GT5 Prologue in October

By Robert Purchese Published 17 July, 2007

In Japan, anyway.

Polyphony Digital has revealed that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be heading to the Japanese PlayStation Network in October.

The announcement came during a presentation of the game at the Tokyo PlayStation Premier event, where a variety of cars were also confirmed for the demo - including some being shown at the Tokyo Motor Show later in the year. Online play was also confirmed, although there was no mention of cost - for now we'll assume it will follow in the footsteps of the HD Concept taster earlier in the year and be free to download, and then we can be in uproar if they decide to do something different. Go team Internet!

Prologue will, of course, offer another insight into what to expect from the full Gran Turismo 5 game when it launches on PS3 sometime in the future. As the name suggests.

Sony flashed the Prologue demo around at its E3 conference last week in Santa Monica, too, showing off shiny cars with reflections to make mirrors jealous. We were told to expect it this year, although we're still waiting for confirmation on a US and European date.

Unfortunately Sony UK was unavailable to comment at the time of writing.

Head over to our impressions of Gran Turismo HD Concept to see why we're so excited by another demo.

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.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Beano #1 5 years ago

    Nice - Glad it's free and it's easy to use a JAP PSN account to download stuff from the Japanese PS Store :)

  • JediMasterMalik #2 5 years ago

    hehe

    It's probably a replay, but it's effing gorgeous.

    Free to DL means I'll get it in Octoiber, awesomeness.

  • Zomoniac #3 5 years ago

    The new trailer is on Gamersyde. It is beyond belief.

  • Beano #4 5 years ago

    Btw, has Polyphony talked about damage in GT5?

  • UncleLou #5 5 years ago

    I'll copy my forum post here as well:

    At the risk of sounding apologetic, I can kind of see why it won't (I guess) have car damage. Apart from destroying the aesthetic car porn appeal anyway, they just couldn't make them (edit: the damaged cars) look nearly as perfectly real from a purely technical point of view.

    That doesn't mean I don't want car damage, mind.

  • northernlights #6 5 years ago

    Whats the world coming too ? When we are supposed to get excited about the release of a demo

  • JediMasterMalik #7 5 years ago

    People get excited about demos all the time, where have you been?

  • Hughes. #8 5 years ago

    @ Beano: Yamauchi has talked about it, but it's pretty much at the end of a long list of stuff like weather, daylight transition, dashboards and stuff. Physical damage misses the point of GT, it's like wanting shotguns in Loco Roco. Obviously bad driving should be punished more than it is, even with the improvements GT4 made in that area, but GT is about driving, not crashing.

    @ Disc: Now I have to change my underwear!

  • JediMasterMalik #9 5 years ago

    And home too, weird menu that.

  • Beano #10 5 years ago

    "Whats the world coming too ? When we are supposed to get excited about the release of a demo "

    And people are also getting exited about public betas ;)

    As long as it's free, I have no complaints - nice to get a small taste of things to come :)

  • Beano #11 5 years ago

    @Hughes: I understand the point, but many are expecting visual damage today in a serious car sim, especially when their closest competitor (Forza 2) has it.
    I belive most games can live with visual damage not looking 100% realistic.

  • menage #12 5 years ago

    Typical, creating small useless pieces of software to keep the crowds slobbering. What about just making a new game. 2009?

  • Beano #13 5 years ago

    "And home too, weird menu that. "

    Maybe Sony's "Home" will feature a garage where GT5 cars can be browsed and shown to friends?

    That would be REALLY F***ING sick :)

  • JediMasterMalik #14 5 years ago

    Would be, but in order for that to be really cool, it would need loads of visual customisation options, more Forza 2 than GT.

  • SharkVLion #15 5 years ago

    Who gives a toss what it looks like; I just want it to drive right; proper fizix and full support of the Logi G25 with both clutch and shifter; that's where its at, heelNtoe downshift COME ONNN!!

  • Steroyd #16 5 years ago

    The Head of PD has said damage will vary from shit cosmetic damage to erm... the opposite of cosmetic damage depending on the manufacturer.

    Personally I'm expecting a majority of the cars to be non damageable.

  • valli #17 5 years ago

    fizix

    \o/ spelilng 4 teh w1n

  • northernlights #18 5 years ago

    'People get excited about demos all the time, where have you been?'

    Yeah i do sometimes as well, just dont want Sony to dress it up to be more than
    it is. Its a another demo when a demo has already been released.

  • Steroyd #19 5 years ago

    Its a another demo when a demo has already been released.

    A demo that isn't just one car on the track, A demo that doesn't rely on time trial to be competitive, A demo that looks to have 16 cars on the same track, a demo that has Online play this is no ordinary demo, it's GT5 Prologue.

    HYPE HYPE HYPE.
    Edited by 1 at 17/07/07 @ 15:14

  • lance.carter #20 5 years ago

    I understand that racing* cars will have damage (maybe in 5, not prologue?)

    *you know, the ones you always use because they handle better...i think that's fine...I'm not really bothered if the 'street spec' cars don't have damage.

    [link url=http://www.hi story-of-racing-games.com
    ]http://www.hi story-of-racing-games.com
    [/link]

  • chronom4n #21 5 years ago

    @SharkVLion, a couple of months back i was watching some GT5 HD footage and some of the footage included inside PD's offices and guess what was on one the workstations? A logitech G25!

    So I think your prayers are gonna be answered!

  • JYM60 #22 5 years ago

    Tbh I'd be happy to pay a small amount for online GT. After all prologue games used to be 15+quid and they had no online.

    At the same time, it better be fucking free. I don't have the patience to wait for SCEE to get their finger out.

  • Hughes. #23 5 years ago

    It had actually be online this time as well. GT4 was supposed to be, and wasn't GTHD was supposed to be and only had online leaderboards and downloadable replays, and GT Mobile never showed up at all. Polyphony are peerless at leveraging hardware, but they can't seem to get to grips with online.

  • Farstarbuck #24 5 years ago

    Can you imagine if these time wasting bastards actually made a GT game you could buy in the shops?

    Whoa, it would be like back in the days where Developers actually made games.....

    Can you IMAGINE?

    And who says Sony Playstation 3 has no games!!!!

  • TripSkyway #25 5 years ago

    Looks pretty damn snazzy.

  • Khanivor #26 5 years ago

    The image you posted disc appears to have a terrible case of the tearing.

  • JediMasterMalik #27 5 years ago

    What? Tearing? Where?

  • Jamaicangmr #28 5 years ago

    I almost came when i first watched the Video an saw all those cars on the track. I can't believe they are able to do this an still maintain an unpresidented level of detail on the cars on environment. Some of those screens look like a damn traffic jam. Then theres the weight transfer which is visable in the video the wind off the cars that affects the grass along the road. The cockpit view nearly made me cum twice such detail such beauty. Then when you see all this running at a smoothe 60fps i had to lay back put down my PS3 controller and smoke a cig. Awww that was good. lol! No am kiddin i dont smoke but you get the general idea.

    If i didnt already have a PS3 i'd most definatly be pickin one up for GT5. This is set to do for the PS3 what GT3 did for the PS2 gave millions the reason they where lookin for to pic one up.

  • andyk #29 5 years ago

    If prologue has online play it wont be free. £3.25 - 4.99 in the UK.

  • Jamaicangmr #30 5 years ago

    Your right but if this has online i'd pay for it. Does it have it by the way i'll go check.