PS3 Fanboy

If you hadn't read about this from the live blogging earlier today, then better put on the seatbelts GT fans -- this one is going to be quite a ride. The PlayStation brand and Nissan car manufacturer are giving racing enthusiasts a chance to live out a dream with the introduction of GT Academy. GT Academy is a competition that'll earn two lucky gamers a four-month training program for a real racing license, and using it to race for team Nissan at the January 2009 24-hour endurance race in Dubai. Yes, you heard that right, a chance to race a real car (a Nissan 350Z) in a real competition. That doesn't come often. So, want to know how you can enter?

Well, to get into the Academy you'll have to register via the PSN with your copy of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. You'll be first entering into a special online tourney qualifier before going into real cars for a "series of elimination-based competitions on and off the racetrack" starting at the nation level. This will go on for eight months all across Europe (sorry, not for any other region). You'll be able to sign-up at the end of May when GT Academy goes live. Good luck! Godspeed!

[Via press release]

You thought you'd have to wait until 2008 for some Gran Turismo fun, didn't you? Well you can stop thinking that right now as the latest piece of news to come out of the PlayStation Premiere event in Tokyo is an announcement that GT 5 prologue will be available in Japan in October. What is effectively a demo for Gran Turismo 5 will feature full online support as well as some cars which will be featuring in this year's Tokyo Motor Show.

Whether it will be available in the US or EU in October is up in the air, however it's fairly safe to assume it will be out before the end of the year. There is no word yet on what the price will be for the download, considering the current PSN offering is downloadable for free.