Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in late March

By Robert Purchese Published 12 February, 2008

But date and price still TBC, says Sony.

Sony has told Eurogamer it's aiming for a late March release for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, with an exact date and price are still to be confirmed

The news comes on the heels of fresh speculation from a "release schedule" that apparently listed the game as coming out on 28th March, priced at GBP 24.99.

Sony has previously said GT5 Prologue will be out in the US on 17th April. However European plans are still being worked out.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is a fully-fleshed out taster of what to expect when Gran Turismo 5 finally makes its way into shops.

In the garage are 60 gorgeously realised cars you can race around tracks from all over the world, taking on up to 15 of your friends. Quite a lot of friends that, might need to use strangers.

Read our first impressions of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for an idea of what to expect.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (26) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • optimusprym8 #1 4 years ago

    any word if we'll need to d/l the 5Gb patch [that I still can't get from JAP servers] or will this be included?
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/08 @ 16:21

  • DonnieDarko333 #2 4 years ago

    I just preordered this from GAME, i'm expecting a March/April release! Hopefully it will stay at that!

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    So will be getting a demo of GT5 Prologue too, like the one the Japanese got?

  • gingerlink #4 4 years ago

    why was there never a halo 3 prologue or anything? seems like a great way for developers to get extra money...

  • JediMasterMalik #5 4 years ago

    Because it makes more sense for a racer than a story driven shooter, perhaps?

  • mattigan #6 4 years ago

    Why? Is this not basically an advert for the full game, you could do this for any game, could you not?

  • jonsaan #7 4 years ago

    Prologue is quite a hefty chunk of gameplay. It's hardly a demo really. I reckon it's 40 hours or so. But then I'm not the greatest driver in the world.

  • MrChallacombe #8 4 years ago

    there was a halo 3 prologue.
    it was called crackdown

  • zoidberg #9 4 years ago

    strangers are always a safe bet :)

  • Gaol #10 4 years ago

    A good boost for PS3 no doubt, but the GT series never held my attention - I'm much more interested in Wipeout HD.

  • bad09 #11 4 years ago

    I never understand why people go for this GT prologue rubbish (didn't they do the same thing with no.4?). Why pay 25 quid for a demo (don't care how big it is it's still a demo!) then pay for the full price game?

    Sorry, nothing against PS3 owners (or any console/computer for that matter) but you have to be some kind of mug to pay for a demo surely? Out of interest anyone know if there any other games out there that made you pay for the demo?
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/08 @ 17:53

  • Triggerhappytel #12 4 years ago

    I agree with bad09 - Sony have been doing this since GT3 (I think) and it always works, but who the fuck pays this money for what is essentially a generous demo?! Now with their online attributes they could make it an online-only sample for more reasonable £12 - £15, but they won't when hard copies will sell lots in the shops for twice that.

  • Kill_Crazy #13 4 years ago

    Will this be available via PSN too?

  • ruttyboy #14 4 years ago

    The only definition of whether something is a demo or not is if the developers/publishers say it is. A publisher could release a 5 second gameplay section of a game that then comes out a year later as a standalone full price title, it might not sell very well, but it still wouldn't make it a demo.

  • DAN.E.B #15 4 years ago

    Is the PS2 GT steering wheel compatible with the PS3 game?

  • zedzee #16 4 years ago

    I don't like the Prologue games either but I do adore the Gran Turismo series, generally speaking.

    I don't like that it's been watered down sometimes with the afore-mentioned Prologues and Concepts etc. I prefer the full game and, if necessary, pay the 'full' price for that. Although, I also admit, I'm not a good racer (but still enjoy driving/racing games) I still prefer the full game to this cut-down release.

    As far as I know, this is NOT a demo. It will be a 'full' release in as far as the game engine and graphics are concerned, with further cars and tracks (and some bug fixes), I suspect, still to come in the full release.

    Prologues have always been so because Sony has sometimes put pressure on Polyphony Digital to release a new version of GT well before it's ready...so they settle for doing a Prologue. I think the developer once admitted as much, but without actually saying it directly, I seem to remember that in an interview some while ago when the GT-HD was being developed.

    I really don't believe that the full GT5 will sell well, because everyone would rush out and get Prologue ahead and then not bother with the full GT5, because it's 'only' a few more cars and tracks and the majority would never get to play with anyway...I'm certainly guilty of that, as a casual racer gamer.

    Correct me if I'm wrong - I'm just making a guess with the last paragraph above - but it's just an opinion. I would certainly love for history to prove me wrong. :-)

  • Miths #17 4 years ago

    Earlier today I just saw the last few minutes of a review/preview of sorts on Motors TV. They showed footage from a couple of tracks and various views - including cockpit view - from several cars, as well as commented on the game/demo as well of course, including some comparisons to Forza 2.

    Basically the high points were the graphics (including mentioning that the interior views were the best and most detailed in any game yet, easily beating the ones in TDU) and - as far as I could gather from the few minutes I saw - also the overall entertainment value (can't recall the details here unfortunately, but it definately sounded as if they enjoyed it).
    Low or at least somewhat disappointing points included car physics - GT5 (Prologue) is still far from being a true racing sim (but the same could be said for Forza 2 when you compare it to some of the best PC offerings), the glaring lack of a damage model and finally an AI that may be much improved over the one in GT4 (there wasn't really one, was there? :p Just cars on rails), but apparantly still doesn't behave particularly impressively, as it's failing to put up a proper fight by eg. trying to outbrake you in corners etc.

    Not sure how much is likely to change between Prologue and the full release, but it sounds like a pretty good console racer - really great in a few areas, less so in others (that's the problem with a racing game pretending to be a sim when it really isn't, perhaps failing to properly adopt important aspects of either a proper sim or an arcade racer).
    Well, in any case, I'm sure it will be entertaining nonetheless, so I'll definately be buying Prologue :).

  • bad09 #18 4 years ago

    @ Egster

    "don't care what you think it's still not a demo."

    Are you not paying for a sample of a future release? In my eyes, a sample of a future release IS a demo. Am I wrong?

  • J.C #19 4 years ago

    PS3 owners love getting shafted up the ass by there masters.

    Polyphony Digital should pull there finger out. heh!
    Edited by 1 at 12/02/08 @ 20:39

  • Arwin #20 4 years ago

    (beautiful) in-car view, several great cars (40 among which the fantastically simulated F430), 16 cars on track, all at 60fps with HDR and online too. Not to mention 5 tracks with one variation each, and 4 classes of off-line events as well as one-make races, several tires from racing to road with three types each, great online leaderboards with ghost downloads for the top ten, and for a whole lot of different top tens too (select a filter for N-class one particular car one particular track, and the top ten drivers will still have replays of their laps to watch). Oh, and fantastic wheel support for just about any wheel out there right up to and including the G25 with clutch and H-shifter support. And some of the best physics out there too.

    I can certainly live with that in the Japanese version. I imagine I"ll enjoy the EU version even more, as it should probably have 20 more cars and who knows a European track thrown into the mix, and better online play for us Europeans, since right now you're typically playing on Japanese servers (though amazingly enough even that still sometimes lag-free).

    Of course, I can imagine that there will be other gamers less keen on a GT-light - especially if you only care about tuning your car, this might not be what you want. But if you really like to show off your PS3, or really like realistic driving or great looking car-models, hey ...

    Also interesting is how often this game will get updated ... It's not unlikely that this game will slowly grow into something coming quite close to the final game.

  • Kenshin001 #21 4 years ago

    "PS3 owners love getting shafted up the ass by there masters."

    Indeed, having a reliable console with free online and dedicated servers! Haha take that you PS3 suckers.

    Anyway, I'm one of those mugs who bought GT5P and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Way I see it consumers have a choice to buy an abridged version of the game or wait until the full version comes out later. Their choice. I'm not a huge GT fan and disliked a lot of the features of the previous games, don't even know if I'll pick up GT5 yet, but if you want a nice looking cheapish racing game with online it does the trick.

  • optimusprym8 #22 4 years ago

    WoW charges for a demo, 2 days long I think for £2. And you can't even farm in it

  • Darren #23 4 years ago

    People griping about GT5 Prologue costing £25 RRP need to remember that this "demo" has far more content than your average demo - 60 cars and 5 tracks plus you can save game data, upload times and play online too. It's more of a mini-game in my opinion than a demo but at least people get an early chance to play the game instead of having to wait until mid-2009 to play the full game. If you object to paying then simply don't buy it!

  • ruttyboy #24 4 years ago

    "Are you not paying for a sample of a future release? In my eyes, a sample of a future release IS a demo. Am I wrong? "

    Short answer, yes. Long answer, see my post earlier on.

  • DrDamn #25 4 years ago

    The fountain of all knowledge - the internet and Wikipedia in particular - has this to say ...

    "A game demo is a freely distributed demonstration or preview of an upcoming or recently released computer or video game."

    They are charging, ergo it is not a demo. The internet has spoken! [link url=http://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
    ]http://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
    [/link]

    Simple point don't want it, don't get it. People buy them - though not in huge numbers - hence there is a market for it. For some the behemoths that are currently *expected* of a racer these days are too much to be bothered with. This fills the gap quite nicely.

  • mikeck #26 4 years ago

    I would say that the Prologue in the title gives away that it is indeed not a demo, but, well...a prologue :)