GT5 Prologue misses PSN launch date

By Tom Bramwell Published 28 March, 2008

Hopefully still in shops today.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue appears to have missed its March 27th PlayStation Network launch date, with the game unavailable from Sony's PAL store at the time of writing.

Speculation grew as the day wore on with no new files that Sony was holding off until it was possible to include the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer - the embargo on that was 10pm - but as the hour came and went still the storefront remained unchanged.

In fact, a big fat nothing has gone up on PSN overnight, despite us staying up until our eyes bled, and Sony hasn't said anything to the press yet, or on the European PS3 forums, where people are not very impressed.

GT5 Prologue had been due to launch on PSN yesterday and should be out on Blu-ray today in Europe. Priced GBP 24.99, it has 71 cars and six tracks, but offers many hours of awesomeness thanks to an extensive single-player mode and new Euro-specific Quick Tune feature that allows you to extend the life of the game by customising car settings to power past the opposition.

You can read much more about all that, and the game's promised online options and swanky visuals, in our Gran Turismo 5 Prologue PAL review, and hopefully pick it up on Blu-ray today - saving yourself a nearly 2GB download and potentially a couple of quid if you shop around.

Elsewhere on the PS3 Store this week we were promised a UEFA Euro 2008 demo, with EA oblivious to any kind of delay to the PSN schedule when we spoke to them on Thursday afternoon.

We're chasing Sony for an explanation and hope to have one later this morning.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • 3william56 #1 4 years ago

    OMG! $ony lies! etc. etc. etc.

    Patience, children. It's a virtue.

  • spookyzombie #2 4 years ago

    It is for sale in shops though. Blockbuster are doing it for £19.99.

  • Steroyd #3 4 years ago

    Yeah but PSN updates are on a Thursday and it was Thursday 8 hours ago and no update at all wtf Sony!?

    Need a frikken Euro blog for this type of crap.

  • Milk #4 4 years ago

    oh dear . . .

  • Peew971 #5 4 years ago

    Read: Go buy it on Blu-Ray! :)

  • phatb0y #6 4 years ago

    SCEE. No explanation needed.

    Unless anyone knows the collective noun for assclowns?

  • Agent_Llama #7 4 years ago

    An anus of assclowns?

  • Yaster #8 4 years ago

    £24.99?

    Isn't the BD version £18 in ASDA?

  • Darren #9 4 years ago

    Again the European PSN Store disappoints... go to the US one and they have the GTA IV trailer, a Metal Gear Solid 4 wallpaper and a free Unreal Tournament III map pack for download among other things... :/

  • Darren #10 4 years ago

    P.S. You'd be mad to download the game anyway because (a) it's no cheaper than buying it in the shops and it's more expensive than buying it online; and (b) the disc version requires installing anyway and includes all the movie files so you don't have anything extra to download (other than the large spec II patch obviously).

  • Carlo #11 4 years ago

    selfpwned.

  • Steroyd #12 4 years ago

    The reason why the PSN version is no cheaper than retail, is because those asshat retailers complained and sent copies of Warhawk back, moaning ninnies.

  • mikeck #13 4 years ago

    I'm still laughing from an 'anus of assclowns' hehe

  • Yaster #14 4 years ago

    Another advantage with buying the disc version is that you can return it after being inevitably disappointed

  • Beano #15 4 years ago

    I bought the BD version... but where's the making-of video which should be on the disk?

    It's not to be found in GTTV or anywhere else...

  • betahoven #16 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:36:16 17-12-2011

  • Altrezia #17 4 years ago

    S'alright, my copy was posted yesterday :)

  • Miths #18 4 years ago

    "... and hopefully pick it up on Blu-ray today - saving yourself a nearly 2GB download and potentially a couple of quid if you shop around."

    But you end up with a 6 GB harddisk install instead of 2 (unless you feel the need to download the video files as well).
    I bought the disc version yesterday and I was rather surprised, to say the least, when I saw the size of the installed data file. What the hell are those extra 4 GB for? Video files? Yeah, because surely it would be silly to just play those from that round, shiny Blu-ray thingie.

    With those huge mandatory installs a number of PS3 games require, the 40 GB PS3 model is starting to look like a bit of a joke. I'm down to 10 GB free now - and that's just games, no video etc., which I stream from my PC (or use an external USB disk).
    Well, I guess upgrading the disk would still be cheaper than the price Sony might come up with for a 120+ GB PS3 model :).

  • X201 #19 4 years ago

    @Beano
    SCEE have been quiet on that and I suspected that it was a US only job. Looks like I was right. :(

  • Widge #20 4 years ago

    LOL! Ok who handed PSN over to BA/BAA?
    Bit of a balls up. I was all ready to DL this (even after I promised that I'd never succumb to a Prologue game, managed to resist GT4p) after all my non-anticipation of recent months. THEN I find out about the £25 price, now that is a bit crap really. If it is down to moaning retailers then oh well, but my £ goes to the cheapest source I'm afraid, so works a treat. Probably not going to consider this for a bit now anyway, money is a bit scarce, I've got far too much in the way in game-age to finish off, and I'll probably want to have a large section of them out of the way for the releases to come. Once I'm through those, I'll get fully fledged GT5. Also didn't like the mention in the review of grinding for cars. Not a pleasure if you ask me.

    As mentioned in post #2 though, Patience, I'm not exactly boohooing. Still, I'm at home this morning so I'll keep an eye out for people on here, if I could access wifi at work, I'd PSP Remote watch like some sort of loon this afternoon!

  • Runtime #21 4 years ago

    My BD copy arrived yesterday. Was not impressed with having to install stuff to the HDD before playing. Then on top of that there is a patch to download and install. Took me the best part of 45 minutes before I could actually race.
    I could have declined the patch i suppose.

    On top of all this i was not really overwhelmed with the game itself.

  • oreillymj #22 4 years ago

    Bricks & Mortar retailers in Europe certainly have nothing to fear from SCEE's online distribution.

    So far the weekly updates this year have been dreadful and the first week with some big releases planned get's screwed up.

    About the only thing that Sony's DLC has in it's favour is that, should your console crap out on you, you can at least re-download everything you've bought unlike MS's DRM which swallows everything you've purchased when you eventually get a RROD.

  • Miths #23 4 years ago

    "On top of all this i was not really overwhelmed with the game itself."

    I wasn't either the first night (I actually got it Wednesday, not yesterday as I mistakenly said in my last post) - boring cars for the first hour or two, somewhat bland track graphics (actually very bland in my opinion, even if the underlying graphics tech might be impressive).

    Last night I started to enjoy it more though - partly because I made it to better cars (still got a whole lot of money to earn before I can get my hands on the Ferraris, some of Audis etc., best I have now is the Nissan GT-R), but also because I'm truly starting to enjoy the driving model.
    I still don't think it's a true sim in the way PC games like GTR2, LFS etc. qualify for that label, but with all aids off I genuinely like the feel - much more so than Forza 2, and to a degree PGR4, but the latter is so different that a comparion is probably somewhat useless.
    Now if only I could find a way to hook up my Logitech G25 in front of my TV so I didn't have to use a pad. Not going to be easy with that damn low glass table I've got in front of my chair :).

    I do have a feeling that the very limited number of tracks (three, arguably four of them in bland surroundings) will soon make me feel that this really just is a glorified demo rather than a game in itself. If it wasn't for all those nifty high end cars requiring cash to unlock, I imagine I would run out of steam before the weekend is over.
    Hopefully online play will keep it interesting for a bit longer.

  • dominalien #24 4 years ago

    And people thought some of the other PSN updates were poor.

  • Widge #25 4 years ago

    whoa whoa, lets not fall down the path of inviting "where is your GT5 update?" vs "you enjoying your RROD?" showdowns. Its all a bit futile really.

    So far kudos for no generic slagdowns in here by "the other side" (so to speak! there are no sides....)

  • Machetazo #26 4 years ago

    £25, on PSN - That's part of Sony's patented Comedy Hour, right? (gotta get in quick for seats near the front)
    NO WAY am I paying retail prices on PSN! :o
    (and what's the point in them offering the choice in the first place, if it's such a stinking, insulting option?)
    Accepting that really would be just leaning over a barrel to pick up a penny, ffs.

    "And people thought some of the other PSN updates were poor."

    For at least the past two weeks, judging by respondents on playstation.blog, so were the ones in the US! @_@
    Edited by 1 at 28/03/08 @ 10:05

  • GamesConnoisseur #27 4 years ago

    Yes great to see no childish 'PS3lol' and 'RROD' so far! But this is just odd exception but would love it if it become the norm that PS3/X360 apologists accepts either console are there to stay and have worthy merits.

    I have to say that yesterday GT5P non show PLUS empty European store compared to other regions deserve an explanation, at least 'oh that was intended as did not have anything for you this week sorry' and i was one of the prat who was gladhappy to check in every hour or so and last did at 11 45 pm last night and when threespeech website counted down to midnight and presto...nothing.

    Embarrasing I have to say, however agree with Darren that there is no point at all to download as you will download patch anyway best get BD. I m off to get it as and dont want to waste another minute... WAITING!

  • Darren #28 4 years ago

    @Miths - You make a very good point about forced installs, they do suck, and the alarming thing is they seem to increasing in number. The PS3 is a console not a PC and therefore installs should ALWAYS be *optional* not compulsory. Sure installing the game cuts the loading times down to 5 seconds but it would still have been nice to have had the option to play the game from the disc with longer loading times anyway. And the extra 4 GB seems to be for the videos files if the downloaded version is less than 2 GB so why the f**k can't it be played from the disc itself; the disc needs to be in the drive to play that version of the game anyway!!! Are we soon going to have to install our BD movies on the HDD too?!? ;)

    Sony = Idiots at times!

  • DonnieDarko333 #29 4 years ago

    The European PSN has some great games on it, but overall is a car-crash! Weekly updates are normally rubbish, we're waiting months for games America have had since autumn last year! It's a mess!

    Thankfully i purchased the Blu-Ray version of GT5P and it's amazing, thankfully worth the wait then!

  • monkie_king #30 4 years ago

    Actually, "SCEE" is the collective noun for assclowns.

  • Darren #31 4 years ago

    CVG are reporting that GT5P will not appear on the PSN Store until Saturday "at the earliest". So much for the advantages of having a downloadable version... remind me again what the advantages are exactly because I can't think of one at the moment...

  • systems #32 4 years ago

    @Darren
    The advantages of downloadable content are:

    1. Cheaper than retail as digital distribution
    2. Faster access as no need to wait for store delivery
    3. No need to have those clumsy shiny discs lying around when you would use up that massive 40GB of disc space.
    4. The game can be pre-patched without another update.

    Oh, I see your point now. ;)

  • KreyAtiv #33 4 years ago

    Last Thursday it took ages for the PSN to update. Usually it's updated around midday but no sign of it. Was keen to get PAIN and came back around 6pm to see that the store was finally updated with PAIN.
    But yesterday (Thursday) was a complete disappointment. I was a bit unsure whether to get GT5 Prologue or not, wasn't really too fussed with the selection of cars they had on offer but was waiting to see what price it was in €'s so I could price around.
    But to not update it at all, that just adds insult to all the previous injuries caused by the PSN.
    Really defeats the purpose of it being the same price as the Blu-Ray version and with such a big file to download even without the videos and now finding out that you've to install the files even with the Blu-Ray which will take up more space I really think they messed this one up.

  • optimusprym8 #34 4 years ago

    Glad I have a 60Gb version, was going to get the PSN version to save disc swapping but BT decided to start moving my landline last night so no tinterweb anyway, not so gutted it didn't appear now. But the price sucks but not as much as the power that retail has over publishers ergo forcing such prices. I would happily forgo a manual, disc and box for a cheaper price especially when online retailers drop the price anyway. Sony should match the lowest online price not high street retail price

  • Machetazo #35 4 years ago

    It's worth bearing in mind that the information CVG is publishing, comes from a UK Playstation forum member phoning Sony themselves. So, I wouldn't class it as official.

  • oreillymj #36 4 years ago

    The main reason publishers want to move to electronic distribution is that ....

    1) It makes piracy more difficult if the DRM on the HDD is strong enough, making console even more profitable then PC's.
    2) It kills the 2nd hand market, meaning that anyone who wants to play a game must pay full whack, with no retailer discounts.

    BTW- It's kinda strange that games on consoles (with much lower piracy rates) cost a lot more then the same game on PC. And developers publishers still talk about piracy pushing up prices.

  • Widge #37 4 years ago

    RE: Downloads. I like having games just sitting on the HDD. Its great to be able to turn on and just sift through a list and have a blast. If I'm in a quick game mood, I can slap something like Super Stardust on, if I want to spend a bit more time, then its Warhawk.

    Oh and killing the 2nd hand market, that could be another reason why retailers get in a strop. The console 2nd hand market is a goldmine for them. 100% of the proceeds go nicely into their pockets. You don't seem them getting in a fuss about PC downloads though, although I'm guessing thats because of the lack of a PC 2nd hand market., the games devalue so much over time.

  • edje #38 4 years ago

    Correction: There is the GT5P TV ad that went up yesterday (march 27). But it's not in Latest, it's hidden in the game trailers.

  • monkie_king #39 4 years ago

    "It's kinda strange that games on consoles (with much lower piracy rates) cost a lot more then the same game on PC."

    It's actually not, since you're subsidising the cost to the platform holder of the hardware, R&D, support, marketing, QA, online infrastructure etc. It's an entirely different model to PC game publishing.

    And the "piracy is killing PC gaming" thing is largely a canard anyway. Most pirates wouldn't buy the game anyway, if they couldn't copy it. Pirate copies don't represent lost sales any more than soup kitchens undermine restaurant profits.

  • Machiavellian #40 4 years ago

    Monkie_King I will definitely challenge the most pirates will not purchase a game theory. People pirate on the PC more so then consoles not because they would not have purchase the game if there was no other means but because Piracy is so easy on the PC and they can do it without any risk.

    If there was no piracy, you can believe there would be double or triple the sales for a lot of titles and the big name titles would see even better. Is piracy killing PC gaming, probably not but its not something to dismiss and it does play a huge role.

    The other argument where people would state that people who pirate would not purchase the game because they do not have enough money is also bunk. Back in the day when piracy was difficult people actually SAVED up money to purchase a game. Because Piracy makes getting a game only a few clicks on the PC, there is no incentive to save and purchase what you want.
    Edited by 1 at 28/03/08 @ 12:37

  • oreillymj #41 4 years ago

    BTW - just want to make it clear, I did not say that piracy is killing PC gaming, but publishers do put out that sort of vibe. I got my ass flamed off for suggesting that consoles are killing off PC gaming here previously.

    Without totally hi-jacking this thread, I find it incredible that IW produces patches and maps for COD4 on PC ahead of the consoles when they're own stat's tell them that pirate copies make up something like 66% of the online games being played. Would have thought that revenue from the XBox360/PS3 version of this title is way ahead of PC revenue, so they should take priority.


    Anyway to get back of topic, how are the boys at SCEE coming along at putting a link to a 1gb file onto a web-page?