Today Sony Interactive Entertainment broadcasted the announcement event for GT Sport in Japan from the Hikarie Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo.

The event saw the participation of former Formula 1 and Super GT driver Ukyo Katayama, who currently directs the Super GT team Goodsmile Racing & TeamUkyo (known among gamers due to the Hatsune Miku livery), and current Super GT GT300 class championship leader Jann Mardenborough, who is one of the many professional drivers who used to be a gamer and made it to professional driving via GT Academy.

Of course the event came with quite a bit of racing, which you can see in the video below. We get two laps at the new Tokyo Expressway track (at the 00:51:50 mark), two laps at Brands Hatch (at 01:02:00), and one lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife (at 01:11:54). The best thing is that, differently from the event in London, Sony could take advantage of the high Japanese upstream speeds to broadcast at 1080p. 60 FPS, resulting in much better image quality.

The last race had a particularly exciting finale, as the competitors were quite close for the whole race, with a crazy four-wide finish on the 2 Km-long Döttinger Höhe straight, ended with a breathtaking braking challenge on the last few corners.

You can see it 01:18:30 and marvel at the level of control displayed. Japanese presenters abuse the definition "kami play" (godly play) a lot, but in this case I'd say it's appropriate.

GT Sport

At the 01:46:50 mark you can also watch the presentation by Producer Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

Below the video, you can also enjoy all the slides of the presentation, including some awesome screenshots showing the features of the Scapes mode and car interiors, and the full list of events for the campaign mode, that comes with the following:

  • Beginner's School - 10 events
  • Circuit Experience - 35 event
  • Mission Challenge - 62 missions
  • Racing Etiquette - 10 lessons

Incidentally, if you live in Japan, the game has been made available for pre-orders locally today, including the limited edition with the Apex coffee table book.

At the end of the gallery, you can see both Japanese box arts and the cover of the book. The standard edition costs 6,900 yen both at retail and on the PSN, the physical limited edition is priced at 9,900 yen, while the digital limited edition costs 7,900 yen.