Gran Turismo 5 races into the PlayStation store and retail stores this April

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue isn’t the first time Polyphony Digital released a precursor to a Gran Turismo game, but this is the first time Sony is releasing one in North America. In the past we missed out on Gran Turismo 4 Prologue and Gran Turismo Concept on the PlayStation 2. The latter was particularly interesting because it included a bunch of concept cars straight from the Tokyo Motor Show.

Perhaps, Sony had a change of heart with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue? Or did a drought of PlayStation 3 exclusives contribute to the decision? Either way, we're getting  Gran Turismo 5 Prologue includes and it includes a first for the Gran Turismo series, online races. I suppose, if Sony opted not to release Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in North America gamers could always pull it off another region’s PlayStation Store, but we won’t have to worry about using any workarounds when it debuts on April 17. Sony also has a retail Blu-ray version with an extra video feature called “Beyond the Apex” scheduled to come out simultaneously for the same $39.99 price point. In comparison, Japan had to pay an extra 5,000 yen for a physical copy of the game.