'Gran Turismo Sport' gets October 17 as launch date, pre-orders now open

Gran Turismo Sport, the long-awaited racing simulator from Polyphony Digital and Sony, is now scheduled to arrive on October 17 in North America (and a day later in Europe) exclusively on the PlayStation 4.

The game was first announced at the annual Paris Games Week trade show in October 2015. It was originally scheduled to arrive on November 15, 2016, but in August, Polyphony Digital said the game wouldn’t make it out until sometime in 2017.

Company CEO Kazunori Yamauchi noted at the time that they didn’t want to “compromise the experience in any way” by rushing it out the door. Indeed, I’d much rather wait for a proper game than play something early that’s only half finished but perhaps that’s just me (Steam’s Early Access is quite popular, after all).

A closed beta for the seventh entry in the Gran Turismo franchise was held earlier this year.

For what it’s worth, Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport 7 is set to race onto Xbox One and Windows 10 two weeks earlier on October 3.

Gran Turismo Sport is available for pre-order as of writing from both the PlayStation Store and select retailers across the US. Pricing is set at $69.99 for the limited edition version which includes an eight-car starter pack, $1 million in in-game credits, a livery sticker pack, 30 avatars, a chrome racing helmet for your driver profile and a steel book with packaging.

For an additional $10, you can get the digital edition featuring 12 starter cars, $2 million in credits and 60 themed avatars in addition to the chrome racing helmet and livery sticker pack.