Top Gear Test Track to appear in Gran Turismo 5

In addition to announcing a collaboration with the BBC Worldwide that will make episodes of Top Gear available through Gran Turismo TV on the PS3, Sony has also revealed that the famed Top Gear test track will also be playable in Gran Turismo 5! Coupled with news that the 40GB PS3 will soon be available in the U.S. for $400 (making it the cheapest Blu-Ray player you can buy), the muscle car of gaming consoles just got a lot harder to resist. How could one resist a black plastic box that plays Blu-Ray discs and lets you imagine yourself as Jeremy Clarkson driving around an abandoned airfield screaming "It's Brilliant!" – all for four hundred bones? We're in, bring on the virtual Stig.

[Source: Joystiq]

PRESS RELEASE:

Gran Turismo® and BBC Worldwide to collaborate on best-selling racing game series Gran Turismo®

Top Gear to provide content for download via GT TV™

Tokyo, October 24 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) and Polyphony Digital, Inc., the creators of the best-selling racing franchise, Gran Turismo®, today announced a collaboration with BBC Worldwide that will allow BBC's Top Gear programme to be downloaded through Gran Turismo TV (GT TV™) on PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™).

GT TV, a dedicated online channel packed with the latest news and content from the motoring world, will launch worldwide on PLAYSTATION®Network in 2008. BBC Worldwide will provide 40 episodes of Top Gear, the award-winning BBC television series about motoring for download.

In addition, the Top Gear Test Track – the track featured each week on the show, where host Jeremy Clarkson and the Top Gear team test the latest cars – will be replicated in Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) on PS3. For the first time in a racing game, players will be able to burn rubber and experience every white knuckle, hairpin turn on the Top Gear Test Track for themselves.

"We at Polyphony are great fans of the world's best motoring programme, Top Gear, so we're delighted to be collaborating with BBC Worldwide to deliver Top Gear content via Gran Turismo," said Kazunori Yamauchi, President, Polyphony Digital, "We're sure that players will be as thrilled as we are when they get the chance to put their own driving skills to the test on the Top Gear Test Track in GT5, as well as enjoying classic episodes of Top Gear via GT TV."

Simon Danker, Director, Digital Media, BBC Worldwide commented, "BBC Top Gear is the world's number one motoring media brand and we're thrilled to make it accessible to Gran Turismo gamers. We continue to explore different avenues to share our content with an expanding audience, and are delighted to participate with Polyphony Digital in the launch of this exciting new opportunity."

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