Today Polyphony Digital announced a Gran Turismo event to take place on May 15 at Silverstone, U.K., in celebration of the series’ 15th anniversary.
With all the recent talk and speculation about GT6, especially after the title leaked on Newegg for pre-order, could Sony finally be ready to lift the lid on its latest entry in the multi-million selling franchise?
Gran Turismo launched in Japan in December 1997, and saw an International release the following year. The racer eventually went on to ship 10.85 million copies worldwide as of April 30, 2008.
Sony’s press blurb on the anniversary events reads:
"Yamauchi-san is set to provide an update on the future of the Gran Turismo game at Silverstone. His passion for all things automotive is evident in the ever-increasing levels of realism and attention to detail in Gran Turismo, and the huge range of cars for which it is famous. Strong relationships with the many manufacturers that have featured in the franchise have led to some fascinating co-operations with the automotive world; such as the Red Bull X2010 ultimate race car, GTbyCitroën concept, a design co-operation for a display featuring on the real Nissan GT-R and an innovative new app developed for the Toyota GT86.
"In close partnership with Nissan, PlayStation has taken the virtual-to-reality overlap, inspired by Gran Turismo, to a new level in the form of the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy. The now-famous racing driver development programme selects the fastest GT gamers from around the world and transfers their talent to real-world racing. The competition began in 2008 and has gone from strength to strength. Over three million people have entered since its inception, and graduates of the Academy have recorded some impressive results, including a second-place finish in the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 class. Five Gran Turismo gamers turned GT Academy champions will be on hand at Silverstone. The ‘Nismo Athletes’ will be showing off their real-world racing skills with some high-speed passenger laps around the famous circuit, a track that has, so far, never featured in Gran Turismo."