PlayStationSpot

** UPDATE: More details added

On Friday, August 1st, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue owners will receive a significant update that will take their racing and automotive experience to a new level.

The heart of this update is a new line-up of exciting automotive programming for “Gran Turismo TV”, our in-game automotive media channel. Gearheads will enjoy a host of new free and pay-per-view programming, including “Top Gear“, UK’s premier car entertainment program, and Japan’s “Best Motoring” video magazine, dedicated to the pursuit of the pleasure of driving.

Whether you’re in the mood to tour Ferrari’s factory in Italy with Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi, or to be insulted by Jeremy Clarkson talking trash about your favorite cars, or even sitting down to watch some mad Japanese race drivers play ‘car soccer’, there is a variety of choices for all types of car fans. Gran Turismo TV is housed within Gran Turismo 5 Prologue so access and videos is all in-game!

A few other notes about Gran Turismo TV for you to keep in mind:

• For the first two weeks only, we are providing all pay-per-view content for at a discounted price of $.99! It’s a good way to get a taste Gran Turismo TV. The HD content we shoot for our exclusive stuff looks pretty amazing. Following the initial two-week period, content will start at $1.99. So start downloading away!
• Be sure to check the full content list for a full content list, as we will be adding new programs on a regular basis.
• Gran Turismo TV will also include new features that allow viewers to fast forward, rewind, and move between chapters when viewing video content.
• Viewers can download up to 8 episodes simultaneously and pause individual downloads.

Personally, I would like to find some American content to beef-up the roster. What do you think? We welcome any suggestions you may have.

In addition, other gameplay enhancements come with this update, like fixes in penalty judgments, more tire choices for Time Trial and improved physics during collisions between cars during online races (YES! We’ve been carefully monitoring players behaviors online and all your comments on the forums.)

Stay tuned for more updates on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in the future. See you online!

Heritage is measured by an aggregate of impeccable work, outstanding performance, unparalleled design and revolutionary thinking. It’s a quality that few command, and those that do are respected for where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’ll go in the years to come. Ferrari has it, as do BMW, Ford, and Nissan to name a few. It represents years of passion and dedication, the power to reach beyond the niche and simultaneously dwarf and inspire the competition.

This is heritage, this is Gran Turismo. This is our decade long devotion to excellence, as this week marks our 10 year anniversary of the Gran Turismo series in North America.

And as of April 30, Gran Turismo has shipped over 50 million games worldwide, complete with unrivaled physics, stunning graphics and a loyal fan base from every industry and lifestyle across the globe.

Many of you who have been fans of the series can fondly look back with us to the days of the first Gran Turismo on PSone, which in many ways revolutionized and redefined the racing category within video games. Licensed cars, realistic graphics, customization, replays were all pretty much unheard of, or unimagined, back then in racing games. Since then, Gran Turismo has grown and evolved, adding new features as the series progressed. It has also allowed millions the chance to test drive EVOs, STIs and GT-Rs, cars that were extremely rare in North America. Many also extended their passion from virtual to actual, actively seeking those rare imports, working on them and tuning them for track racing. The series also introduced Photo Mode, a simple and overlooked feature that is now a standard in any racing game, as well as B-spec mode, where you became the race team manager, commanding from the paddock.

Which leads us to the here and now with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on the PLAYSTATION 3, a thorough racing experience with multiple views and features that will once again, change the way racing games are experienced. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue offers Gran Turismo-TV, automotive content from around the world, news feeds ticker off real-time events, and sixteen player games (both online and offline) that recreate the rush of actual track racing.

This is where our passions lie–in the cars, driving, and racing heritage. We’ve come a long way from the days of the first Gran Turismo, and we still have a ways to go to complete the vision.

Happy 10th Anniversary to everyone at Polyphony Digital and all the fans, both new and old, in our global Gran Turismo family.

If you can’t wait to jump into the “challenging and visually impressive achievement” (GameZone) that is Gran Turismo 5 Prologue – your wait is over. The GT5 Prologue Blu-ray disc has just hit store shelves, and in just a few hours – midnight Eastern, 9pm Pacific - GT5 Prologue will be available for download on the newly-redesigned PLAYSTATION Store at a price of $39.99. With 70 cars, drift mode, interior dash view, and online racing with up to 16 players, it’s a must-have racing game for your PS3 library. According to IGN, “you won’t be able to put the controller down.”

So which controller will help get you the best times in GT5 Prologue? In case you missed it, Producer Taku Imasaki and Associate Producer Christian Hinojosa-Miranda conducted a live chat on the PlayStation.com forums on Monday. In it, they shared their controller picks, compared GT5 Prologue vs Gran Turismo HD Concept, and what you can expect even after GT5 Prologue’s release. Check out the full transcript here.

For continuing updates on GT5 Prologue, you’ll wanna bookmark http://www.us.playstation.com/granturismo/. See you online!

Check out the PlayStation forums today at 4 PM PST for a live chat with the US producers of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Due out tomorrow at retail stores and via download on the PLAYSTATION Network this Thursday, this PS3 exclusive is set to raise the bar once again in the racing genre. Come ask the producers questions about the game, or just read along. You will need a PlayStation Underground Registration and Forum Handle to participate. Click here for more info: http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/

Once upon a time out in some dive club out in the middle of nowhere, Jim Morrison took to the stage and belted out thirteen simple words of unrestrained wisdom: “keep your eyes on the road; keep your hands up on the wheel.”

From that point on, Roadhouse Blues secured its place in the “driving song” library, making its way into an unimaginable number of rare mixtapes and soundtracks.

With Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, we wanted to bring back the idea of the rare mixtape, a collection of songs that you’d be proud to own and play (and play and play and play) over and over again, a collection of classics.

So in went our resident music scout, Alex Hackford, deep into the crates looking for a dozen tracks that both compliment and enhance the Gran Turismo experience, and here’s our list:

• Weezer – “Automatic” (LA Riots remix)
• Mars Volta – “Goliath” (EL-P remix)
• Justice – “Let There Be Light”
• SebastiAn – “Dolami”
• Kavinsky – “Testarossa Autodrive” (SebastiAn remix)
• DJ Shadow – “LOVE LOVE”
• Does it Offend You, Yeah? – “With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You)”
• The Earaches – “Not the Kind of Man I Am”
• Thin Lizzy – “The Rocker” (Richard Evans Mix)
• The Klaxons – “Golden Skans”
• Friendly Fires – “On Board”
• Pride Tiger – “Let ‘Em Go”

Weezer’s “Automatic” is actually a unique remix composed by LA Riots exclusively for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s opening sequence.

So in a nutshell dear North America (as in these tracks are exclusive just for you), this is our mix-tape, a little something-something to enjoy as you corkscrew down the Eiger, barrel through the Daytona oval, drift through Suzuka Short or any other track of your choice.

Beyond this apex, you can also find all the original Japanese music as well as all the choice items from our European counterparts. So that’s about it for the music end, and outside of that, you can always flag me (or Taku or Alex) down and ask to see our iPods.

I never imagined that being a serious auto enthusiast and a hard core gamer would ever amount to anything life altering, except carpal tunnel syndrome and continuously suspended driver’s license. Until the day I got a call from SCEA asking me if I would like to produce a documentary on the latest version in the Gran Turismo franchise, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Hmm, let’s think about it for a second, cars and games, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven! Of course, I was stoked to be involved in the project and especially since the game was Gran Turismo. GT is my all time favorite racing game “simulator”, so much so that I had two custom full size driving cabinets built, so I could get the full on race experience. I was really excited to get over to Japan, capture the vibe of PDI and especially meet Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of GT. I had heard that he was a huge car fanatic and that we would get to film his collection.

Well after four months of filming and editing, the HD video documentary is finally complete. I believe that we were able to capture the passion, the ambition and the dedication of man who has revolutionized both the gaming and auto industry. Thus the documentary is aptly named “Beyond the Apex.” I do not want to give too much away but if you thought you knew what goes into creating a Gran Turismo game, think again. Check out the teaser trailer above, it’s a little sampler of the goodness that awaits you exclusively on the GT5 Prologue Blu-ray disc.

Enjoy the ride!

I never imagined that being a serious auto enthusiast and a hard core gamer would ever amount to anything life altering, except carpal tunnel syndrome and continuously suspended driver’s license. Until the day I got a call from SCEA asking me if I would like to produce a documentary on the latest version in the Gran Turismo franchise, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Hmm, let’s think about it for a second, cars and games, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven! Of course, I was stoked to be involved in the project and especially since the game was Gran Turismo. GT is my all time favorite racing game “simulator”, so much so that I had two custom full size driving cabinets built, so I could get the full on race experience. I was really excited to get over to Japan, capture the vibe of PDI and especially meet Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of GT. I had heard that he was a huge car fanatic and that we would get to film his collection.

Well after four months of filming and editing, the HD video documentary is finally complete. I believe that we were able to capture the passion, the ambition and the dedication of man who has revolutionized both the gaming and auto industry. Thus the documentary is aptly named “Beyond the Apex.” I do not want to give too much away but if you thought you knew what goes into creating a Gran Turismo game, think again. Check out the teaser trailer above, it’s a little sampler of the goodness that awaits you exclusively on the GT5 Prologue Blu-ray disc.

Enjoy the ride!

Sometimes even the best kept secrets seem to find their way out - that’s just the nature of the beast - so it was no surprise (at least not much) when co-workers started to email us links to leaked Gran Turismo 5 Prologue screenshots… and the rumor mill it had kick-started.

Amongst the thousands of questions asked, let’s tackle a few to start: first, this is indeed the Scuderia Ferrari F2007; second, that is the actual Ferrari red as sanctioned by the Ferrari team; and last but not least, the Ferrari F2007 will be available at all Gran Turismo Ferrari dealerships for 2 million game credits.

With slick graphics, a 2.4 liter 90-degree V8 engine and the amazing physics of a F1 vehicle, the Ferrari F2007 is truly a beauty. Driving it is an adrenaline-pumping, hair-standing, goose-bumping experience… I hope everyone gets to experience this “God Mode within Gran Turismo”. Over the last couple weeks we’ve been driving this car in our offices every single day, with the volume cranked up… there is nothing more soothing than the high-rev scream of the Scuderia speeding down the Fuji straight…

More to come on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue soon. In the meantime, check out these new screen shots.

I’m blogging today with some awesome news! Today SCEA released more information about the North American version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, scheduled for launch on PS3 in April. These new details include the full vehicle roster, the track list and some cool additional features. You can read all the nitty-gritty details in the press release, but here is a brief summary and some new screens shots. Enjoy!

Summary of differences between Japanese version and the American version:

• A whopping 30+ additional vehicles (compared to the Japanese version), including tuner cars from Amuse, Mine’s, etc.
• Another track to race on: an all-time favorite in the series - frantic and chaotic High Speed Ring!
• In Drift Mode, measure your drifting technique based on driving line, angle and speed within scoring zones on the course
• With the Quick Tune feature, adjust your vehicle’s settings including power, weight, tires and suspension
• All new set of online and offline race events and time trials to jump into, win, and unlock cars/features
• With Logitech’s new Driving Force GT racing wheel, you can adjust brake bias, traction and damper settings on-the-fly like they do in real-life with Formula One and rally cars. GT5 Prologue will support DualShock 3, too!

There will be much more info coming on Gran Turismo 5 Prologue soon, but in the meantime, enjoy these crisp, new screenshots!

It’s official - SCEA announced today the April 17 North American release date for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, available exclusively for PS3. Developed by famed Polyphony Digital, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be available for $39.99 on Blu-ray Disc (BD) and as a download via the PLAYSTATION Store.

The BD version will offer added value with an exclusive behind-the-scenes High Definition (HD) video feature called “Beyond the Apex”. This video will offer some awesome access to the folks at Polyphony and give some background on how they are able to create such a realistic and beautiful driving simulator. We’ll have more information on GT5 Prologue leading up to its launch in April, but until then, check out this video: