Gran Turismo 6 official: coming ‘holiday 2013’ with over 1200 cars

Gran Turismo 6, the Playstation’s most revered driving game is officially coming for Playstation 3 “Holiday 2013” says series creator Kazunori Yamauchi. There are a bunch of new changes to GT 6: the user interface has been revised, the new game engine will “improve operation and increase the flexibility to expand it with downloadable content,” and as it is with most new games, GT6 will now offer social media sharing options.

Update: the official trailer is live. Watch below.

It’s over 1200

There’s a promised 1200 plus cars in GT 6. Many cars are carried over from GT 5, but with the promise of “several thousand aerodynamic parts and custom wheels,” the imported cars from the older GTs will become practically unrecognizable once the modding community gets their hands on the new tool sets.

Can it get better than this? (screen from GT 5)There’s a total of 33 tracks in GT 6 now, with 7 of these brand new (and still a mystery) locations. One location is known, and Top Gear fans should already be frothing at the mouth: Silverstone Circuit in the UK. Of these 33 locations, there’ll be 71 different layouts so in other words, some of the tracks can be ridden backwards and there’ll be branching routes depending on the selected layout.

GT 6 is keen on blurring realities, and is going to push the concept of breaking the fourth wall by collaborating with Nissan for GT Academy, an online driving school launched in 2008. GT Academy will find the best drivers via the GT 6 demo (released July 2013) and as the website puts it, takes drivers from the Playstation and in a matter of months, turns them into real drivers. Thank goodness there isn’t the same initiative between the US Army and Modern Warfare.

The realism extends from the racetrack to the tyre’s used by in-game cars. Yokohama Rubber and suspension company KW Automotive have added their tyre and suspension kinetic modeling to the physics engine.

This years E3 and Gamescon will drop further GT 6 details and for those who want social media to bother them the second news crops up, they can follow the “#GT6iscoming” twitter hashtag or hang around Gran-turismo.com.

Kazunori Yamauchi, from a special GT 6 event earlier today speaks of his fondness for his creation:

“It is amazing to think that it is 15 years since we first released Gran Turismo. Things have changed a lot since then and now Gran Turismo 6 is a further evolution of my dream.  We’re pleased to deliver GT6 to PlayStation 3 as we have a very loyal community on that platform. However, we have refactored the game to make it very flexible and expandable, with a view to making many future developments. I am very pleased with everything about the new game and the new additions, but the launch will be only the beginning for GT6. The game will continue to develop throughout its life. I already have many ideas for things I want to achieve in the next 15 years of Gran Turismo!”