But it wasn’t. The game as released on PS3 at the same time gamers have been saving to getting a PS4 system, or trying to buy PS4 games. Bad move by Sony and it’s now being reflected in the UK game sales chart, only coming in at number 8 on the charts and managing only a fifth of GT5 sales.

In first place was Call of Duty: Ghosts, second FIFA 14, third Battlefield 4 and fourth Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Last-gen title Grand Theft Auto V charted above Lego Marvel Superheroes and Just Dance 2014.

Also, Super Mario 3D World is still being stampeded by Knack.

Top 20:

1. CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS
2. FIFA 14
3. BATTLEFIELD 4
4. ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG
5. GRAND THEFT AUTO V
6. LEGO MARVEL SUPER HEROES
7. JUST DANCE 2014
8. GRAN TURISMO 6
9. KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL
10. BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS
11. NEED FOR SPEED: RIVALS
12. SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE
13. MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION
14. WWE 2K14
15. DISNEY INFINITY
16. TOMB RAIDER
17. FOOTBALL MANAGER 2014
18. KNACK
19. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK BETWEEN WORLDS
20. SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD

On next-gen, PS4 titles dropped in their second week, with Killzone: Shadow Fall falling five places to No.9 and Knack slipping five spots to No.18.

On Xbox One, Forza 5 is at No.26, Dead Rising 3 takes 29th and Ryse is at No.34.

The demo features the Silverstone circuit, new to Gran Turismo 6. Once you have proved your skills in the early round you’ll unlock special bonus content.

And now you’re quenched.

Via Sony Entertainment Network.

According to a post on the EU PS Blog, the demo will remain on the PlayStation Store until August 31st, however “if you’re in the GT Academy hunt you have until 11:59pm BST on 28th July 2013 to take a step towards a chance of a real life racing career.”

Preorder Details:

Gran Turismo 6 pre-order bonuses from Amazon include a four-car pack containing the Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C7, the BMW Z4 GT3 and the Nissan Nismo GT-R GT3.

However, pre-ordering will also provide racers with $1 million of in-game credit to spend on additional vehicles or pimping out their cars.

Gran Turismo 6 sees an exclusive release on PS3 holiday 2013.

Although the game will “naturally” come to PS4 according to Gran Turismo 6 creator Kazunori Yamauchi, it’s still a far from being released on said platform.

Said Yamauchi:

I think a PS4 version will appear naturally. We won’t keep you waiting too long, but it won’t be too soon either.

See what I mean? Buy it on PS3.

Thanks, Gematsu.

Elsewhere, GTPlanet got some hands-on time with the game, quench it below:

Go here to see it for yourself. If it’s been taken down, quench it immediately below:

The page reveals a “Products | Gran Turismo® 6″ page, including the custom-crafted title with the registered trademark logo, which will presumably organize future posts on the site about the new game.

Tomorrow is the big day when Sony will be celebrating 15 years of Gran Turismo and in tandem, will reveal the latest game. The only question now is whether the racing sim will be a PS3 exclusive, or a cross-platform, cross-gen title.

Are you excited? You’d better be, because we’ll be covering the entire thing right here on Gamesthirst. Stay plugged in.

Thanks, GTPlanet.

Back in 1998, the European box art for Gran Turismo on PlayStation featured a mysterious supercar covered in cloth. Beneath that cover was the start of the most successful series in PlayStation history; one that would redefine the driving genre with ultrarealistic graphics and handling.

Gran Turismo fused the excitement of arcade racing with the realism of a simulation and boasted nearly 200 cars – far more than any other racing game at the time. Players could test their skills to obtain the racing licences that allowed them to compete in events, and prize money could then be spent on the world’s most luxurious cars plus new parts to tune their performance. This level of detail had never been seen before and soon Gran Turismo was the talk of the real-life racing world as well as the gaming one.

The evolution of a driving experience

Gran Turismo 2 followed two years later, upping the stable of cars to an astonishing 650, thanks to the enthusiasm of the series’ creator, Kazunori Yamauchi. As a connoisseur of cars both classic and new, he helped forge a close bond between developer Polyphony Digital and the car manufacturers themselves.

“Relationships with manufacturers have always been very important,” explains Yamauchi. “And that’s because the cars which we cover in the game are something that is open to society. Gran Turismo is always looking to communicate with the world outside of the games industry.”

PlayStation 2 arrived in Europe in 2000 and the world waited to see how Polyphony would use the new hardware. The answer came a year later with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, a game that would make casual observers do a double take when they found out they were watching a video game rather than a real race.

Speeding up

Before Gran Turismo 4 arrived there was Gran Turismo 4 Prologue, which gave a taste of the next major evolution in the series. Launched in 2005, Gran Turismo 4included more than 700 cars from 80 manufacturers, from the 1886 Daimler Motor Carriage to concept cars looking as far ahead as 2022.

The game also introduced B-Spec mode, allowing players to move away from the driving seat and into the role of race manager. Driving missions were another new addition to Gran Turismo 4, challenging drivers to perfect certain racing skills such as slipstreaming.

Gran Turismo players in Europe started their first online races in 2008 thanks to Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on PlayStation 3. It was the first game in the series to include network features such as online racing, leader boards and GT-TV, a service that allowed players to watch motorsport programmes in-game.

Take it to the track

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue also unearthed a potential star in Lucas Ordoñez. The winner of the inaugural GT Academy – a search for the fastest GT players in Europe – went on to earn his racing licences, compete in the Dubai 24 Hour Endurance Race as his prize and then became a professional racing driver as a result.

GT Academy represents a particularly proud moment for Yamauchi: “It was a dream I had when I first started developing a driving simulator, especially because I was confident that one day it would come true. And when it really came to be in the 2008 GT Academy, it was incredibly exciting.”

Polyphony Digital switched lanes in 2009 with Gran Turismo on PSP. Speeding onto the handheld entertainment system with over 800 cars and 35 tracks, as well as multiplayer racing and player-to-player car trading, the depth and thrills of an authentic driving experience quickly became a fast favourite for gamers on the move.

A new industry standard

The hotly anticipated Gran Turismo 5 arrived on PS3 in November 2010, once more shifting the realism of its cars and tracks into a higher gear. Over 1,000 cars featured, from classic automobiles and family runarounds to stunning supercars like the Bugatti Veyron. Real-life racetracks were painstakingly recreated, with classic circuits such as Germany’s Nürburgring featuring alongside the sort of inner-city tracks that dreams are made of, allowing drivers to race through the streets of Rome, London and Tokyo.

Building on the introduction of online play in its Prologue, the 16 player racing modes featured in Gran Turismo 5 were just the beginning. Special timed and seasonal events provided an ever-growing roster of challenges to enter, while the Course Builder mode allowed players to build their own raceways to share with the online community.

The real world of motorsport was brought ever more into Gran Turismo 5. Racing heroes such as Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel and NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon made cameo appearances, while popular motoring programme Top Gear featured its famous test track. And since its inception in 2008, GT Academy has gone from strength to strength, uncovering six winners across Europe and putting together a team that placed 2nd in the SP3 class at the Dubai 24 Hour Race.

Fifteen years on, it’s clear that Gran Turismo hasn’t just changed the face of driving games, but of the racing industry as whole. So it seems fitting to leave the last words to the man responsible for it all, Kazunori Yamauchi:

“I sort of consider Gran Turismo to be a movement. If the movement that involves GT leaves a mark in history, I think I’d be very happy.”

That’s according to SCEE blog manager Fred Dutton, who wrote about the announcements in the comments section of a blog post on the site. He did not, however, reveal anything about said announcements.

For some reasons unbeknownst to me, Sony love revealing games just before E3, a move I believe takes away from its overall E3 presentations. But maybe the firm has so many games to announce this time around, that it actually plan on showing off some big hitters before its press conference on June 10th. Just maybe the PS4′s reveal will be so all-consuming that the electronics giant can’t wait until then to start showing off its games.

If that’s the case, E3 2013, and the days and weeks leading up to it, should be moments to be reckoned with. Moments to be cherished. Indeed, moments we as gamers live for.

Thanks, TSA.

Back in February Denny told Silicon Republic that PS3 still had a lot of great games incoming, including GT6.

Look at the games coming out on the PlayStation 3 like The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls, GT6 and then on the third-party side of things another fantastic Assassin’s Creed, GTA.

So yeah, the game will be released on PS3 we believe. But how about a launch in tandem on PS4? That’s a sure system selling right there.

Maybe, or maybe not, because the consensus is, and I believe this also, that Gran Turismo 6 should be a PS4 launch title if it’s coming this year… Better yet release the game on both machines…

Denny’s comments got a rebuttal from Sony Europe today, however, one that’s more vague than an iguana in the jungle. You can’t see me, can you? Will Gran Turismo 6 be a PS3 or PS4 game? Will it be both? We have no clue but, SCE promises, we’ll know soon enough.

That’s the hint he gave while speaking to VG247 in a recent interview when he said: “Kazanori seems to have started talking about, so I won’t be surprised to hear more about their plans, our plans, on future Gran Turismo rather soon.”

If there’s another major Gran Turismo game coming soon, then most likely it’ll be released on PS4, and even maybe as a launch title. Think about it, Gran Turismo 6 releasing alongside PS4 at launch… Consoles will fly off shelves.

Share your thoughts.