles would have to be purchased via the PlayStation Store.
By December 1st, it had been confirmed that Polyphony Digital was officially pulling the plug on the new GT HD property, in order to focus their efforts on Gran Turismo 5. Sound familiar to you? That’s because Polyphony did the same thing with GT 2000; a graphically upscaled version of Gran Turismo 2 for the PlayStation 2. This game was ditched in 2000 so that Polyphony could pool all of their resources into completing Gran Turismo 3.
When Polyphony made their announcement regarding GT HD last year, they also stated that a single-player version of the game; entitled GTHD Concept would be released for free over the PlayStation Network. There were also suggestions that regular updates could be implemented for this game, including the additional of new tracks and cars.
According to a new story by Jeux-France today, we could end up seeing a new GT update as early as this Fall, although it likely won’t be related at all to GTHD Concept. The story claims that the new game will be a demo based upon the upcoming GT5 instalment, entitled Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The demo is expected to feature a number of cars and circuits, and will support online play via the Gran Turismo Network. Although nothing has been confirmed with regards to pricing, we can safely assume that should Polyphony follow the same habits from last time, Prologue will be available for free over the PlayStation Store. Gran Turismo 5 is currently slated for a 2008 release.
What’s more interesting about this story is the mention of a “Gran Turismo Network”. Considering that the PlayStation 3 hardly has a front end or a proper infrastructure for online play as is, I wonder if this new GT Network could be apart of Sony’s new online strategy? Let’s hope so. We will have more coverage on this game as it becomes available.