I'm sure many of you have heard the good news that Gran Turismo 5's release date was finally announced, the bad news was that it's March 2010 in Japan only. Now usually this means the game will be coming even later for Europe and North America, but maybe it's possible that we might get this game earlier than Japan for once, because how much localization does this game really need?

GTPlanet reported on a rumor early last month stating that they had inside information that the game would be coming in 2009. Suffice to say, I've never known GTPlanet to be wrong about information regarding the Gran Turismo series, so the March 2010 release did seem very perplexing.

Then I remembered Final Fantasy XIII, which is set to release this December only in Japan. Final Fantasy XIII is projected to sell 1 million units in the first week of release in Japan, and is one of very few games that can be called a "system seller." On top of this Sony have created a special limited edition PS3 for the game, which means that the PS3 should sell even more units when the game releases.

Gran Turismo is also one of very few games that can be classed as a "system seller" (particularly in Europe and Japan) and was, like Final Fantasy, meant to be releasing around December this year (according to rumors). So did Sony have to make the choice of either releasing 2 system sellers at the same time in Japan? Or delaying one, in order to reap the benefit of both titles?

Many many things have been pointing to a December 2009 release date for the game, including Yamauchi's own words that the game would come shortly after October 1st. It is also worth noting that Jeff Rubenstein commented on the PlayStation Blog:

"Finally, Gran Turismo 5 now has a Japanese release window – March 2010. An American and European release date will be announced in due course."

If the release date was the same worldwide, wouldn't they have announced it at TGS? The above statement is either very good or very bad news, we could get the game earlier (due to the fact that there are no huge games coming out in December in EU/US), or later (maybe criticism against Sony about GT5's damage caused them to push it back?).

As a PlayStation fan, I feel that the earlier the game comes, the better, but unfortunately it's still very wishful thinking to expect a 2009 release date. On the other hand, as a Gran Turismo fan, I don't want Polyphony Digital to rush the game, the more polished it is, the more likely it is to be the ultimate racing experience.