I am excited to confirm that we deployed a new functionality update for Gran Turismo 5 last night. Here are some of the new features and enhancements that have been added to the game.

Remote racing between friends to level up drivers

You can now set your personal AI drivers from B Spec mode in the game to be shared online for other players to challenge, and you can also host fully automated B Spec races (Remote races) that will earn your driver rewards and experience points. When you set up these races, you can either watch the race in real time, or save it to watch later.

If you’re not familiar with B Spec mode, it allows players to create AI drivers that you can coach and manage. They race real races in the game, and you can take the drivers through the full GT career mode.

These new Remote races are driven completely by AI Drivers, competing against each other, and the player does not have to drive the car themselves. This is a unique racing strategy simulation mode of Gran Turismo that allows you to enjoy races as you would in a live race broadcast on TV.

Supporting Remote Racing from the web browser

In “Remote Races” you can log in to the official Gran Turismo website using a standard web browser and your PSN ID, and start races, monitor progress and check results. You can basically play GT from anywhere, and level up your B Spec drivers any time.

Tracks made in Course Maker can now be used online You can now bring tracks you created through the simple Course Maker feature and upload them for use in your race lobbies for head to head racing.If you haven’t tried Course Maker yet, you can literally churn out challenging new tracks to race on, in a bunch of cool environments, by just tweaking a few settings. Advanced algorithms help generate unique tracks that are fun to drive on and can be saved and shared.

Car rental system among friends

You can now rent cars that your friends have set to “shared” status for online. This allows you to co-operate with your friends to advance in the game, lending or borrowing cars you need amongst each other, in addition to those you have acquired on your own. Haven’t earned enough credits for that sweet SLS AMG? Now you can just take your friend’s ride for a spin!

Multimonitor display compatibility

With new multimonitor support, now you can connect multiple PlayStation 3s and multiple monitors to create an ultra high resolution, wide angle field of vision for total immersion. By chaining either 3 or 5 PlayStation 3’s, connected in parallel via LAN, you can create a field of view that covers up to 180 degrees. Pair that with a racing chair and wheel controller setup, and you’re in racing heaven!

We hope that you enjoy these fantastic new features! The update also includes other smaller updates and tweaks GT fans are sure to appreciate.

We kicked off GT Academy last December, with more than 53,000 GT fans signing up to compete for a chance to become a pro race car driver. Now that the latest game update is live, we will be starting Round 3 of the online portion of the competition this coming Monday February 21 at 9 AM EST. Round 3 will run for one week and end on Sunday February 27 at midnight EST.

The top 512 players from Round 1, 128 per each of the 4 national regions in the US, will be competing for one of 32 spots at the National Finals event. The National Finals will be a live head-to-head event where the best 16 players will advance on to the GT Academy “boot camp,” where they will compete in real Nissan race cars, among other things. One winner will emerge from the boot camp as the GT Academy champion, and head straight into a rigorous training regimen to prepare for his or her debut race as a pro race car driver in a high profile endurance race, hopefully to take a spot on the podium.

You can keep up with the latest GT Academy news and check rankings and standings on the official GT website, and follow the program on Facebook.

Happy racing, and good luck to the GT Academy regional finalists!