Gran Turismo 5: Prologue Closing in on 4 Million Copies Sold

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is closing in on 4 million copies sold on the Playstation 3, which will make it one of the best-selling games on the system to date. Perhaps more than any other video game franchise, Gran Turismo is the face of the Playstation brand. The long-running series is developed by the world-renowned, Sony-owned development studio: Polyphony Digital. Sony, who is also responsible for the Playstation brand of video game systems, is the publisher behind the popular series.

While racing games have existed well before Gran Turismo, the series remain unmatched with its realism and incredible attention to detail. Polyphony Digital composes of car enthusiasts and perfectionists at their crafts. As a result, Gran Turismo is about as authentic as a video racing game can get.

The first Gran Turismo was released in 1997 on the Playstation and sold 10.85 million copies worldwide. That makes it the best-selling video game to be released on the Playstation. A sequel would be released on the same system in 1999 and managed to rake in 9.37 million copies sold worldwide.

The Gran Turismo series then moved to the Playstation 2 in 2001 with Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, which then went on to become the best-selling game on the system with 14.89 million copies sold worldwide. Between the release of the third and fourth, numerous expansions (titled Prologue and Concept) for the series was released. Gran Turismo 4 came out in 2004 and has sold 10.76 million copies so far.

When the Playstation 3 was announced, many thought that Gran Turismo 5 will accompany it soon afterwards. However, it has been nearly three years now and an official release date has yet to be announced. To ease the wait for fans, Sony and Polyphony Digital decided to release Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which is basically a preview of the fifth game in the series.

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue was first released in Japan during late 2007. In addition to a Blu-Ray retail release, the game is also available on the Playstation Store of the Playstation 3. Both versions were sold at a budgeted price compared to a regular new game on the same system. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue is now closing in on nearly 4 million copies sold worldwide. Although it may not seem impressive for the series, keep in mind that the title was just a preview of what is to come in the future.

Sony and Polyphony Digital have at least two more releases in the near future: Gran Turismo for the PSP and Gran Turismo 5 for the Playstation 3. You can expect both upcoming games to be multi-million sellers.