Race driver car sim stalls as release date bumps to 2017

Itching to add a FIA-accredited virtual race licence to your resume? The wait for one just became longer.

GRAN Turismo Sport – one of the most anticipated driving simulators to come out this year – won’t come out in November. In a surprise announcement, Kazunori Yamauchi, the chief executive of the game’s developer Polyphony Digital, says it will now delay the sim’s release until 2017.

The delay also means that budding sim racers will have to put off their chance to gain FIA accreditation as a virtual pilot via two officially sanctioned virtual race series.

“In combining these features with a new Sport mode, we are offering a competitive gaming experience to truly reinvent what it means to be a racing game. We’ve been excited and humbled by the response each time we’ve shared new gameplay with everyone.

“While we cannot confirm a new release date at this time, we are more committed than ever to making GT Sport the best Gran Turismo game to date.”

The game’s maker had planned to start rolling out a beta of the game ahead of a full launch in the next month, and had even rolled out a slick-looking trailer to promote the game.