Gran Turismo 5 / Prologue

Kazunori Yamauchi Briefly Explains Gran Turismo 5's Delay

Sony didn't give much of an explanation when it announced Gran Turismo 5's delay yesterday. For something a bit more solid (just a bit), we turn to series producer Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

 

Returning to Twitter for the first time since September 22, Yamauchi apologized to fans today and explained that the reason for the delay was that it was taking some time to finalize some of the game's more complicated systems. Apologizing again (two apologies in the same Tweet!), he asked that players wait a bit more.

 

Yamauchi quickly followed up this apology with some good news for those worrying that this is actually a stealth delay to 2011. A follower pleaded with him to get the game out by the end of the year. "I believe we won't keep you waiting until then," replied Yamauchi.

A GameReactor associate in Tokyo, Gregor Wildermann, has reportedly made contact with Polyphony Digital and Kazunori Yamauchi for further clarification on Gran Turismo 5’s production status:

 

[Kazunori Yamauchi's] reply was that the game was only three days late from their side, and that Sony has to decide what that means for the release.

 

This aligns with the other information I’ve received about review copies and release windows, and further suggests that GT5’s ultimate new release date will be determined by Blu-Ray production schedules – not software development.

netilpo pagal numatyta data ant 3 dienu. ir dabar jau sony nuspres kada geresnis laikas naujai datai. tai gali isleit po 3 dienu.bet to nebus.turi gerai pagalvot ir tada nuspres kada geriau isleist.

man tai keista aplamai.zaidimas juk bunas jau uzbaigtas senu seniausiai iki jo isleidimo ,taip visada buvo ir bus,o cia tipo nespejo ko? nespejo dakurt kazko.? zaidimas jau seniausiai turetu buti baigtas 100% . tik tiek kad niekaip neisleidzia,arba randa kokiu dar bugu betestuodami.koks nors testeris rado kokia skyle dar gal ar ka.

As reaction to Gran Turismo 5’s delay spreads around the web, one very important question remains unanswered: why? A detailed explanation will most likely never be given, but that won’t stop us from speculating. First up, Taku Imasaki (North American GT5 producer) offers a vague look at what’s been happening on the “inside” via an interview with the New York Times:

 

“We’re really close, but this was an executive decision that was made yesterday. Realistically, we thought we had a good date. We’re not happy over here.”

 

This somewhat confusing statement wasn’t lost on the Times editor, who didn’t hesitate to add “there was also speculation that Sony might not have sufficient supplies of the game to meet demand in November”. This speculation was later supported by a comment from a Sony Canada spokesperson to Reuters Canada, clearly stating that “production difficulties were to blame for the delay”.

 

On a similarly positive note, I have been privately informed that review copies of GT5 were only briefly postponed and should still be in reviewer’s hands within the next few weeks. I can also report Sony is targeting a new release window within approximately 8-12 days after November 26th (“Black Friday” in the United States).

 

Regardless of what’s really going on, Yamauchi has personally apologized to fans via Twitter:

 

“Apologies for the delay. It’s because time and labor were spent ironing the kinks out of a complex system. I’m really sorry. Everyone, it’s inexcusable… Wait a little longer.”

uztat galejo seniausia nors suknista demo paleist i psn.normalia demo kur visi losia parodose visokiose.zmones maziau verktu tada.

jo duokit dar viena demo ,taip islosit dar koki pora meteliu :D

ne dar viena demo o isvis normalia demo,ten nebvu o demo zaidejam ,ten buvo demo skirta tam turnyrui.normalios demo kur va kad ir losiau per beta senai as.apie 6 trasas.apie 10 masinu. cia kazkas butu normaliau. su tokia demo kiek visi dziaugtusi,. bet ne jiem reikia daryt GT5 demo tura aplink pasauli kelis kartus,ir po to skelbt kad kazko neuzbaige.maziau reikejo rupintis auto salonais,ir turnyrais,ir simtais dar kitokiu dalyku. ir visur vis kitoks buildas ir pan. ai nu. gal iki kaledu ateis,nes dabar jau lapkritis netinka finansiskai matyt jiem.reikia nueklt.po to netiks kaledos,po to nauji metai ...ir pajehali..

GT5’s Damage, Endurance Races Discussed at Room299 Press Event

Sony hosted a small group of media at their Benelux headquarters in Amsterdam, yesterday, and our own Blitz187 was on hand to catch any and all new tidbits of information that might emerge (this event took place before the delay was officially confirmed). As usual, Sony was extremely tight-lipped about the game’s details and did not use the event to reveal any major new features.

 

That said, Blitz asked a lot of good questions during his one-on-one time with the Sony reps, and I recommend jumping over to his complete report here in our forums. Most noteworthy:

 

Partial confirmation that you’ll be able to save your progress during endurance races (a much-wanted feature in Gran Turismo 4).

 

Damage severity is linked to the game’s difficulty settings: “easy, medium, hard or standard and professional”.

 

You will be able to manage B-Spec races from both your PC’s web browser and mobile device.

 

Re-confirmation that “all” of your cars in Gran Turismo PSP can be transferred to GT5 and will be playable in Arcade Mode.

 

New and improved Gran Turismo TV will return from GT5: Prologue.

 

Blitz also got to see the “head tracking” or “face tracking” setup and calibration screens. He managed to capture this brief video before he being asked to stop, but he described an adjustable level of sensitivity. He also mentions that face tracking only works when playing the game from “cockpit view”.

Key Features in GT5

 

+/- 1000 cars

 

- Damage model is visual and mechanical. So your car starts pulling left or right next to visual damage. This was also evident in the demo!

 

- The race experience is dynamic, ie. obstacles on the track move, day/night racing, ALL cars have lights, smoke, tire marks, rollovers, weather model. Next to this it is confirmed that track conditions will affect your car, with this I mean that humidity, air temp. and track temp will all influence your car and you will have to take that into account when you set your car up. Also in regards to the weather model you will get a weather report before every race which shows you the forecast. This forecast can be accurate or not, meaning it might rain at any point in time.

 

- GT5 has the following licenses to use in the game:

Mercedes

AMG

WRC

NASCAR

Red Bull

Top Gear

 

- Head Tracking works with the PS eye and is confirmed. I got the chance to see this being setup with a calibration screen and started filming, however when the Sony rep noticed he kindly asked I didnt film this. He did not know exactly how to set it up but I think if calibrated properly it will work very nice. It only work in cockpit mode.

 

- 100 tracks in total.

 

- Track Generator tracks will be saved online for others to download and share. If this was on a centralized server online or on the PS3 or both was unclear. They will also be available to race online! Edit: Forgot to mention that weather also works on generated tracks!

 

- There was a photo of the GT5 menu being displayed and it showed the following choices:

A- Spec

B-Spec

Special Events

Licences

Used Car lot

Dealerships

GT Auto

Practice

Tuning Shop

Photo Travel

Official Events

Car Delivery

Open Lobby

 

The Car Delivery option was something new for me. I have no idea what it means and I also forgot to ask.

 

- Special Events are as follows:

Karting Experience

AMG Driving School

Stig Challenge

NASCAR driving school

Red Bull Sebastian Loeb Rally Challenge

GT Rally

 

 

- GT Auto had the usual things in it. I saw nothing new besides tuning functionality.

 

- For Online functionality the following is confirmed:

16 player races

Spectator mode

Car sharing and gifting

My home lobby

Track Sharing

Leaderboards

B-Spec Remote

Social Media integration

 

The B-spec Remote was a nice little feature here. This B-Spec feature gives someone the ability to log in on a PC or mobile device and actually do B-Spec races online from your PC or mobile device.... Interesting how that will work exactly...

 

- Crosstalk feature for GT PSP is confirmed and it transfers all your GT PSP cars to the arcade mode of GT5

 

- GTTV will be improved over Prologue

 

- Manufacturers Museum will be present as well. This will be a source of information about car manufacturers in the game.

 

- What if?... Scenarios are also confirmed. This included the Red Bull X1 car which is playable in the game.

 

That concludes the things covered in the press conference. After the conference there was a small competition with everyone present. Jeroen Bleekemolen (Dutch Le Mans driver) set a time on the Rome circuit in the GT pod and we were all invited to try and beat it. Fastest time would get to ride along in the SLS AMG with Jeroen Bleekemolen. I didnt even try with my Div. 5 GT skills because there were two Dutch GT Academy finalists there and some fast guys from GTHQ.nl. Djie from GTHQ.nl won and got to ride along in the car. I took this opportunity to ask some specific questions to the Sony Rep, who gave the presentation, while we waited for Djie to return.

 

- LAN Support / 3-screen setup? He did not have this information, unknown

 

- DLC? He also had no comment on this and would not say if there was going to be DLC in the future.

 

- Saving in Endurance races? To his knowledge he said this was in.

 

- Adjustable HUD? No

 

- Specifics about the car list? He did not have this information. Did not know

 

- Damaged linked to playing level? Yes. ie. easy, medium, hard or standard and professional

 

- Russia Rumor? No comment

 

- Track Maker tracks saved online and possible to share? Yes.

 

- Visual customization to cars? He said yes, but could not tell me to what degree.

The problem arose when SCE mandated SDK 350 on all games releasing after after October, GT5 was about to go gold running on SDK 341, but it has been delayed by around a week so that they can update to SDK 350. This has caused a big headache for the manufacturing side, given how big this game is missing the gold date by even a week can cause a months worth of delay as slots are already taken up at this time of year for Blu-ray movies and such. So Sony had to find a 3 week slot big enough to make 7m+ copies of this and get them shipped out.

 

If you want to blame anyone, I would direct it at the pirates and hackers, SCE never had any real SDK restrictions before firmware 3.41 was compromised.

na jei GT5 butu tikrai reikalaves tik 3.41 tai suprantama kad jie negalejo zaidimo isleist su sita fw,bet galejo ir anksciau apie tai pagalvot. butu visi jailbreakai pasileide GT5 tada. atkelti zaidima del saugumo sumetimu man visai realus variantas. isleist ji su 3.41 butu nesamone tikrai, tai dabar reikalaus normaliai 3.50 fw.