Site Announcements

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnn41vo7A9k

Over the past few weeks, users in our forums have been organizing a digital Gran Turismo magazine, made up entirely of user-generated articles and content. Now, all of their hard work has finally come together in the first issue of GTlife, and I think any GT fan will find it an enjoyable read. Topics range from car comparisons, car reviews, tuning tips, “fan fiction”, community interviews, and more. It’s available for free on issuu.com, or you can download the full PDF file (15.1 MB) from GTPlanet’s servers.

Each month, nearly half a million of you visit GTPlanet from a mobile device. Now, it’s easier than ever to stay on top of the world of Gran Turismo using the GTPlanet App on your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or Android smartphone! Better yet, it’s completely free for everyone.

If you’ve been following the online reviews and chatter surrounding Gran Turismo 5 you know how contentious most of it has been. Between the “fanboys”, the trolls, and the rest of us, it’s very difficult to actually see what most people really think about the game or how it could be improved. It’s even more difficult to pass along your feedback to Sony Computer Entertainment or Polyphony Digital, and – unless they ask you directly for your opinions- your thoughts may just get lost in the noise.

Ten years ago, GTPlanet first made its appearance on the web. Since that time, it’s grown to a scale far beyond what I could have ever imagined and, in the process, has made a profound influence on my life’s work and interests. Though the site remains a one-man show behind the scenes, I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has played a role in the success of this community over the years.

The GTPlanet Forums are home to some incredible real-world photographic talent. Last year, we tapped in to that talent by putting together a calendar filled with some of the best automotive shots our members have taken throughout the year. Today, I’m proud to unveil GTPlanet’s official 2011 Calendar, available now for $25. I am even more proud to announce that all proceeds will be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, funding private research, patient support, and raising awareness of this horrible disease.

I’m very excited to announce that I will be personally attending the Gran Turismo 5 Launch Party in Madrid, Spain, this Wednesday, November 24th! Sony has been keeping very close wraps on what’s in store for the event, but it’s definitely going to be very big, and very special… It’s more than just a party, and should be a real treat for all automotive enthusiasts and the general public – be sure and stop by if you’re in the area.

GT fans, get ready! The start of GamesCom 2010 is now only hours away, and I’m very excited to announce GTPlanet’s big plans for the show. We’re teaming up with InsideSimRacing.tv to bring you unprecedented, in-depth coverage of all the new Gran Turismo 5 information about to be released. Here’s a preview of everything that’s about to go down over the next few days:

With the announcements and interviews expected to begin pouring out of E3 2010 on Tuesday, next week could be the most exciting ever for GT fans around the world. To kick things off, I’m proud to launch the first major revision to GTPlanet in more than two years. Over the past 6 months, I’ve personally crafted this custom set of templates for our news blog, forum, and guides, and I hope you’re as happy with the finished product as I am. As you look around, watch for these new features on the blog:

The 2010 racing season is kicking off around the world, and GTPlanet is proud to support the first GT Academy winner Lucas Ordoñez in this year’s GT4 European Cup and TKi Motorsport, competing in the NASA Pro Racing Northeast Series here in the United States. Both are off to a great start, with TKi having scored a podium finish in their first race. I’ll be sharing occasional updates about their progress, or you can easily monitor their updates with Facebook or Twitter at the links below. Good luck, guys!

If you’ve spent any time in our forums, you’re probably aware of our vibrant community of talented photographers with a knack for shooting all things automotive. Today, we’re proud to showcase their very best work in the first-annual GTPlanet Automotive Calendar – a compendium of beautiful images of exotic cars and motor sport events from all over the world. It’s the best of the best from our community, and you can order it for yourself right here. Each photographer has graciously donated their photographs, ensuring that 100% of proceeds from the calendar go towards the Alzheimer’s Association, as we carry on our proud tradition of supporting the organization each year during the Christmas season.

All eyes of the gaming world are on Cologne, Germany, as Sony holds a massive three-hour long press conference today.  The star of the show is widely rumored to be a new “PS3 Slim”, designed to replace the PlayStation 3 at a lower price point to drive sales.  However, three hours is a terribly long time to talk about just one new device, and we’ve heard that Gran Turismo 5 news will also be coming out of the show.  Nothing is guaranteed, however, and it would be wise to not expect too much to be revealed about GT5 before GT PSP hits store shelves on October 1st.  With that said, it would certainly be a great opportunity for Sony to reveal another trailer for the game while committing to solid a release date.

Just want to remind everyone that GTPlanet’s Facebook Page officially launched last week – if you’re on Facebook, please become a fan!  Much like our Twitter feed, you’ll find more interesting links, forum threads, and videos that didn’t make their way onto the main news blog here.  When you become a Facebook fan, some of our updates will appear on your main “news feed” for the site, just like those from your friends so you won’t miss a single bit of GT news.  As you can see, our Wall is also open, so feel free to use it to spread the word about your latest forum topic or competition.

After years of waiting, we’re about to get a deluge of Gran Turismo 5 and Gran Turismo Mobile news from E3 2009. To help you keep up with it all, I’m happy to announce GTPlanetNews on Twitter – featuring breaking GT-series news from the E3 show floor.  Start following us now!

You know exactly what features you want in Gran Turismo 5, but how many people out there actually agree with you?  It’s easy enough to peruse our Gran Turismo 5 forum, but even the most popular ideas get lost in the sea of discussions and opinions.  That’s why we’ve launched ideas.gtplanet.net, a new type of forum that lets you submit and vote on the features, cars, and tracks that you most want to see in future updates to the Gran Turismo series.  The ultimate goal is to efficiently utilize GTPlanet’s large audience to communicate what we, the fans, are most looking for from Polyphony Digital.  To keep things organized, the GTPlanet Ideas site is divided into three categories, or forums:

The wildly popular Inter-Forum Timetrial Championship has finally come to a close after 63 days of heated competition and 1,237 submitted times from participants around the world!  The guys from Team GTros ultimately came out on top, with their member Ramon taking the top spot in the individual points standings.  Team GTPlanet and our own driver holl01 came in second in team and individual standings, respectively.  The Germans from Team GTRP round out the podium, and FAK of the Dude Team scored an individual third.  A big thanks goes to all of the Team Captains who kept everyone in order, and especially to GTPlanet’s chief race organizer Sphinx, without whom this competition could have never occurred.

On Christmas Day, the GTPlanet Forums hit a milestone, reaching a total of 3,000,000 posted messages.  A huge thanks goes out to everyone in our community who made it possible.  Those millions of messages contain more than just text – they forged new friendships, answered countless questions, and hold massive amounts of data about the Gran Turismo games.  This is a valuable resource to the series’ millions of fans, and I hope to continue growing and moving the site forward into the future.

Many of our regular forum visitors take advantage of our popular GTPlanet Premium subscription service, which removes all advertisements from the site and gives you lots of extra site features.  This time of year, however, we do something different and donate half of our lifetime subscription revenue to the Alzheimer’s Association.  It’s a win-win situation: you get to fight Alzheimer’s, get the best GTPlanet browsing experience, and support the site all at the same time!  To learn more and sign up, check out the full announcement here.

As we move into 2009, expect to see some nifty and fresh changes to GTPlanet.  The first is a transition away from our old video platform, and on to something you’ve probably heard of before: YouTube.  Hosting our videos with YouTube offers quite a few advantages.  If you have your own YouTube account, you can subscribe to GTPlanet’s channel and receive regular updates via email when we upload new clips.  The best news, however, is our ability to upload full 720p high-definition video, which we will be embedding here in our news posts whenever we can.

Ask anyone who has played Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and they will tell you what it needs the most: private online races.  We can’t implement that feature in the game, but as the largest GT site, we can help facilitate online meetings between dedicated, serious, and highly competitive players.  So, today we are officially launching our very own Live Racing Chat to make it easier than ever to meet and compete with your friends.