Gran Turismo takes 50 millionth sales lap

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted May 9, 2008 12:00 pm PT

Dual retail/online launch of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue puts Polyphony's 10-year-old racing series past shipment milestone.

Last month Sony Computer Entertainment America launched Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, the latest entry in Polyphony Digital's venerable racing series. Though it received decent reviews, the critical praise was disproportionate to the massive hype touting it as the next generation of racing for the PlayStation 3. One major factor for the less than stellar reception is that, like 2004's Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, the title isn't a full-fledged game, but rather a sampling of cars and tracks from the forthcoming Gran Turismo 5, due out later this year.

Press skepticism aside, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will go down in history as having helped the Gran Turismo series reach a major milestone. Today, SCEA proclaimed to the world that the racing franchise has shipped 50 million units worldwide, thanks in large part to this latest entry, which is available both at retail and digitally via the PlayStation Store.

Series creator and Polyphony head Kazunori Yamauchi took time to reflect on the series' success. "Initially, Gran Turismo was an 'alternative' racing game, kind of an outsider in the genre, and we made it thinking that it would be OK as long as it reached out to the select few who would agree with us," he said in a statement. "It's simply mind-boggling that this has been repeated 50 million times all around the world in the last 10 years."

The first Gran Turismo was released for the original PlayStation in 1997 in Japan and 1998 in North America. Since then, there have been six more installments in the series: Gran Turismo 2 (PSone, 1999); Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (PlayStation 2, 2001), Gran Turismo 4 Prologue (PS2, 2004), Gran Turismo 4 (PS2, 2005), and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3, 2008). During its decade on the market, the series has been praised for its stunning visuals, massive car selection, and fetishistic attention to vehicle detail. However, in recent years, it has been criticized for not having the same sort of realistic vehicle damage as the Burnout and Forza series.

In addition to announcing the 50 million-unit figure, Sony also reminded gamers today that it would support the Gran Turismo series through the next game and beyond. "SCEI...will continue hereon to vigorously promote development of the Gran Turismo series, which can be expected to evolve even further through the PS3 platform and broadband network environment," the company said. The series is also set to debut on the PlayStation Portable sometime in 2008.

124 Comments

  • dg3215

    Posted Jul 17, 2009 8:13 pm PT

    GT use to be the best racing game on the market in my opinion it is now the forza series, still will get GT 5 though, I have had every game in this series.

  • flyingteddy

    Posted Nov 11, 2008 1:54 pm PT

    gt4 on psp, interesting!

  • Shmoe82

    Posted Oct 30, 2008 6:09 pm PT

    GT5 Prologue is a great game and the full version is hopefully going to be worth the wait and then some. I don't need damage in the game if thats all that will be missing. If i want damage I will play NFS. I just hope they tone down penalties and increase the amount of tuning you can do to cars. I hope Lambo's and 911's are added.

  • DeanoFantasy

    Posted Aug 21, 2008 5:32 pm PT

    GT5 will be great I can surely hope so! and now its the waiting game, I'm not really into cars and racing, but this game like the rest have always rocked! cant wait!

  • division_9

    Posted Jun 23, 2008 7:33 am PT

    Burnout has realistic damage like my roof flying 20 feet in the air after hitting a tree at ten miles per hour?.

  • explode

    Posted Jun 2, 2008 8:58 am PT

    lol @ Tor Thorsen - you heard it here first. Burnout has realistic damage modeling. Did Fox News Network buy out Gamespot recently?

  • GameCaller

    Posted May 14, 2008 10:05 pm PT

    Congrats to Sony, And hey, This means that the series will Continue! Nice!

  • cheeseychips

    Posted May 13, 2008 12:58 pm PT

    I hope the full game is good. I'm sure i prefer Forza more. I feel GT has been left behind and sony is banking on past reputation to sell the game. Forget modelling 700+ cars that no one will use. hurry up and release hte game already before my thumbs fall off because of too much fiddling.

  • education

    Posted May 13, 2008 11:14 am PT

    This is a ps3 game and people are talking about xbox360 and of all things the wii.

  • Kenji_Masamune

    Posted May 13, 2008 9:21 am PT

    yeah, I'm so jealous of the 360. I want to be able to pay extra money on top of what I already pay for online, plus even though I already have a system for FPSs (my PC), i really want the 360 just so I can get my hands on 'must own' titles that are already available for my PC. Oh yeah, and I really am envious of not being able to unlock achievements because without those, my life is meaningless /wrist

  • dnathug

    Posted May 13, 2008 8:43 am PT

    Can't wait to see what becomes of this game, I remember playing the first few with friends and never being able to put the game down...... it was probably the first game that made me open my eyes and enjoy the racing simulation type and probably Racing games all together, since then Racing games are one of my favorite genres to play.

  • LAZZOR

    Posted May 13, 2008 6:47 am PT

    This is obviously a sign of this to come. This just gives Sony permission to sell "prologue" games. Just call it what it is, an expensive demo that should've been avalible on the Playstation Network for free or half the price.

  • Ruckuskromm

    Posted May 12, 2008 8:51 pm PT

    Congrats Sony on your abilty to sell half a game and make more money once the full game comes out.

  • Autolycus posted May 12, 2008 2:48 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Autolycus

    Posted May 12, 2008 2:48 pm PT (hide)

    XXMadManVII

    I cant wait till I can get a PS3!! GT5, MGS4, GOW3, FF13, KZ2... My 360 is going to be SOOOO jealous.


    ------

    Just like your PS3 must of been Jealous that XB360 was out a year before hand and developers were still able to produce better graphics on a system 1 year older and cheaper. And before you tell me the PS3 is better graphically, read up and find out the facts, because its not. They are a both a horse a piece. Bandwidth is better on the 360.

  • Autolycus posted May 12, 2008 2:46 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Autolycus

    Posted May 12, 2008 2:46 pm PT (hide)

    i wonder how many people will pay 100 dollars for GT5

  • DJ_Lae

    Posted May 12, 2008 2:15 pm PT

    Interesting. "...Thanks in large part to this latest entry..." and yet there's no mention of how many copies the prologue sold. Well, I guess we all know that it sold too many, but I'm still curious how many GT fans there are with more money than common sense.

    Biggest news here, though, is that Burnout has realistic damage. You learn something every day, I guess.

  • schmitboy1990

    Posted May 12, 2008 2:14 pm PT

    I'm a huge fan of the series, I much prefer GT games to similar games such as Forza or PGR. As to previous comments about Mario Kart and Burnout, they are very different games as SMBIUS mentioned so you can't really compare them. I'm looking forward to the new game the prologue is amazing, both visually and gameplay wise. What are the chances that either GT5 comes out on time this year? or GT Mobile comes out this year? Both of them are highly unlikely, I would expect GT Mobile to come out after GT5 which will be delayed, im 100% sure about that!

  • Autolycus posted May 12, 2008 10:48 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Autolycus

    Posted May 12, 2008 10:48 am PT (hide)

    marketing hype.... who cares

  • smbius

    Posted May 12, 2008 9:06 am PT

    Why are people comparing Mario Kart, Burnout, and the GT series at the same level? These are VERY different racing games. Some like arcade-like driving while others like simulation. If you want to compare race sims, use GT, Forza, and GTR as your basis for argument.

  • ColoradoKindBud

    Posted May 12, 2008 8:52 am PT

    Prologue didn't do much for me due to it's limited content, but it definitely gives me a great idea of what to expect from the full version, and I can't wait! It will most likely be the premiere racing title for years to come. Grid should tide me over nicely in the meantime though.

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