Gran Turismo 5 Discs “Being Stamped As We Speak”

Contradicting reports that there’s “not much hope” of Gran Turismo 5 arriving in time for the holidays, producer Kazunori Yamauchi says “the discs are being stamped as we speak.”

Today was the day that the oft-delayed Gran Turismo 5 was finally going to hit store shelves, really and for true, until word came down in mid-October that Polyphony Digital’s racing sim had been pushed back once again – but just briefly this time! Sony assured fans that while the game was being delayed to ensure it would be the “perfect racing experience,” it would still be out in time for the holiday season, really and for true.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t a great surprise when Eurogamer reported earlier today that industry sources had said there’s “not much hope” of that happening, and that the game will more likely come out sometime in 2011. Polyphony’s own schedule lists the game as “TBC,” according to one insider, and many retailers seem to have given up on the 2010 release window as well. Amazon currently has the game scheduled for December 31, 2010, while GameStop has a nearly-identical January 1, 2011. In the U.K., Game has it scheduled for nothing more concrete than 2011, while Play.com isn’t committing to any release date at all.

But now, none other than Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself has contradicted that unhappy news, claiming that the game has actually gone gold. “The discs are being stamped as we speak,” he told Jalopnik. It’s not enough to assuage all doubts and there’s still the possibility of other delays – one commenter suggested that Polyphony will want to redesign the delivery vans from the ground up – but if Yamauchi’s words hold true, it might just be a happy holiday for racing fans after all.