Gran Turismo Sport, the highly anticipated latest edition of the PlayStation-exclusive racing franchise, was said to be coming to the PlayStation 4 on Nov. 15. However, it seems that the game is slowing down right before the finish line, as the launch of Gran Turismo Sport will be delayed to 2017.
The announcement was made by Kazunori Yamauchi, the founder and creative director of developer Polyphony Digital, through a post on the official PlayStation blog.
"I am sharing some news today that we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of Gran Turismo Sport to 2017," Yamauchi wrote in the post.
Yamauchi went on to state that there are high expectations for Gran Turismo Sport, both from gamers and from the Polyphony team. From the beginning, the game has been one of the most ambitious projects ever taken up by the developer, as it utilizes the latest technologies such as sound simulations and physics-based rendering. There is also the Scapes Photo Mode, which will further push the boundaries of photorealism.
Polyphony is looking to truly reinvent the racing genre, but as the planned Nov. 15 release date of Gran Turismo Sport drew closer, the developer realized that it needed more time to polish the game. The decision was then made to delay Gran Turismo Sport's release so that the experience that the title will provide will not be compromised by the rush to meet the earlier announced release date.
Gran Turismo Sport will still be making appearances in video game events that will be held around the world, Yamauchi noted. However, a new release date for the title could not yet be confirmed, and the exact reason for the delay was not official revealed.
It has been proposed that the delay was due to Polyphony trying to optimize the game for the PlayStation VR headset, as titles are required to constantly run at more than 60 frames per second to be compatible with the PlayStation 4's virtual reality platform.
In the comments section of the blog post, users expressed their disappointment with the delay of Gran Turismo Sport, especially those that were really looking forward to trying out the game right upon its supposed Nov. 15 release.
One of the major features of the titles is its partnership with the real-world FIA Gran Turismo Championship, which will allow players to participate in the tournament depending on their performance in the game. The title will also have a specific focus on racing etiquette, with a metric system that will pair players with like-minded gamers in online matches.
