Gran Turismo Sport Closed Beta Coming Soon, Watch A Trailer For It Now

Last year, Polyphony Digital boss Kazunori Yamauchi said there would not be a beta for the PlayStation 4 racing game Grand Turismo Sport. Today, he announced that there will be.

A closed beta will begin on March 17 in the US, Yamauchi announced in a post on the PlayStation Blog. "Beta participants will get a sneak peek at how Gran Turismo will pave the future of racing, competing in highly competitive races against other users across the country, and eventually, across the globe," he said.

There will be a "select rotation" of cars and tracks offered every day, as well as online support.

"Track and car selections will vary during this period, and we made sure to offer different race class categories and course configurations to properly test our GT fans," he explained.

Those chosen for the GT Sport beta will get to experience the new Driver Profile system, which introduces a "Sportsmanship Rating," which tracks your "behavior and manners" on the track. This also includes the Driver Rating, which takes into account your speed and how well you perform in races.

The GT Sport closed beta begins on March 17, with an "initial phase" comprised of players chosen by Sony. It's not clear if you can opt-in, but Sony said to check out messages on the PS4 dash to see if you have been chosen.

"As with most beta programs, in order for the development team to capture data in an optimal manner, the sample size needs to be increased gradually and in stages," Yamauchi explained. "While we begin to roll out the beta, we have decided that the time differences across the U.S. are best matched to the development team in Tokyo."

"During the initial phase, our servers will be open for users during specific times across the day. We will share these times closer to the beta launch across our social channels and GT.com."

The full terms and conditions for the beta can be seen here.

GT Sport is due out this year for PlayStation 4, though a specific date has not been announced.