Gran Turismo HD Only As Free Demo, Focus Shifting To GT5

Polyphony Digital has finally set the record straight as to the nature of their current GT project, called Gran Turismo HD Concept. After much confusion caused by their E3 2006 demo, we assumed this will be released as a full-fledged game, but that will not happen anymore. Instead, Polyphony are putting the final touches on a free GT HD demo, which will be released online in Japan on December 24, via the PlayStation Store.

Sony's announcement and the message posted by designer Kazunori Yamauchi on the Gran Turismo website today are describing the demo as a work-in-progress (but as final as it gets) version, built on the engine they are currently developing for Gran Turismo 5. It features 10 cars, a single track with two layouts, Time Attack and Drift Trial modes, as well as a Network Ranking feature, presumably allowing players to compare their track times with one another.

So, basically, Gran Turismo HD is being cancelled as a game, and all that will be left is this demo, for the time being only announced for Japan. And it will only be available to download from the PS Store for a limited period.

Once they get this off their hands, the devs from Polyphony will shift all their focus to the real "online car life simulator", Gran Turismo 5. No release date has been set for GT5 yet, but it's being assumed that it will be ready at some point in 2008. Between now and then, Yamauchi says there may be further "concept" demos, as they get closer to reinstating the 46 million-selling GT series to its former glory.

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Electronic Arts Buys Headgate Studios, Now EA Salt Lake

For starters, please indulge this self-quote from early October, when EA closed their DICE Canada studio, shortly after fully acquiring Digital Illusions: "Shutting down a measly DICE satellite may not be something unusual for Electronic Arts anymore. But what's really scary is just how fast they're operating nowdays. Good luck to their next victim!". Well, I really hate making the correlation, but the fact is that Electronic Arts has just announced that they bought another studio, which - if history has taught us anything - means that another closure is sure to follow pretty soon...

But before that happens, let's stick to the point. From EA's latest press release, we learn that the team at Utah-based developer Headgate Studios has joined Electronic Arts, and from this day forward the studio shall be konwn EA Salk Lake. According to the agreement, the development team will remain in Bountiful, Utah and will continue to work in partnership with the EA development teams in California and Florida, focusing mainly on development for the Nintendo Wii.

The partnership between the two companies goes back to 2000, when Headgate began developing and porting sports franchises such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Madden NFL, and more recently did the PC version of The Godfather. So we can expect the "08" EA Sports iterations to be fully customized for the Wii remote - which just so happens to make a perfect controller for golf games.

Commenting on the Evil Avatar forums, a 3D-Concept Artist from Headgate said this is great news for his studio, and once they're done with their current projects, they will begin porting EA games to the Wii, and do some original titles as well.

"Once we get all our current titles done, we'll start doing all of the Wii games.

That means ports as well as original stuff... but of course, that's on paper, who knows how it will actually happen or how much the studio grows (we're 60 people right now).

I personally think this is great news for Headgate, we were only doing EA franchises lately and this gives us a lot more stability to do whatever the hell we want, plus the management stays the same."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Not that we care, really.

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Monday is going to be a special day for Halo fans. First of all, December 4 will mark the beginning of the first registrations phase for the Halo 3 beta, which is expected to open its doors in the Spring of 2007. And also during that day, there will be a TV commercial for Bungie's upcoming game, in the form of a CG animation created by a Hollywood FX studio called Digital Domain. This, of course, means that there will be no actual gameplay footage shown, just some cinematic that will look... something like the latest screenshot we added in our Halo 3 gallery (which is a frame from said commercial).

After being aired on TV, during Monday Night Football on ESPN, the 60 second trailer will be made available in HD resolution on Xbox Live Marketplace (Tuesday, December 5) and, most probably, on regular downloads websites (and locally) soon afterwards.

But getting back on topic, you will be able to register for the Halo 3 public beta, from Monday, on the Halo3.com website. However, it's still unclear right now if this first phase will be open to both Americans and Europeans: the folks from Kotaku are clearly stating that only North-Americans will be able to sign-up on December 4, while IGN are favoring the old continent as well.

Another pacifying report comes from 1UP, who got in touch with Microsoft and learned that the fans will have "numerous" other occasions to get into the beta, as next week's registrations will only be the first such opportunity.

UPDATE: The Bungie website was updated with the following mention: "Don't panic. The Halo 3 Beta will be available in the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world."

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