Hello, PlayStation Blog readers. Winter is fast approaching, but I’m excited to announce something that should fire you up and get you excited about what the new year holds: namely, Gran Turismo 5!
Starting December 17, PlayStation 3 users will be able to download the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge from the PlayStation Store for a chance to win. Everyone who downloads it will get a chance to try out Gran Turismo 5’s brand-new physics engine by test driving the new Nissan 370Z on the road to winning an exciting grand prize package that would drive any GT fan wild.
The Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge features both a stock and a tuned version of the new Nissan 370Z, and includes two time trial events on a single track, one for each version of the car. Both cars drive and handle differently, each providing a unique challenge for newcomers to the GT series and long-time fans alike. And you’ll have to master both to have a chance at winning, because the grand prize will go to the player with the best combined time for both the stock and tuned Time Trial events.
What does being the best of the best earn you? The winner will receive round trip airfare and hotel accommodations for two (winner and guest) to attend the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, a.k.a. the Indy 500, on May 30, 2010. It doesn’t end there, because the winner and guest also get a VIP package which includes two (2) all-access passes for Carb Day – which includes the final Indy 500 practice, pit stop competition, special concert festivities, special event car rides in the 2010 Indy 500 event vehicle, as well as all-access passes to the garage, pit area, and Victory Lane for pre- and post-race celebrations for the race and two (2) VIP suite tickets to enjoy the race. This is the experience of a lifetime for true racing fans.
The contest is open to US and Canada residents, with an independent contest for each country. That means that there will actually be two grand prize winners: one for the US and one for Canada. And I’m sure there will be some friendly rivalry to see which country has the fastest racers, in true Gran Turismo spirit. You just have to be 18 years old or older to win because much of the cool VIP experience the winner will be treated to require the participants to be 18 for safety reasons.
In the event of a tie of combined Time Trial lap times, the player with the fastest stock non-tuned Time Trial lap will be deemed the winner. In addition, five runner-ups in the US and five in Canada will receive a voucher to download Gran Turismo for PSP.
You’ll have plenty of time to study Gran Turismo 5 and go for your best possible time, because the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge will run through 5PM PST on January 25, 2010. After January 25 you won’t be able to download the game from PSN, but those who already have it will be able to continue to play it past the contest end date. Click here for official rules for the US.
So mark December 17 on your calendar for your chance to test your driving skills in the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge. Don’t forget to look for more Gran Turismo 5 exciting news in the coming weeks and months on the newly re-designed official Gran Turismo website.
Woah, I need a little bit more explanation on this. So on December 17th I will got to the PSN store and download the Gran Turismo 5 Time trial for free? Or is the price not specified?
Or, Do I buy Gran Turismo 5 Prologue to do the time trial?
Please answer these questions, I’ve always wanted to go and watch the Indy 500.
Thanks
OMG OMG OMG! That is all.
Hell yeah!
Frickin’ awesome.
@Jon_Mclane
The Indy 500 is not a NASCAR event. It is an IRL event.
@4 Stephanie Yoshimoto replied on December 3, 2009 at 1:04 pm
This is the best news I’ve heard about GT5 yet. I’ve unlocked all the cars already in Prologue and I have tons of cash. Does the money transfer over too?
I’m a HUGE GT fan and I cant wait to download this.
can you tell us how big the download will be?
grand turismo always giving :) that’s why i am a fan :)
Great job people!!
Hello Stephanie Yoshimoto, I have to say as a long time GT fan that it’s very hard to get clear information from Polyphony Digital.
I understand that Polyphony is a Japanese company and that there is a language and culture barrier, but it is very hard when there seems to be so little communication with the fans.
For example, there was some confusion on the release date around E3. Kazunori Yamauchi stating things (may have been mistranslation) that GT5 was essentially done and that Polyphony could release it anytime they wanted. That GT5 would come shortly after GT PSP. Seemingly giving hints that the wait for GT5 wouldn’t be much longer.
I guess what I’m wondering is if Sony/PD has any intention of having a more effective way of communicating to their fans. I know the revamped gran-turismo.com is a step in the right direction, but looking at the site, there is no kind of regular updates. Zero blog updates the past two months. This demo helps, but we want more.
dam i will be playing this for sure but im not going to try to beat the best time.
i want to know the release date of GT5!
ive been playing it since the 1st one in PS one
well, i know i suck at racing games but i’ll still check it out. the rides are a beauty though!
OMG YESSSSS I FREAKING LOVE YOU SONY!! IM SO HAPPY ABOUT THE GT5 DEMO COMING, BUT ITS EVEN BETTER THAT YOU CHOSE THE 370Z!! WWOOOOOOOHOOOOOO
CANT WAIT!!!
sorry for the caps, im just so freaking excited for the demo :D
..simply wonderful……. !! THANKS!!
Best of luck to all who compete – the Indy 500 is one hell of a good time! Next year will be my 6th Indy, and I’ll be sitting front row at the exit point of Turn 1 – close enough that I’ve been hit by debris during past races (my wife still has a pin from Moreno’s crash last year).
Speaking without a hint of sarcasm, I would state that merely waiting for a Gran Turismo game to be released is quite enough of a Time Trial Challenge!
I look forward to watching my driving sim buddies playing it. (I just navigate)
A big high-five to Polyphony Digital. They really know what they are doing. This is a real nice Chirstmas present.
Now continue on GT5 and “get er’ done”
What track are we going to be competing on? I heard rumors about Indy or Spa? Care to clarify?
Also the tire pattern is on the wrong way…
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=ADVAN+A048&partnum=44WR7048MH&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&place=5
Know how OCD PD is I am surprised you missed it. Tsk tsk…
I want to know if there are any plans to package this with the logitech line of racing wheels, especially the G27 in particular. My buddies and I are planning on dropping alot of dough on our GT5 setup and would appreciate a bundle discount. To whom it may concern, please keep this in mind!
THAT’S AWESOME, GT 5, on psn for free, hellz yeah, >:D, is it on the ps3 or the psp, xD, I know I’m oblivious.
Thanks Stephanie and a Merry Christmas to you too. :-) This is going to be a blast.
If you happen to talk to Kaz or any of the staff at PD, tell them FatLeadFoot wishes them all Happy Holidays.
GT5 FTW!!!!
YES! Gran Turismo, FTW
Thanks for giving us such a wonderful opportunity Stephanie! And also for taking the time to respond to the questions being asked. I will definitely be putting in as much effort into this TT as I can, most likely using my other PSN ID “GTP_timeattack”
I have a really important question for you though.
Will US drivers ever be eligible for GT Academy??? And will there be a NTSC only GT Academy?…since so far the GT Academy (both 1 and 2) have only been open to PAL regions.
I was a bit depressed (to say the least) not to see the US eligible for GT Academy 2 this time around either :(
I will say that this will only make me even more fired up to win if North America gets a shot at GT Academy some time in the not too distant future (at least I hope)
Anyways, if you can give me any clues on this I would greatly appreciate it…and I’m sure my fellow racers would as well. Thanks!
“Everyone who downloads it will get a chance to try out Gran Turismo 5’s brand-new physics engine…”
I am eagerly awaiting the test.
And did someone mention that you can transfer your cars from GT5:Prologue over to GT5? I didn’t know that. Probably the best solution they could have come up with for people who bought the demo. Good move.
@FoolKiller79
Thank you for the information and for the link, I’ve added GTplanet to my favorites!
Hi Stephanie, since you’re a Senior Product Marketing Manager SCEA, I want to give you feedback on PS3 3.10. Maybe you can help?
1.Please allow the option to choose the “system start-up” I want.
a. Original “Sony Computer Entertainment/ classical music”.
b. New “PS3/ neo-classical music”.
2. Allow me to have the XMB icons/words stay visible or fade.
3. Allow me to turn on/off the “adticker” in top right corner.
4.Please allow me to choose which “media boot-up” screen I want.
a. Original “PLAYSTATION 3/ jingle” splash screen.
b. New “black screen/ no jingle”.
The original splash is comfortable and heart warming!
5. Please bring back basic black! I want the old black colour theme with my sparkles please!
6. Allow me to turn off the Whats New icon, completely removing it from my XMB.
Every user loves superficial customization. Many PLAYSTATION 3 users would make use of these options.
Thanks for your hardwork, I know Sony is trying to make PS3/PSN/XMB better. I know SCEA may not be responsible for the changes, so please let SCEI know too.Happy Holidays!
Great to hear from you. This means the GT5 project isn’t quite vapour ware yet =)
Will those that entered but didn’t win still get something should they choose to get the full version of GT5 later on?
Thank you Stephanie for answering my question, definitely looking forward to picking this up.
I have to ditto what gilgamesh21 posted, #76 above. I really like the old Playstation 3 structure, and the bootup jangle.
Anyway, this is very good news for those of us wondering if we’d get a taste of Gran Turismo before next year. Since you, Stephanie, are sort of on the team, I hope one thing you might pass on to Polyphony D is to code the game so buying and selling cars doesn’t advance the calendar. I’m assuming used cars will be included again, and I’ve missed too many deals I wanted when I came out of a race series but on the last day or two of the week. I’d buy a car, and then when I’d go back to the car lists to find the others I’d picked out, the list had updated and they were gone.
Well, a couple more. Many of us really, really, REALLY want race modification to return, and have a livery paint shop included so we can create our own race cars, or recreate other real life cars not in the game. This is one thing I’m very jealous of in Forza. Here’s hoping…
In any case, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!
Steve
there’s 1 problem tho, my psp, won’t let me onto the psn, it’ll let me connect to my wireless router, but not connect to the psn, does anyone else have this problem, cause, i gotto get this GT2 free thing, and i need the psn shop to work so i can get it.
Any info on the realese date? im really anxious.
Awesome!
On behalf of Canada,
THANK YOU!!!!
<3<3<3
Canadians are people too! :p
I think the idea for the competition is really cool! It definitely favors those who play a lot of Gran Turismo, but who knows what might happen if anyone picks it up and plays it… especially since the game is so realistic. (Having one of those Gran Turismo Steering Wheels would probably come in handy too!)
This contest also has really awesome prizes!
Mostly I just can't wait to see if anything has improved since Prologue, I am excited for this game!!
Awesome!!!!!
I’m not really interested in the prizes (I suppose I could sell the PSP version if I won it. How about some free GT5 copies when it is released?)… but it will be neat to get to try this out and see if the wait has been worthwhile.
I also hope (please, please, please) that GT5 will be more like the previous versions and less like GT5p. And, of course that the network racing has had a radical makeover!
Are you going to repost the Canadian rules? I know they 404’d when this was posted, and I would like to know some eligibility requirements in the unlikely chance I win something.
As for some of you were curious about GT5 offical release date, simply why dont you check with your local store to find out and in fact its like 2 month away from release.. its closer than you think.. so quit whining about it :)
wicked awesome.:D
would’ve been better if it was to a F1 race, maybe the Montreal one. =P
What about Europe! There are not enough PS3 users there?!
Great idea for a competition. Even if I struggle setting a good time it will be good to get a hands on preview of GT5. Can’t wait for the full game!
2010 is looking to be a good year for PS3 exclusives.
Oh wait… It’s US and Canada only. Can’t we have a UK/Europe one with the winners going to an F1 race next year or something?
any word on the release date?
That’s odd, It’s December 17 in NY, and currently it is not aat the PSN Store as of 6:44PM, when is it coming?
i cant find it either.. maybe tomorrow. this sucks…
i can’t find it on the PS Store….any help?? i need this fix! lol
where do you download this ? can’t find this in psn store so any one know ?
Starting December 17, PlayStation 3 users will be able to download the Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge from the PlayStation Store so where is it ? did it get pull off store ?
8pm EST and still cant find it, am i missing something?? Any one download it yet??
is not on the psn store i look all over the psn store so what going on here ? why did you guys made a blog about this when user not even able to download it piss me off.