SCEE confirms March 9th date for Gran Turismo 4

Polyphony Digital's long-awaited PS2 exclusive racing title Gran Turismo 4 is set to launch in Europe on March 9th, Sony has today announced - with ten new cars being added to the already impressive line-up in the PAL version.

Originally expected to be one of the biggest PS2 titles of 2004, the game finally slipped out the door on December 28th in Japan, after a four year development process which only reached the finish line after ambitious plans for online play were dropped.

The game features 700 authentically modelled cars and 52 tracks, many of them exact replicas of real life tracks such as the Nurburgring and Le Mans, and the PAL version of the game adds an additional 10 cars which were not present in the Japanese version.

Among those cars are the new Alfa Romeo GT, the Audio Nuvolari Quattro, HPA Motorsports' modified Golf IV R32, the Auto Union V16 Type C race car, the Chaparral 2J race car and the Le Mans winning Peugeot 905.

Sony describes the game as the "largest video game ever made," boasting that it would take 120 days of continuous play to sample every car on every track for just five minutes, while the musical accompaniment ranges from classic rock to drum 'n bass, with even a range of classical tracks to choose from.

The Gran Turismo series has been one of the jewels in Sony Computer Entertainment's crown since it first arrived on the PlayStation, and the franchise has now sold over 36 million units in total.

Microsoft is also planning to launch the Xbox' answer to Gran Turismo early this year, with first-party title Forza Motorsport already generating positive buzz among journalists who have seen the game running.