Gran Turismo 7 Release Date, Delay News: 2017 Launch Date More Likely; Graphics, Sound Enhancements for PS4 Delaying Release

It's been a long wait since the announcement of Gran Turismo 7 (GT7) in 2013.

However, there are reports that the currently believed release dates of either 2015 or 2016 might not even be accurate, and that 2017 might be the more probable release window.

Gran Turismo (GT), Italian for "Grand Tourer" or "Grand Touring," is a popular and critically acclaimed series of racing video games developed by Polyphony Digital, exclusively for the PlayStation systems. The games are intended to simulate the appearance and performance of a large selection of vehicles, nearly all which are licensed reproductions of real-life automobiles. The game debuted in December 1997. Since then over 70 million units have been sold worldwide for the PlayStations, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, making it the highest selling video game franchise under the PlayStation brand.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (and translated by Polygon), series creator Kazunori Yamauchi mentioned that GT7 would be coming to the PlayStation 4 console "in a year or two [from 2013]."

In another interview with GamesTM magazine, Yamauchi confirmed a release for GT7 sometime in 2015/2016. He also spoke about how much more powerful the game will be on PS4 and how much easier it is to develop on the new console as compared to GT6 on the PS3.

Part of the reason for the long development time is the promise to give fans improved graphics and sounds fit for Sony's PlayStation 4 console. According to Yamauchi, the high quality of the data being rendered on PS4 will make an incredible difference.

Expectations from GT7 are quite high as GT6 bagged a Gold Prize at the PlayStation Awards in Tokyo. Quality translates to sales. As such developers are aiming for a high quality GT7 that would enjoy big sales.

With the upcoming release of GT7 in PlayStation 4, PlayStation is expected to reclaim its dominance in racing games which it held for many years until the release of "Driveclub" in October last year.

While waiting for the release of GT7, avid gamers of GT6 might have DLC packs arriving soon—these may include cars-monthly updated, such as Ayrton Senna's Loyus 97T F1 car and the 2012 Toyota TS030 Hybrid LMP1 racer.