GT5 update confirmed for Saturday

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 25 November, 2010

Yamauchi – online in a "critical state".

An update for gargantuan simulation racer Gran Turismo 5 will be released on Saturday 27th November, creator Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed to Eurogamer in a new interview.

"We received a lot of demands for having more regulations placed on the online play. We're going to perform an update on the 27th that will include things like max power restrictions and weight restrictions," Yamauchi said.

"It's like a living creature, dynamically growing as we speak."

According to Yamauchi, the update will "refine the usability of the game to make it a better experience.

"I think it's going to be hard to find an end to that process," he admitted.

This morning it emerged that Sony has had to limit some areas of Gran Turismo 5 while it works out a way to ease the online congestion currently crippling the game.

The high demand coupled with GT5's constant communication with the internet is causing all sorts of problems that spill over even into single-player races.

Sony's temporary solution? Disable your PS3 internet connection.

"Yesterday the online service was kind of in a critical state," Yamauchi said.

"The data centre was set up to handle 500,000 connections but the number of connections we received greatly exceeded that amount and there was a high chance of experiencing problems as a result.

"The design of the GT game really integrates the online and offline parts. So the problems online actually affected the offline play as well. Right now we've changed the number of simultaneous connections that are possible to one million, doubling the number, and we're trying to gauge what will happen, but we don't know at this point in time."

Yamauchi also responded to criticism of the online feature set, revealing to Eurogamer, "Online updates are planned of course for leaderboards and matchmaking - [they're] all planned in the process of evolution."

The Polyphony Digital boss pledged that his team would be "upgrading every week, every month" to improve the game, which took five years to develop.

Oli reviewed Gran Turismo 5 for Eurogamer, awarding it 9/10.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (64) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • neilka #1 2 years ago

    GENTLEMEN, START YOUR PROGRESS BARS

  • lennon #2 2 years ago

    You mean this game is not perfect ;)

    /eagerly awaits GT 5 delivery due today....

  • Psychotext #3 2 years ago

    Very good news. The restrictions the online currently has are a complete waste of time. Being able to restrict to certain classes of car should make it much better... though how they didn't think of that before launch is astonishing.

    They need to make sure they stop people who aren't the host starting the race too. That's a fairly major oversight.

  • Steroyd #4 2 years ago

    "The data centre was set up to handle 500,000 connections but the number of connections we received greatly exceeded that amount and there was a high chance of experiencing problems as a result.

    Am I reading this right? did they really genuinely believe their biggest franchise for the Playsation wouldn't exceed that easily?

  • homerramone #5 2 years ago

    Not sure why they didnt just...well.. look at the dozens of other racers out there and use a similar template ?
    If its not broken dont fix it !

  • Vice.Destroyer #6 2 years ago

    I know nothing about handling the online portion of a game. But a data centre that handles 500,000 (I assume concurrent) users, for a game with the potential sales of Gran Turismo 5, well, even I think that is ridiculously insufficient.

  • TopKatt #7 2 years ago

    Kind of glad that I won't be getting mine until Christmas Day now, it might be working by then!

  • linksdad #8 2 years ago

    I am flabergasted that they thought half a million connections would be sufficient for their flagship game.

    Perhaps this spec has not increased since the game was first announced.

  • speedjack #9 2 years ago

    I LOL'ed :-

    http://wosblog.podgamer.com/2010/11/24/t...

  • MadDave123 #10 2 years ago

    "It's like a living creature, dynamically growing as we speak."

    Would be nicer if the game was released with an incling of modern racer design in the first place. But fixes are better than nothing.

    Next how about some more useful options, like matchmaking. Ya know, the stuff that the other racing games over the past 5 years have all managed to include. -_-

  • StolenGlory #11 2 years ago

    By critical do you mean on life support?

    Yep, i'd agree with that.

  • Doctor_What #12 2 years ago

    You'd think after five years that they might have had a spot of time to improve this side of things.

  • PixelPirate #13 2 years ago

    Polyphony seem to be a bit lost with online, currently.

    Lets hope now they have finished mucking about with getting the reflections just so on the hubcaps. They can sort the bugs out pronto, a promise of weekly and monthly updates, does alot to reassure consumers the problems are minor hiccups and not permanently broken

  • X201 #14 2 years ago

    @Steroyd

    Steam has 12 different titles on the go and only ever gets 3 million concurrent users.

    Based on those figures, setting aside space for half a million users for just GT5 would seem a sensible decision.

  • M_of_the_sys #15 2 years ago

    Enter obligatory "You would think that after five years..." comment here.

    Edit: Too late.
    Edited by M_of_the_sys at 25/11/10 @ 14:54

  • Dave_McCoy #16 2 years ago

    "It's like a living creature, dynamically growing as we speak."

    So Sony made you rush it out the door before everything was done? Although that happens a lot these days.

  • Freek #17 2 years ago

    Hi, Japan. The internet? Yeah, it's a thing now. Used allot in gaming. Perhaps you should take notice?

  • Munkhee #18 2 years ago

    Fair enough I say. At least he's released a statement, and turning around a patch in a matter of days after release is bloody good going. Of course, you could (rightly) say that these problems should have been fixed before release, but the fact is they weren't. At least they will be soon by the sounds of it.

    To be honest, part of me is quite excited about the fact that the game will develop over the coming weeks and months. I've got more than enough 'game' to dig into for the time being - any new additions will be welcome when they do arrive.
    Edited by Munkhee at 25/11/10 @ 14:59

  • muscleblade #19 2 years ago

    @Dave_McCoy

    It doesnt happen a lot for games that has been in development for 5 plus years.

  • RevanNL #20 2 years ago

    First of all: the whole power restriction thing could have been implemented from day one, every online racinggame has done so since 2005.

    Second of all: a data centre to handle 500.000 connections, when there are about 25-30 million PS3's connected to the internet and it's safe to say Sony was hoping to sell way more copy's of Gran Turismo (aka that's why it's called a system seller).

  • AcidSnake #21 2 years ago

    X201: Based on those figures, setting aside space for half a million users for just GT5 would seem a sensible decision

    However from what I gather from the article in this case anyone with GT5, as long as they have an active internet connection, are connected to the GT5 servers...
    Even when in SP...

    With a title like this I'd say there are definitely more than a half-million users playing the game with internet enabled at launch...

    EDIT: what Reven said...
    Edited by AcidSnake at 25/11/10 @ 15:06

  • GamerG #22 2 years ago

    What only 500k connections for a game they hoped to sell Millions? Are they f'ing stupid?????

  • darkmorgado #23 2 years ago

    "It's like a living creature, dynamically growing as we speak."

    After running this through my bullshit translator, I got "So many people have complained that we've been forced to implement what should have been there in the first place".

  • X201 #24 2 years ago

    @AcidSnake
    If its active during SP as well as MP, then they only have themselves to blame.
    Stupid mistake.

  • Beano #25 2 years ago

    ""The data centre was set up to handle 500,000 connections..."

    Idiots!

    GT5 was one of the most hyped and anticipated games this generation - guaranteed to sell millions of copies... and you only prepared for 500K connections?

  • AcidSnake #26 2 years ago

    X201:
    Indeed...Or a simple "Don't connect to the community unless I say so" option in the menu screen...Instead of forcing users to disconnect the internet from their PS3 manually...

  • evild_edd #27 2 years ago

    So this was the 7/10 dressed up as a 9/10 that I predicts then ;0)

    @speedjack: nice link. Love how the painful quotes and bland screenshots combine to give you.....9/10. Think the guy made his point pretty well.

    Disclaimer: never liked the GT series. Just not my bag....

  • darkmorgado #28 2 years ago

    @speedjack

    I LOL'ed :-

    http://wosblog.podgamer.com/2010/11/24/t...

    That completely sums up my thoughts of yesterday's review. I went out and picked up NFS instead.

  • Beano #29 2 years ago

    "Disclaimer: never liked the GT series. Just not my bag.... "

    Really?

    I would never have guessed...

  • mkreku #30 2 years ago

    500,000 concurrent users would be enough if all the game does is send a few packets of data, for example to fetch a leaderboard or check for updates. If that's all it does, then you're only connected for a few seconds every time. If Gran Turismo 5 sells 5 million copies, the probability of all 5 million accidentally trying to fetch a leaderboard at the same time is very slim, but apparently something went wrong..

  • emailtj #31 2 years ago

    @evild_edd

    I'd say it is more like a 10/10 game with a 5/10 interface. Luckily the interface can be fixed, because it is much more difficult to fix the game part.

  • Beano #32 2 years ago

    @mkreku : Well... GT5 does not have online leaderboards?
    Edited by Beano at 25/11/10 @ 15:20

  • Buztafen #33 2 years ago

    "The Polyphony Digital boss pledged that his team would be "upgrading every week, every month" to improve the game, which took five years to develop."

    Hehe, nice dig EG.

  • andijames #34 2 years ago

    @neilka

    :D Couldn't stop giggling at that. Touche!

    Hopefully this will all settle down in a few days but if i have to see one more icon stating 'installing' in the bottom corner..

  • rojjer #35 2 years ago

    500,000? oh my fucking god. Just adding up pre-orders would have come to over double that for sure? Doing things on the cheap perhaps?

  • Skooch #36 2 years ago

    "Steam has 12 different titles on the go and only ever gets 3 million concurrent users.

    Based on those figures, setting aside space for half a million users for just GT5 would seem a sensible decision."

    Consider that CoD: Black Ops got over 2.6M unique users on just Xbox LIVE for launch day alone...then consider your opinion.

  • Widge #37 2 years ago

    Who remembers when Warhawk launched? That was fun!

  • chris_ace #38 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • X201 #39 2 years ago

    @Skooch There's a difference between 3 million concurrent users and 2.6 million during a 24 hour period.


  • paulf #40 2 years ago

    if there is one game that should morph into a 'platform' it gt5 - be good to see how it develops over time

  • SavageEvil #41 2 years ago

    Considering the amount of bad press PD and Kaz have gotten as of late, half a million online support isn't to ridiculous a number. They do check certain sites and well there is just a lot of complainers stating they won't buy the game because of this and that, mostly petty crap but who cares, it's a knock against the game before it has even been inserted into the system and played for any length of time. Go figure, but as Kaz and Sony has seen GT5 still commands one heck of a presence outside of all the complainers, who are also playing the game as we speak. Now as they increase the online support, I do hope that they take a long look at certain oddities that kind of make the game look sub par and jarring at times. The low resolution smoke is one as well as the crazy shadows at times, really an issue in replay and replay photo mode. I do hope they improve on the course editor, I would like a little more in depth control and the car paint option needs to lose the chips idea it's silly because after you get all 1000 cars you can only paint a car one time then have to buy a whole other car to get the color chip again...i don't mind paying credits for a paint job, but that whole car for a paint chip then credit for the job is a bit much. I haven't really tackled the online part yet as I am still fiddling around in arcade mode with my McLaren F1, this game is awesome with a steering wheel and all aids turned off except ABS that's set to 1. It's just impressive how this game moves, and to those who think Shift was the only game that shakes you car, GT5 does this and it's hella more believable. Great thing they didn't include tunnel vision. That said, trying to beat the AI in Arcade mode on la Sarthe isn't easy and that's on medium setting, these guys are fast and don't plow into you either, I had that Panoz breathing down my neck for half a lap. Some reason cars do not seem overpowered as they were in GT4, have to make some money in GT mode so I can buy my S7 :p, hands down my favorite road car next to the F1. Yea I have the Gamestop free cars, gimped if you ask me, can't remove anything the car came with.

  • speedjack #42 2 years ago

    Wow.

    Interesting how me or anyone who dares to like my link gets marked down.

    Your normal 'programming' will now resume :-

    [link url=http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/category/gt5/
    ]http://www.sonydefenseforce.com/category...[/link]

  • Haerger #43 2 years ago

    500,000?

    I lol'd!

    I bet it's sold more than million by now!

  • des #44 2 years ago

    They probably thought,people that don't care about GT5 online don't have PS3 connected to internet...japanese developers lol
    little hint...large majority of people have consoles,PCs,etc connected to internet despite non-interest in particular game online gameplay

  • mss99 #45 2 years ago

    If only the people behind COD were as responsive to the mass of online issues plaguing the game. They have had a game per year to sort out online issues and yet each new release is as bad or worse than the last for issues online when released.

  • Wyrm #46 2 years ago

    Kudos to them for attending to the issue of limiting car power etc so quickly, even if it should have been there from the start.

  • uknortherner2000 #47 2 years ago

    It would be nice if the update also included a fix to the "Want to connect to PSN" message I keep getting, over and over again even though I've already said NO.

    It almost feels like an EU-style referendum: Keep being asked until you choose the "right" answer.
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 25/11/10 @ 17:28

  • JDub #48 2 years ago

    Well after five years, they've probably gone over budget...slightly...

  • coolbritannia #49 2 years ago

    'I LOL'ed :-

    [link url=http://wosblog.podgamer.com/2010/11/24/t...'
    ]http://wosblog.podgamer.com/2010/11/24/t...[/link]

    Me too, the fact you're getting negged by the SDF says it all :-)

  • peeps #50 2 years ago

    Great news if they continue improving and adding over the coming months. Gt5 is a huge game which is meant to last years imo

  • GamesConnoisseur #51 2 years ago

    You DOESNT have to touch online gaming, the problem is PS3 bring connected to Internet and when playing PS3..... There are a bloody lot of connected PS3 in the world and a small fraction got GT5.


    Work it out... 500k was too little!

    Why not have set up larger infrastructure as will be needed at some point anyway!

    The constant loadings bugs me.... Still I m using iPad lots more in-between!

  • Red-Moose #52 2 years ago

    Why is this the second time a major japanese developer has dropped the ball within days of release? FF XIV was a travesty but this again for such a big release smacks of idiocy and not knowing your market, of which the european market is the biggest of all three.

  • dylman #53 2 years ago

    Five years, countless delays, and released in an unfinished state. Not good enough, Sony.

  • Emmit_Assassin #54 2 years ago

    THEY'VE HAD 5 FRICKIN YEARS TO MAKE THIS GAME THE BEST THAT IT COULD BE AND THEY RELEASE IT WITHOUT PROPER ONLINE PLAY? WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE JOKERS ON?

    POLYPHONY - GET A GRIP.

  • lagoonalight #55 2 years ago

    Considering a game sells like 5 million or so all this talk of over budget is complete and utter nonsense. The game will gross half a billion easily in the end. I don't think their employees are making 30 million each.

    And as for Jap devs YES they obviously don't have a clue anymore. I mean, seriously, they are so out of touch it is amazing they can even finish a game anymore. Western devs have far surpassed them in almost all areas and that is just not arguable. There was a post on Neogaf a while back that said GT5 was not ready and the online portion would not be complete until March or something. That was a rumor leading up to release and it looks to be true. This game obviously needed another 6 months for whatever reason. The fact is these guys should have had everything done by now but their feature list is ridiculously comprehensive. I really do feel it is an organic growing entity. I would be very surprised if GT6 is not on the PS4 as it should be. It is pretty obvious these last gen systems cannot handle these types of games at 60FPS.
    Edited by lagoonalight at 25/11/10 @ 19:10

  • Beano #56 2 years ago

    Seems to be running fine now (fast loading etc) after they have upped the server connections limit... at least for me the last two hours ;)

  • byakuya83 #57 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 10:03:41 30-03-2012

  • makeamazing #58 2 years ago

    From a technical perspective (not GT5, but normal online games) you would probably scope it on how many concurrent connections you were going to get. So even if 2 million people purchased the game, you wouldnt buy a server that could handle 2 million connections at once... because it is unlikely that 2 million would be online at the same time, because of time zones and just people play at different times.

    With regards to GT the problem has been further compounded that even in SP you need to go online... but again, they probably didnt expect everyone to be playing it at the same time... still that means good day 1 sales figures :D

  • darkmorgado #59 2 years ago

    Five years, countless delays, and released in an unfinished state. Not good enough, Sony.

    Now now, the PS3 isn't THAT bad.

  • darkmorgado #60 2 years ago

    eurogamer gave it a 9 because it is the best driving simulator on console in there opinion, that means better than forza,

    Forza 3 got a 9 too btw. Plus the text of the Forza review wasn't filled with complaints.

  • darkmorgado #61 2 years ago


    i know it's not a ps3 exclusive so won't feel the wrath of the xbots but fallout new vegas received 9/10 and is in dire need of an update/patch to fix its multitude of bugs. perhaps direct some of your energy toward that instead. oh and assassin's creed brotherhood received 10/10 but has a lot of tearing and a limited online element. that might also be in need of some criticism.

    Theres a gulf of difference between bugs and retarded design.

  • Bonders99 #62 2 years ago

    Why do people keep saying "After countless delays", are they uneducated or what. This game was delayed a grand total of just 2 times and one was Japan specific. Worldwide, the game was delayed a whopping great ONE time and that was for 2 1/2 week. Sure, moan about the development time as much as you want (heck alot of other games have had huge development times), but for all their failings you can't whinge at Sony for "countless delays"

  • NotSoSlim #63 2 years ago

    More countless delay nonsense anyway NFS is great but clearly used an updated Burnout engine so turn around would be quicker.

    No excuse for online on GT5 tho but Japan has been left behind

  • EuroStalker #64 2 years ago

    Imagine GT5 on Xbox 360. A broken game on a broken console. How frustrating would that have been!

    /Runs