Gran Turismo 4 Falls Back
Both Japanese and American versions.
The Japanese (SCEI) and American (SCEA) arms of Sony Computer Entertainment have confirmed that the release of Gran Turismo 4 has been pushed back in their territories. The hotly anticipated realistic driving game was previously scheduled for release during early December.
In a statement released on Thursday, SCEA said that the delay was due to the work involved in finishing off the game and ensuring the quality of the final product.
"Natural challenges with finalizing all the key features and localization issues across worldwide territories have led to the difficult choice of pushing back the release date in order to ensure that Gran Turismo 4 lives up to the exacting standards of the 36 million-plus fans worldwide that have purchased previous versions," said the SCEA statement, as reported by GameSpot.
The delay comes shortly after Polyphony Digital, the game's developer, removed all online components due to global infrastructure concerns.
Gran Turismo 4 is now planned for release in Japan on 28 December and sometime during the first quarter of 2005 for North America.
The European arm of Sony (SCEE), on the other hand, confirmed on Friday that the delay in North America and Japan will have no noticeable effect on the release of Gran Turismo 4 in Europe.
"We are still on course to release GT4 for Q1 2005 in Europe," said SCEE's Jennie Kong.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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