The wait is finally over — Gran Turismo Sport is here! The seventh full-featured installment is now available in North America and Asia.

GT Sport marks the beginning of a new chapter in the franchise, as echoed by Kazunori Yamauchi. It’s been a long road: after first being announced in October 2015, the game was hit by a delay late last summer.

The new entry is a drastic departure from the series norms for longtime fans. Doing away with the en masse car collection aspect from previous games, Sport turns its attention towards online play.

In fact, an FIA partnership was an early selling point for the game — a selling point further enhanced by the start of a new championship series next month. Despite the tighter focus on competitive play, GT Sport still offers the familiar formula for series regulars. Earlier this year, it was even suggested online play is only a small percentage of the experience.

The single player campaign consists of four areas: Driving School; Mission Challenge; Circuit Experience; and Racing Etiquette. The features are as you’d expect from a GT title and should keep players occupied for some time. Even better, Yamauchi has expressed plans to expand the game’s offline offerings.

Beyond that are the all-new livery editor and Scapes photomode features. Both are likely to keep the interested parties hooked leading up to expansions and DLC.

GT Sport launches with more than 150 vehicles. While that’s a far cry from the 1200+ that GT6 had, plans are already in place to expand the car count threefold.

Speaking of cars, it’s worth mentioning (again) that Porsche debuts in GT Sport. The marque has long been taboo for the series, but no longer. While the Stuttgart roster is light in comparison to what the competition offers, it’s a start — especially when you consider the fact the game features the mid-engine 911 RSR.

New GTPlanet Forums

To celebrate the release, we welcome you to the expanded GTPlanet GT Sport forums. They first grew with the limited-time demo last week, and will continue to do so now that the game is live. Here’s a brief overview of what’s on offer:

Gran Turismo Sport General Discussion : The best place to keep your finger on the pulse of all things GT Sport. Find the latest news, have your questions answered, and share your own experiences.

: The best place to keep your finger on the pulse of all things GT Sport. Find the latest news, have your questions answered, and share your own experiences. Gran Turismo Sport Tuning : Learn the tricks of the trade, or share your own settings, here.

: Learn the tricks of the trade, or share your own settings, here. Gran Turismo Sport Photo Mode & Scapes : The Photo Mode sections of GT games have traditionally been some of the busiest sub-forums in our community. With over 1000+ Scapes — and the next sub-forum’s big feature — expect that to continue here.

: The Photo Mode sections of GT games have traditionally been some of the busiest sub-forums in our community. With over 1000+ Scapes — and the next sub-forum’s big feature — expect that to continue here. Gran Turismo Sport Livery Editor: New to the series, we expect a lot of activity here. Show off your creativity!

This is only the first stop for the release of GT Sport. Tomorrow the game launches in Europe, followed by Japan a day later. There’s more to come, including our review of the game, so stay tuned!

Featured image courtesy of fikridroid.

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