Determining Gran Turismo 5’s release date

Despite Gran Turismo 5 being complete and currently undergoing manufacturing, we’re still clueless as to when the game will launch. We know a release date will arrive “soon,” but we’re impatient, so we’ve done a little research to try and determine the forthcoming date ourselves.

Let’s start with retailers, then, why don’t we? What are our online sellers listing the game’s date as?

• Amazon (France) – December 8, 2010
• Argos (UK) – December 4, 2010
• Asda (Wal-Mart’s UK subsidiary) – December 3, 2010
• Buy.com – November 30, 2010
• CD Universe – December 7, 2010
• Deep Discount – November 23, 2010
• Fnac (Brazil) – December 9, 2010
• PC Richard & Son – November 30, 2010
• Play-Asia – December 2010
• Sony Style – November 30, 2010
• ShopTo (UK) – December 3, 2010
• SwapGame – November 29, 2010
• Tesco (UK) – December 2010
• Toys “R” Us – November 30, 2010
• Very (UK) – December 3, 2010
• Wal-Mart – December 7, 2010

You may notice we’ve excluded retailers like Amazon and GameStop, who list the game as either December 31, 2010 or January 1, 2011 due to the game’s still unannounced date.

As you can see, the list has a clear separation between three dates: November 29/30, December 3/4 and December 7/8/9. These numbers couldn’t have just come out of thin air, as they’re all much too inline with each other.

To close this off, a recent interview published by Esquire Magazine ends by saying that Gran Turismo 5 is out “in December on PS3.” Furthermore, an advertisement in an unnamed magazine posted by NeoGAF member Spats also says the game is due “at the end of the year 2010.” December is the end of the year, wouldn’t you know?

We can’t tell you for sure when Gran Turismo 5 will release, but all signs look like they’re pointing to an early December release. If I were to provide my opinion, I’d think the December 3/4 range is most accurate. I could be wrong, but even so, it looks like the latest we’d get the game is December 7/8/9.

Hopefully Sony will officially announce the date next week — even more hopefully for Monday. Capisce, Sony?

Source