Will we ever get to play Gran Turismo 5?

For fans of the Gran Turismo series, waiting for the release of the fifth instalment in Polyphony Digital's racing franchise has been a grim test of patience. Like the apparition of a cool oasis in the desert, the game has drifted a little further out of our reach every time its release has begun to seem imminent.

The Gran Turismo 4 was originally released way back in 2004, and since then devotees of the racing sim series have had to make do with a glorified demo (the admittedly great Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, released in 2007), while the fifth game proper has been beset by a seemingly unending succession of delays.

Having been shunted from its initial March window, Gran Turismo 5 was said to be finally set to appear in Japan and Europe on the 3 November, with the US release pencilled in a couple of days later. Now, however, a new post on Sony’s US PlayStation blog now states that - surprise - this will no longer be the case.

"We sincerely apologize to GT fans for the delay,” the post reads, “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.”

The blog elsewhere states that GT5 will still be released "this holiday season", which we’re hoping means before Christmas.

With the game mere weeks from its initially projected release, it seems somewhat mind-boggling that Polyphony should still be tinkering around with the game’s code - shouldn’t it have been burning the data to Blu-ray discs by now?

A new trailer was unveiled just hours before Sony announced GT5‘s delay - a curiously austere slab of footage that showcases the game’s new-fangled course creating facility. Perhaps this is what Polyphony has been playing around with?

We’ll let you know of any further announcements regarding GT5‘s eventual release, but in the meantime, here’s that course creation trailer in full...

Eurogamer