Polyphony Digital held an announcement day yesterday to release information on the next release of Gran Turismo.  The event was held at Silverstone track in the UK.  Check out the 25 minute video of the details.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. today announced Gran Turismo®6 (GT6™), the latest version of PlayStation®’s best-selling franchise, will be released in Holiday, 2013. The news was revealed today by legendary Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi at an event held to celebrate 15 years of the 70-million-selling series.

GT6 for PlayStation®3 will bring new levels of authenticity to ‘the Real Driving Simulator’ as well as introducing stunning new tracks and cars and a revised user interface. A new compact game engine will improve operation and increase the flexibility to expand it with downloadable content. Meanwhile, the game is also set for expanded connectivity with other devices such as smart phones and tablets and increased social and community functions.

All of the cars and tracks from Gran Turismo®5, which has sold over 10 million copies since launching in 2010, will be retained in GT6. But notable new additions to the already impressive line-up of historic cars, road cars and the latest race cars, brings the total car list to 1,200 at launch, with new cars set to be continually added online. Several thousand aerodynamic parts and custom wheels will be available for almost all cars, and players can personalize their own custom cars in game to the greatest ever level possible.

The UK’s famous Silverstone Circuit will be just one of seven new locations in Gran Turismo 6, taking the total to 33, with 71 different layouts available, 19 of them brand new. There will also be regular additions of new tracks set to be made available online. The improved course maker function will provide gorgeous scenery spanning several tens of square kilometers including the magnificent backdrop of Andalucía.

The theme of Gran Turismo’s innovative collaborations with partner companies will increase with the inception of GT6. A number of exciting new projects that blur the line between the virtual and real will be announced in the run up to the game’s launch. Not least of these is GT Academy, a collaboration with Nissan to unearth real racing driver talent that first ran in 2008. It was announced during the event that the competition returns for its biggest ever year in 2013, with the entry mechanic set to take place on an exclusive GT6 demo in July.

Other notable partnerships in the development of GT6 have been with tire manufacturer Yokohama Rubber and suspension company KW Automotive. Both companies are active in the commercial car industry and in racing, and they have acted as technical development partners for the game’s new physics engine, for its tire and suspension kinematic modeling, creating an even more realistic experience for GT fans.

“It is amazing to think that it is 15 years since we first released Gran Turismo,” explained Kazunori Yamauchi, during the announcement at Silverstone Circuit. “Things have changed a lot since then and now Gran Turismo 6 is a further evolution of my dream.  We’re pleased to deliver GT6 to PlayStation 3 as we have a very loyal community on that platform. However, we have refactored the game to make it very flexible and expandable, with a view to making many future developments. I am very pleased with everything about the new game and the new additions, but the launch will be only the beginning for GT6. The game will continue to develop throughout its life. I already have many ideas for things I want to achieve in the next 15 years of Gran Turismo!”

The celebration of 15 years of Gran Turismo event at Silverstone included a demo of GT6 featuring the famous circuit. Guests were able to play the game in the familiar circular Gran Turismo race pods before having a chance to take to the real track in cars provided by Audi, Ford, Jaguar, KTM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota.

Further news about Gran Turismo 6 will be revealed at the forthcoming E3 and Gamescom events.

Cars featured on the GT6 Silverstone demo (* denotes new to Gran Turismo):

Acura NSX ’91, *Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale ’11, *Alpine A110 1600S ’68, *Audi Sport quattro S1 Rally Car ’86, Ferrari 458 Italia ’09, *Ferrari Dino 246 GT ’71, Ford GT ’06, *KTM X-BOW R ’12, Lamborghini Countach LP400 ’74, *Light Car Company Rocket ’07, McLaren MP4-12C ’10, *Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 ’11, Nissan 370Z (Z34) (GT Academy Version) ’08, Nissan 370Z Tuned Car (GT Academy , Version) ’08, Nissan GT-R Black edition (GT Academy Version) ’12, *Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 N24 Schulze Motorsport, Nissan Leaf G (GT Academy Version), *Tesla Motors Model S Signature Performance ’12, Toyota 86 GT ‘12

We love the video comparison by AdrianF1esp. Check out the GT40 MkIV in both tiles.

A great video which shows how the virtual to real story which is based on using Gran Turismo "as his job" as a younger guy. Take a look at his story.

Jordan has sat down with Mr Gran Turismo himself to have a chat.  

Reading the comments its seems to have raised more than a few heckles.  

Nissan has officially announced the next edition of their hugely-successful Nissan GT Academy in co-operation with Sony, the 2012 edition of the competition is due to start on May 1st.

Held since 2008, the GT Academy’s aim is to find talent in the virtual racing community and help them get a real racing career started. The success of the program has exceeded everyone’s expectations as all past GT Academy winners have become successful in racing with 2008 winner Lucas Ordonez even becoming 2011 International Le Mans Cup LMP2 champion.

Following a successful spin-off for American users, Nissan is now branching out the competition further as Germany and Russia get a dedicated GT Academy while other European countries remain in the main competition. With three regional competitions and one European one, GT Academy 2012 will see four winners that will enjoy the main prize – A drive in the 2013 Dubai 24 Hours race next January that will hopefully just be their first step in a long racing career.

Traditionally, the GT Academy starts out as an online time-trial competition to find the quickest racers, the GT Academy software will be available on the PlayStation Network starting May 1st. Ownership of Gran Turismo 5 is not required, everyone with a PlayStation 3 living in one of the participating countries is invited to give it their best shot. The online events will be held until June 24, the quickest drivers emerging from there will be challenged in a series of real-life meetings to further prove their skills.

Polyphony Digital has released a new version of their popular Gran Turismo 5 racing title.

This month’s update focuses very much on bug fixing and other improvements, including better online performance and improved support for Thrustmaster’s T500 RS steering wheel.

Changelog

• Improved the performance of online races to provide a better racing experience. However, please note that using voice chat with 12 or more players can reduce screen refresh intervals.
• Reduced wobbling of the screen when using the Chase view (The Chase view is when the car is viewed from the rear during races and replays, selected by using the SELECT button).
• Electric cars (opponent cars and your cars in B-Spec) will now pit-in automatically to recharge the battery.
• Reduced the amount of steering pull when using force feedback steering wheel controllers in banks on courses such as the Special Stage Route X Oval.
• When driving formula cars using the Logitech steering wheel controllers, the initial force feedback amount has been lessened and adjusted to make it easier to drive in a straight line.

Polyphony Digital has updated their title sales list, and the new numbers are impressive. Between January and September of 2011, Gran Turismo 5 moved an additional 1 million copies. This brings the game’s total sales up to 7.3 million, and helped push the entire series past 64.7 million sold.

Despite the big numbers, GT5 still falls quite short of Polyphony Digital’s highest-selling game, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, at 14.8 million copies, and remains the fourth most popular game of the series. However, as GT5 stays in the news with frequent updates and new downloadable content, it may hold sales momentum throughout 2012.

U.S. Gran Turismo producer Taku Imasaki shared an interesting statistic about the game’s recent batch of new content, which included Spa Francorchamps and 15 new cars. As of November 3rd, two weeks and two days since its European release, it had received over 1 million downloads.

While it hasn’t been officially confirmed (up until now), it was always assumed that Gran Turismo 5 would NOT only have one set of DLC. Those assumptions are apparently correct as the first official word of additional DLC has been confirmed.

On hand at the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards were two Sony reps who mentioned the additional DLC.

“…this is the first of many batches of new content that will be available, so people need to keep their ears to the ground as there will be more stuff coming, as well as the current upgrade.”