PS3 Fanboy

For those of you racing fans who've been looking around the world of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue for your favorite tracks and walking away depressed, it seems a new dowloadable expansion may coming (it isn't said to be an expansion, but releasing another full demo/game seems silly). The expansion seems to be labeled as SPEC II and will have the race track "Nurburgring" for download. It sounds as difficult as it looks. Lots of small, tight turns to master. PS3Forums has a few off-screen shots as well as several different links lending credibility to the claim. Keeps your eyes and ears open for more info -- we'll keep ours ready as well.

North American sales for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue pale in comparison to Europe's numbers; however, SCEA is still very much pleased with the results. NPD numbers showed that 224,000 copies have sold at US retailers, making the game the sixth best selling game overall and the second best selling PS3 title for April.

Considering that GT5 Prologue marked the first time for a pre-full game Prologue title to hit North America, the game actually sold well. Also, the statistics have yet to take into account sales from the PSN version, so the numbers could possibly be exponentially higher. For those of you who just can't get enough number crunching, here are some other interesting stats: Polyphony Digital's website reports that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has shipped 550,000 units in North America, 300,000 in Asia/Japan, and a massive 1,380,000 in Europe.

Sony also expects that Gran Turismo 5 will do even better. "I don't think that these NPD sales fully represent the true anticipation for Gran Turismo 5," said Stephanie Yoshimoto, a SCEA senior product marketing manager. "GT5 will have a much larger overall scope that will inherently attract a larger, mass market audience."

Don't be put off by the fact that Sony America announced their release information for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Europe have come through today and confirmed the European release date and price. With just over two weeks to go, the wait is almost over - Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be available on Blu-ray on March 26th (or, for some reason, March 28th in the UK) and on the PlayStation Store on March 27th. Price of admission is a very reasonable £24.99 or €39.99.

A hardware bundle will also be released at the same time containing a 40GB PS3, SIXAXIS controller and a copy of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for £299 or €399. Expect this price to be dropped slightly by retailers. The European release of the game will feature all the extras found in the American version, including split-screen multiplayer. Considering the amount of content in the game, not to mention features such as Gran Turismo TV and Gran Turismo Museum, this will be a must-buy bargain for any fan of racing games.

*Update*
According to IGN, Sony has stated that the 45 Euro price is 'categorically incorrect' and that cost has not been decided yet.

The Netherlands based site PS3 Only have received pricing information from Sony in regards to the Blu-ray version of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. According to the site, Sony has stated that the retail version of GT5 Prologue will run a slightly-expensive 45 Euros (about $60 American).

Though it might seem like a lot of money for a glorified demo, Sony was quick to point out that GT5 Prologue really is a full game, with over three dozen cars, five tracks and online play with up to 16 people. Also just announced was a cool new feature called GT TV, where gamers can download auto-enthusiast TV programs along the lines of Top Gear. According to PS3 Only, the programs will also be tailored for different regions -- so Japanese, American, and European gamers will all get localized content.

The addition of GT TV definitely adds some value to GT5 Prologue, but while it clearly has way more gameplay than GT HD it will be curious to see if gamers are willing to drop that much money on what amounts to GT5-lite. Gran Turismo fans are pretty hardcore though, so it's hard to tell.

[Via N4G]