In-Race Game Saves Coming to Gran Turismo 5

Kazunori Yamauchi confirmed via Twitter early this morning that “game saves during endurance races” are currently “under development” for Gran Turismo 5. Here’s a translation of the tweet kindly provided by our own Shirakawa Akira:

I’m sorry. Game saves during endurances. They are currently under development. RT @andrepeniche: as I simply don’t have 4, 9 or even 24 hours available to stay in front of the TV to do endurance races, as much as I love GT5, unfortunately it’s not possible for me to complete them.

Since our GT5 Feedback Forum launched, this has been the most-wanted feature in the game among GTPlanet’s community, having received over 8,500 votes. It’s great to see that Kazunori and his team at Polyphony Digital are responding the request, though it is not yet clear if this will be implemented in the next immediate game update or sometime later. Stay tuned for more, and thanks to all who sent this in!

GT5 Photomode image by gtone399.

See more articles on , , and .

Comments (158)

  1. ##GreenHell##

    the way GT5 is going forza 4 is looking way better. screw in race saving we want more PREMIUM CARS NOW!!!!!!! I meAn this was suppose to be GT5 not GT4 part 2.

  2. COOLfiat

    I raced a Go-Kart in RL at an indoor track and it was helluva fun! But in GT5, it just seems really boring with no G-Forces and you just don’t get the same feeling of speed, than in RL.. I dunno how you can fix it, but it just bothers me so much! :(

  3. Boing

    I havent been on gt for a few weeks and I only have a spec endurance left but really can’t be @rsed to do it without the save feature as well as work, family, friends, sleeping and general living. Does anyone know if it’s been introduced yet or when? Thanx

  4. Danko

    I’m actually pissed off! This should have been in the game from the START!!! It will be nice to have it in the game now, better late than never, right? What’s worse is that it’s already almost mid March and all they’ve been doing is taking away the trade feature!

  5. Seeker589

    I really want this feature and am very glad to have it coming in a future update.

    If this was the only update coming in the next year – I could see how some would be bitter about the decision – But it isn’t the only update. There will be other updates.

    This addition to the game will allow us to make choices that apply to our respective lives. If you don’t want to use it – don’t.

    To all the haters – change your prospective – you aren’t the only GT5 player on the earth.

  6. Dezmond_vr6

    I dnt see how ppl can complain bout the saved game feature coming in. If u want the game to be so realistic then gt5 should put the 24 hour race together as u and 3 of ur B – spec drivers. There is no race out there were 1 driver races for 24 hours. So u as a human driver does so many hour then at pit stop it B – spec drivers take over untill it comes bak round to u. That would make the game as realistic as it could be and I hope they do actually do this but they won’t. So the only thesable way of sorting this for ppl is the mid race save game feature. So stop complaining bout it. If u have 24 hours or even want to be infront of the game for that long then good luck but I guarantee wen it’s inplace u won’t complain anymore u will use the feature.

  7. dearlybeloved

    I could never understand the 9hr tsukuba endurance race. the track for one thing was way too short and it would have been better to make it a 4 hour race and make the suzuka race a 9hr race. i could never bring myself to do that race in A-spec, only B-spec.

    Still this makes the GT5 life so much more bearable once it comes into effect.

  8. Andrew

    Simulating events that take longer then the average gaming session lasts VS. what constitutes “realism” is timeless. I wouldnt spend 6 hours navigating the kiel canal or completing a trans-pacific flight, I, as many simple set waypoints or Auto-pilot ( or directional vectors coupled with auto-thrust) and fast-forward.

    Since that simply isn’t feasible in this case PD could have gone with far more unrealistic approaches such as allowing the A.I. to take over and simulate through to the next pit stop, allowing FFWD based on sector or lap times or, simply shortenng the event. Instead they choose to leave it intact and accomodate the player while leaving the event relatively unchanged.

  9. Ryan

    Aw excellent…i think it is realistically almost impossible to complete the 24 hour endurance races..i am glad this is going to be featured..WooHoo

    can any one tell me if there is going to be like DLC were it will contain like new models of cars that are out and maybe more cars than can have the racing modification installed?..thanks guys keep up the great work

  10. Hawkmoon

    I think it’s funny all these ‘purists’ complaining that being able to save the long endurance races is wrong. Nobody in RL ever drives in a race for 24 Hours straight, nobody could there are up to 4 drivers in a team for a long endurance race and THEY TAKE TURNS!
    So if you really want to be uber realistic you need about 4 of your buddies to come round you house and take turns at maybe 2 hours stints for the next twenty four hours. Sitting in front of your PS3 for the whole race is just dumb and is really not healthy.

    1. M. Alexander

      I know I don’t have the time to sit in front of the tv and play a game non stop for hours on end so a save feature would be nice just in case something came up ! I could save and resume later ! Being a purist is one thing but being realistic about a video game is something different altogether !

    1. Facepalm

      Just like your trollin. The difference is the game at least started out interesting, and has potential for continued improvement.

  11. Mads

    Great! now i will finally be able to do it! furthermore i will not need to use a FGT or X2010. I can actually do them with a car that will give me a challenge, because it probably won’t be a one off experience to do the 24hour races, so if i loose one time i can just come back with a slightly faster car another time and try again. This is absolutely great news! This can quite possibly make the endurance races fun, not just a boring, endless, PS3 melting, wrist snapping, sweaty, stinky, unpleasant, butt hurting, headache to get though! I just hope that it will actually come. I don’t really dare to trust PD and Kaz, even though i want to so much.

  12. wakojack

    Oh thank god for that! Now i can do endurance races, i used to leave my ps3 on to go out while i was halfway through an endurance race, then i come home to find out my dad has turned my ps3 off :\

    1. Detroit Iron

      Lol, I used to leave my 8bit NES on and go ride my bike, only to come back and find my dad playing Mario Brothers……XD

  13. Squall

    Everthing PD do they seem to just make the game easier… Where are the challenges now? Mess up Suzuka on fgt… Oh nevermind just restart it

    1. Streaker

      @squall Make your own challenges dude. Do you not have enough self control to challenge yourself? You need a video game to put limitations in because you can’t make your own? It seems THAT is too hard for you. You mess up on Suzuka, DON’T restart, NO ONE IS MAKING YOU.

  14. cramerizking

    I haven’t played gran turismo since the ferarri seasonal events a few week ago… Only A-spec I have left to complete is endurance and this would definitely bring me back. I’m crossing my fingers this is not just another bs brush off comment like g27 support.

  15. flight50

    Depending on how its implemented will determine how everyone perceives it. We might be able to save endurance and return later or perhaps we can save endurance, exit to do other races and return to that particular endurance at a later time.

  16. scoop2004

    You have to give it to PD, All the holes people have been picking in GT5 are all being sorted out (only the glitchy shadows will never be resolved)

  17. NFSCARBON1

    I’ve been waiting for this announcement before doing the long endurance races. Hopefully it’ll be in the next update.

    Vinyin in real life endurance racing there is usually more than one driver per car. As B-Spec is now seperate from A-Spec in race saves is the best comprimise.

  18. vinyin

    Good News there……. but in real life the drivers in endurance races can’t save in the middle of the race – that mean gt5 loses realism. :)

    1. BWX

      I call BS on that because in real life drivers have other co-driver to split up driving responsibility for an endurance race.. especially a freaking 24 hr race. I mean damn.. who the hell could or would drive 24hrs in one stint? No one.. now at least we can save the game and come back to it after some rest during an endurance race, just like they do in real life- and without leaving the PS3 paused for insane amount of time.

    2. Ben

      Well, I drove 24 hours straight once, but to be fair, that was Florida to Chicago, in a 1998 Taurus, the cats kept vomiting, the navigator couldn’t read maps, and I just wanted out of the car. Nurburgring might be a bit harder….;)

    3. Codename6

      Yeah because sitting in your room driving a car around Le Mans for 24 hours straight in a video game is so similar to the real thing.

    4. Benny44

      haha I did too in a 1990 Honda Accord with my wife, two cats and no A/C. One of the cats had a crap in the backseat. Fun times. And yeah, vinyin, in real life the driving is split up. Only kids have time to play games for 24 hrs straight.

  19. BWX

    Just got done with 4 hr Nurburg.. Had to leave PS3 paused for almost a whole day during race. I really hate doing that. 9 hrs of Tsukuba sounds like torcher, 4 hr Tsukuba was bad enough. Funny that 4 hrs of Nurburg. was no problem because track is 1000 x better.

  20. robzombie

    FIRST: One of the most fundamental elemnts, that should have been there from the very beginning.

    SECOND: IT WAS ALREADY F***IN AVAILABLE IN GT4!!!!!!!

    I don’t know about the endurros but you could have saved during a champtionship!

  21. TehHo

    Even though it might be a good thing – some of the prestige by comleteting the game to 100% is now gone…

    1. kortandsa

      I don’t know. Same thing is often said in the forums. But:
      What kind of prestige is earned by having your PS3 running at least overnight or so while it is in pause-mode of an endurance-race?
      I pretend that this is the way most of the people are doing these endurance races atm.
      Of course there may be people, that meet with three friends and don’t pause the game and switch the seat during a pitstop or whatsoever. But since it is not necessary to complete a 24 h race…
      Right now it’s just a big waste of energy imo.

  22. UnkleSam

    Now, where did all those ‘hardcore’ players go that were whining like crazy about having in game saves??

    Now that Papa Kaz says it’s ok, they all disappear.

  23. axletramp

    It would be nice if the save would allow you to dip into the longer races now and again to allow you to run other races in between. Other than that I’ll be running it an hour at a time for 24 days… ;o)

    Good news tho’ – Consumer power go, go, GO!!!

    1. Nigel Mansell

      who is gonna spend less than 10 minutes playing GT5 at a time?
      trololol or you’ve just had a lobotomy

  24. kortandsa

    Can’t be said often enough, that it’s most important to be able to save betwenn races of a championship too!

  25. zlays

    is this also means that we’ll be able to save in the middle of the championship (formula gt championship for example)?

  26. pedro

    You little beauty! I’ve been leaving the long races alone, just in the hope that this would be announced.

    good news indeed.

  27. Apollo33

    I’ll be interested to see how many people finish a 24-hour race even after this. At 2-hour intervals, that’s 12 times of starting up GT5 and running the exact same (long) race! No thanks.

  28. RPM

    PEOPLE!!! read this… PD MUSH make a shortcut/link for our in-game replays to be uploaded in the computer and possible to be uploaded via Youtube! For our best lap times or races :)

  29. Limelight788

    Finally, after a month and a half of waiting for this feature (I got the game early this January), the biggest omission is finally being put back.

    This isn’t just for convenience, it’ll reduce the chance that a person dies while playing GT5 since they can actually come back to it later and you don’t have to risk YLOD if you don’t want to stare at the screen for twenty-four hours.

  30. workspeare

    I need this too! Due to family and life commitments, sometimes I only get half an hour to play each night; a 24hr race could take me a month still to complete!

    To all the people who’re saying this update will make the game easy, one month to complete one race is still quite hard core I think … I cant think of any other games I’ve played that come anywhere close to taking a month to complete one “level”.

  31. PAWEL17

    Woohoo, time to open a bottle of champagne…but seriously, it may take this guy some time, but he does deliver, and im expecting him also to deliver the premium car upgrades.

  32. Jump_Ace

    Normally I would think this isn’t needed because you can just do what I did and just leave your PS3 on for about 2 weeks solid. However, if you are nervous about getting a YLOD, I don’t blame you. And/or if you have kids, work and such, it opens the door to let more people work toward completing the game. Next up? Enhanced Replay Functionality please!

    Jerome

  33. LeeC2202

    It’s still the same track, over and over and over etc… again. They should scrap the endurance races altogether, and replace them with some difficult, restricted races instead.

  34. MitsuStigi

    Nice update for me. I don’t have half a day or even 24 hours just for playing video games. ^_^

  35. Protocol

    Hey Jordon, some ideas in the feedback section have already been taken care of, particularly mine, which is the Cars owned # which was taken care of with 1.06.

    So if you could maybe delete that and return the votes? Thanks.

  36. F1lovin

    almost everyone has completed this game so have I and they add a stupid update like this. Why dont they work on more cars or tarcks for people that have not beat the game, which I bet most everyone has. THIS IS GAY!

    1. Uhhhhh

      Yah, why they would take the number one requested feature, and put it in the game, instead of listening to a trolling brat like yourself, is a mystery for the ages….

  37. DarthStig1

    Wonderful! The power of the internet! Let’s hope those engine sounds can be vastly improved too, although unlikely. A victory for the videogames industry.

  38. GTP_Wwrruumm

    The most wanted Think that everyone who plays GT5 want.

    The mainproblem is that not everybody has 24 hours time to play at once the endurro^^

    The other part is that i found the 24h CHalenge in GT4 great but for alone play a 24h Endurance Race is a tortureXDDD

  39. xxGREENHELLxx

    OMG just what I have not been waiting for!!! Are you guys serious that this was the most voted item to be added to Gran Turismo. OK how many endurance races are you gonna use this feature for? Three 9hr Tsukuba and 24hr Le Man & Nurburgring. And if you cant make 4hrs free to do the others than you dont have time to race. I’ll bet three quarters of the people that do endurance races or even play GT5 are on unemployment. So lets vote on something everyone will love like more premium cars.

    1. Nigel Mansell

      just because you’re out of work and on benefits doesn’t mean everyone else is, many PS3 users have JOBS you bum

    2. Nikez

      Haha, I love GT5 but I also have to study and unlike you I don’t even have 4 hours a day to play videogames so I’m kinda waiting for this update. And you’re saying 1/3 who play GT5 are unemployed? God…

    1. Spikeyhairdude

      Yeah boi. Definetly a good choice. I might even consider doin the 24hr races now but might do it after GCSE.

  40. G-Roid

    To all those that say “Its not an Endurance race if you have saves, but I constantly pause and I’m the greatest driver in the world, better than you because I have nothing else to do but spend hours on GT5”

    WWOOOOOOOW I will save the cr@p out of Le Mann.

  41. Lambob

    Will resuming the saved game in progress, resume at that instant?! You know what this means! I can practice the same corner / line / over and over again to my heart’s content, just like in Prince of Persia’s Sands of Time!

  42. Dr B1G

    I don’t understand why they can’t program Bob to help out, after all, changing drivers happens in reality racing

    1. robulus

      A *MUCH* better idea that would actually better reflect real racing, and still keep the risk and excitement.

    2. PAWEL17

      Yes this is a great idea, then it would be you, and 2 other bob’s racing le-mans like in real life!!! Taking breaks etc, like in GT4.

  43. NoonenF1

    Sweet, maybe I will be able to platinum this game after all! It will take me a while though regardless of the save feature or not, but it will be much easier on myself and my PS3!

  44. Waltermydoinhere

    NOW they do it… Lvl 40 in both A and B Spec now.

    Oh well, at least I’ll be able to use it for the Ring 24hrs.

    I completed the Le Mans 24hrs in 2 days solo earlier this week.

  45. Rich

    With as many years, months, days, hours they spent developing they really should have put it right in the freakin’ game off the shelf.. jeez

    That along with the lack of money/credits for winning these endurance fests is a real shame….If I was running the game it would favor the fastest drivers for sure, with much less grinding except for lap time improvement reasons.

    The A spec races all lack regulations, and a decent AI. That should be first and foremost for the next incarnation if they want to make one, along with ending grinding.

  46. KTZ

    and i will be in the possibility to change the wheels of all my standard cars , and front/rear spoilers , extensions , for all cars. Can GTPlanet launch a feedback about that ?

  47. MoLieG

    Now getting to level 35 has a purpose… Le Mans… here I come!!!
    Faith in PD and Kaz restored!!! :D!!!

    1. j8mie

      Couldn’t agree more. I suspect a lot of people have seen how much work it takes to get to level 35+ and have just given up. I’m really looking forward to tackling the Nurburgring 24hr :D

  48. Ferrari

    After this is all done with I will make a new poll about the gifting of cars and how stupid it is to put restrictions on it.

    1. Waltermydoinhere

      No, Now that I’ve completed the Le Mans 24hrs solo, it makes it much less of a substantial accomplishment..

      Hopefully you cannot do anything else GT5 related until you FINISH it. So it basically is just like now, it ties up your GT5 account until you finish it, you just won’t have to leave your PS3 running for extended hours.

    2. OK8

      No you’re not. It’s ironic to read people commenting here “YAH I CAN FINALLY COMPETE IN LE MANZ!!” when instead of 24 hours it’ll be the 5 minutes of Le Mans. It’s not endurance that way. Just a race on the same track you do many times.

    3. robulus

      Nope. I doubt I’d be able to complete the endurance races because of family commitments, but that is what makes them hardcore. That is what means only a small percentage will actually complete this game, and for those people it would be a genuine accomplishment. If I got a chance to do one of the four hour races, I’d be stoked.

      Now Le Manz is like a difficult level on a platform game. If you crash, oh well, just go back to the last save. Its tedious, and removes the risk.

      But I guess there isn’t much risk involved in motor sport. Oh, wait…

    4. Danko

      Are you serious??? This shoud’ve been in the game since the beginning. If you’re willing to play 24hrs straight for a single race, then you seriously need to look over your life. P.S. I wouldn’t keep my PS3 on that long either.

    5. Hoodie1878

      Of course all you purists out there still have the option of not saving the game and playing it straight through anyway.

    6. 2smokes

      Nothing is stopping any of you from sitting in front of your TV’s for 4,9 or 24 hours but some of us can’t. As much as I believe Sony wants me to burn out my PS3 with this game, I’m not going to pause for hours and hours.

    7. daus26

      Risk? I’m willing to bet most of the people that already completed it are using cars that “guarantee” victory anyway. There are probably only about 1% of people playing GT5 that would risk losing by using a fair car and go straight for 24 hours. The reality is that we’re gamers, not real race drivers. If you want to pretend you’re like a real race driver, go ahead. You have the option to do so.

    8. Thank You

      Why is this a disappointment since you could pause the game from the beginning. The difference with a save is it will not require you to leave your PS3 on for days to finish a 24 hour race.

    9. OK8

      To Danko:

      I’m seriously fed up with comments saying “BOOHO U SRSRLY HAVE NO TO LOOK AT UR LYFE IF YOU CAN PLAY 24HOURS STRAIGHT”

      It sounds much worse if you don’t have 24 hours for something you love. You must really enjoy working at your 9-5 and taking care of chores if I’m the one with a weird life if I can choose what I do in my free time.

    10. KFM

      What a great comment, OK8. Telling everyone else that as soon as they move out of their parents house they’re wasting their life. I’m pretty sure if everyone could quit their job and race all day, they would. But the fact is, like your parents, we’re not hired to play games all day. When you’re an adult, if you don’t work, you don’t eat.

      I have two jobs myself, and I don’t regret working extra hours, because that means that my wife and I can live a pretty comfortable life with a decent budget. Just because you personally have 24 hours of free time, doesn’t mean that everyone else doesn’t have any other commitments, like a job.

    11. TakeshiSkunk

      Everyone seems to miss the fact that real enduros are run with multiple drivers. I’m looking forward to a day when I can invite a few friends over and run a 24 hour race in shifts, maybe with people not driving running a grill or something :p

      I would never dream of trying to complete a 24 hour race alone, and I don’t really think we’re expected to. I would much rather see an A-B spec combination implemented for enduros rather than saving.

    12. Rocker

      I don’t understand OK8 point here:
      Even the 6 hours races at LMS or 2 hours races at ALMS or Grand-Am there is more than one driver per car.

      So winning a Le Mans 24hs after straight playing is not real at all!!!

      One thing that I’m planning to do is to share the race with four other friends that play GT5, so we do it in a weekend at my house. We can have a barbecue with our families, sleep, playing with our kids in the swimming pool and always one of us doing the race. The main problem is that the trophy (money, etc) will go to only one PSN account. We should be able to share it also (or at least share the Endurance with our B-Spec drivers).

      But the save feature is an improvement for sure!!!

    13. Rocker

      TakeshiSkunk, I’m at work so I took a bit longer to reply, ’cause while I’m writing I have to stop to do other stuff. You wrote what I was thinking of.

      Do you live in Brazil, near São Paulo? If so we can try sharing a race, my brother also play GT5 and I have other friends also (the main problem is that some play with DualShock 3 while some with DFGT).

  49. ken_b

    Just when I was about to order my box of Depends diapers to allow me to complete an endurance race, salvation!! :-)

    Kaz is a pimp!!! Ty for the updates.

  50. Catalysis

    At last – a really worthwhile enhancement. This will get me playing again. This is such an important feature for anyone other than kids on summer vacation.

    1. Future News

      March 78, 2154 C.G.

      PD Today delayed the long anticipated “In-Race Game Save” feature for what will now be the 348th time.
      PD states that the current delay has been brought about by it’s parent government, New Sony Federation of Sol, due to NSFS’s desire to incorporate new bio-implant controls, as well has adapt GT5 to work with it’s new 7D Holospheres.
      When asked for comment on the expected release of the In-Game Save Feature, Kazunori Yamauchi’s genneticaly engineered great, great, great, great, grandson’s dog, informed us through artificial telepathy, that the feature was 90% finnished, and could be released anytime….

      In related News, NFSF askes all PS23/24 hybrid owners to remember to feed them, after a rash of console attacks, stemming from unfed consoles turning on their owners. New owners are further asked to remember to DNA imprint the waiver before opening console hatch capsules.
      They also maintain this relatively slight issue will in no way effect the yet unreleased release date of GT6, and thank everyone for their co-operration.

      Up next, weather, right after this subliminal ad break….

    1. LoneWanderer

      I’ve done the GV 300km. It’s not too long, but by the time you can do it, you’re bored of the track.

    2. Orangsakit

      Haha i’ve done the Tsukuba 4hrs Mazda. 1st time i played, i accidently click on Restart on 60th laps when i paused the game for some refreshment. Lucky no they hv implement the yes/no when u clix on restart

  51. j8mie

    Yeah baby!!!!! Now that’s what I’m talking about. So long as it’s done right I’ll be able to complete all the A Spec races once this has been applied.

    Go team PD :D

  52. Big Ron

    thank you PD, if it´s true. Then most of the players can start the long endurance races. Hopefully, they include champoinchips, too.

    1. Gamer GT5

      Yea hopefully. I’m sure when GT6 comes out they’ll probably will have the qualifications for the championships like in the previous GTs.

    2. pudge

      Seriously. I gave up on the Formula GT Championship … I got three golds, but then I got the wrong tires on when it was raining on Monza, and I don’t know what the hell I did wrong on Suzuka but I kept crashing, and then I didn’t finish high enough on the other race … I ended up with bronze, but I didn’t have it in me to do all that over again. With saves, I totally will try again.

  53. CarBastard

    YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! NOW I’LL FINALLY DRIVE IN Le Mans!!!!! :D

  54. DocDock

    It’s about time. Still, would have liked the 1 million trading cap to be lifted or made higher but you can’t have everything, eh?

    1. - TOTP -

      Why not a feature that lets you save every 4 hrs instead. Like real 24hr races when the drivers switch? Keeps the “endurance” aspect intact.

      (Better?)

Comments on this post are now closed.

About the Author