Gran Turismo 5 ??

Sony has delayed the launch of its PlayStation 3 racing game, Gran Turismo 5, the release date once again left to conjecture. It's agonising for fans of the series, but you may be surprised to learn that this is the first time the game has been officially held back.

Despite Gran Turismo 5 being unveiled as early as May 2006, the March 2010 release date was in fact the only one officially slated by Sony; announced during the Tokyo Game Show in September 2009. As for Europe, the closest we've heard to a launch period was a very flexible ‘summer 2010'. Not that this makes you feel any better.

What's taking Gran Turismo 5 so long? The word from Sony regarding this first official delay is that the Japanese firm is struggling against production-related matters. This could mean anything from bug-testing (a process that requires countless hours of playing to iron out problems) to the matter of physically manufacturing millions of Blu-ray discs to satisfy demand. It could also mean network issues, affecting the online gameplay that makes its series debut.

In any case Sony is not being specific.

We are fairly certain that the game is considered to be complete by its development team, Polyphony Digital. The studio's creative lead, Kazunori Yamauchi, told UK website Eurogamer back in June 2009: "we can probably release [GT5] anytime." Then again he did add: "You can also keep working as long as you want to as well." Ouch.

So here we are, still waiting. Not that it's an unfamiliar situation for many gamers, and especially those who enjoy Gran Turismo. As one of the most important franchises on PlayStation, Sony is eager to wave screenshots and even box artwork under the noses of punters, with the vague promise of Coming Soon to haunt our dreams.

It seems to be an affliction most commonly associated with the games industry, with the latest culprit being Nintendo and word of Mario Galaxy 2. The important question this time is whether Sony will suffer more severely than in its PlayStation 2 heyday, now that rival Microsoft is already on the circuit with its own realistic racer Forza Motorsport 3

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