The Gran Turismo 5 release date, which was confirmed this morning by Sony, has been an oft-rumored and oft-delayed thing, but now we finally know when we’ll get our hands on the preeminent PS3 racing sim: November 24.
That’s right: Gran Turismo 5 will release on Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving and two days before the retail madness known as “Black Friday.” You know what that means? Less football and more PS3 gaming on Thanksgiving, and an even larger mess of people in the videogame section at your local electronics store on Black Friday.
Your best bet: pre-order it from Amazon and just relax while it’s delivered to your door. You can pre-order it using the following link, and Amazon will guarantee its $59.99 price: Gran Turismo 5
In Gran Turismo 5, you can tackle the world’s most famous racetracks rendered in high-definition, and get behind the wheel of some of the most legendary cars — past and present — in motor racing history. More than 1,000 in-game cars will be featured, including the Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670-4 SuperVeloce, the Lexus LFA and the McLaren MP4-12C.
Players will also go head-to-head on famous legacy circuits such as Autumn Ring, Deep Forest Raceway, and the Grand Valley Speedway, in addition to renowned real-life circuits such as Nurburgring and the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Amazingly enough, when confirming the Gran Turismo 5 release date, the game’s developer also offered a bit of an apology for the game’s delay.
“Gran Turismo 5 is an ambitious project, with challenges and complexities which have made it our version of the Apollo Space Program!” said Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony, the Gran Turismo series’ developer. “When we created the original Gran Turismo back in 1997, we wanted to set a completely new precedent for the racing genre. With the technological leap onto PlayStation 3, our objective with Gran Turismo 5 was to create another great revolution which would not only satisfy our own high expectations, but would meet or even exceed the anticipation of the fans.
“Satisfying the loyal Gran Turismo followers is at the heart of all of our efforts, which is why it was such a difficult decision to delay the release of the game, and one which we did not take lightly,” Yamauchi continued. “I can only apologize to everyone for making you wait so long, and I hope that when you try out the wealth of driving experiences available in Gran Turismo 5, you will not be disappointed.”