Although we’ve been expecting an announcement regarding plans for the 2023 Gran Turismo World Series for a little while, today’s release contained something that’s taken us quite by surprise as the live events break new ground.
Noted only in the official PlayStation Blog article — and not on the announcement on the game’s own website — by senior product manager Ken Chan, the World Series Showdown will take place in Amsterdam on Friday August 11 and Saturday August 12.
It’ll be the first time that Gran Turismo has staged a live event in the BeNeLux region, with European events to date taking place in Austria, France, Germany, and Spain — alongside the Monaco finals. Indeed Austria has been a regular haunt, hosting World Tour events twice as well as the previous Showdown at Red Bull Hangar-7.
Unlike the 2022 season, the 2023 Showdown will be one of two finals events rather than an intermediate stage between two banks of online qualifiers. The format change for this season will see the top 12 teams of drivers in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturers Cup — three per country/territory and three per marque — race off for championship points in Amsterdam before heading to December’s World Final in an unknown location.
Polyphony Digital has also chosen a particularly interesting date for the Showdown, as August 11 will also see the debut of the Gran Turismo movie — based on the story of 2011 GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough — in theaters around the world.
That might suggest PD studio head and movie producer Kazunori Yamauchi will be split between duties, but it’s likely the world premiere of the film will be a week or two before the Showdown. However we wouldn’t rule out a “movie night” showing the film to the finalists on the evening of August 11!
We don’t yet know where in Amsterdam the World Series Showdown will take place, but there’s a number of solid candidate venues such as Move Amsterdam near the Olympic Stadium — which hosts car collections and a virtual motorsport experience — or even the nearby Circuit Zandvoort.
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