Gran Turismo 5 - On this day

The Gran Turismo car series was a constant of Sony’s PlayStation consoles. In the first seven years of that series, four games were released, and then from 2004 to 2010, there was a lull. We had a kind of demo version (GT HD Concept, GT5 Prologue) at the time, but fans were eagerly awaiting Gran Turismo's entry into the HD graphics era.

The jump from the first to the second generation PlayStation consoles was huge for the Gran Turismo 3 graphics, and the PS3 console hardware promised even more features. The long wait for the fifth part of Gran Turismo was not helped by the rise of the competitive series Forza Motorsport, which in some respects was more advanced than the former king. The expectations from Gran Turismo 5 were huge.

When the game finally appeared on this day 11 years ago, it brought an enviable amount of content and novelty. For the first time in the series, a car damage model was introduced, and some tracks also received changing weather conditions. For the first time in history, GT had licensed WRC, NASCAR, and Super GT competitions. You could create your paths using the editor. And finally - the game had online racing, i.e. an online component.

The Gran Turismo 5 had an unimaginable 1,069 vehicles at the time. For the first time in the series, vehicles such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti appeared on that list. Moreover, this was the first GT to have licensed Formula 1 cars. And the first hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight could be driven in the game even then.

Admittedly, the record number of cars was also a bit controversial. The Gran Turismo 5 was the first GT in which vehicles were divided into premium and standard categories. The premium vehicles were modeled in detail, with authentic sound, had a damaged model and a full view from the driver’s cab. On the other hand, standard vehicles did not have such benefits. The controversial part was that only about 200 vehicles in the game were in the Premium category, while the rest were of the lower class. After six years of waiting for the game, it was a bit disappointing.

A positive aspect of the Gran Turismo 5 and its vehicles was the subsequent support. This was the first GT to receive additional vehicles for a full three years after its release. Support for the online component, which was shut down in mid-2014, took about that long.

Although some parts of Gran Turismo 5 were not at the level of perfection as expected, the game was extremely successful. By 2013, more than 10 million copies of this game had been sold, which was the best result of a single game for the PS3 console until the arrival of Grand Theft Car 5. In the end, GT5 remained the second best-selling game for PS3 with 11.95 million copies. According to Guinness statistics from 2015, Gran Turismo 5 was remembered as the racing game that stayed on the list of best-selling games for the longest time.