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GRAN TURISMO® DEMO TOPS ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS GLOBALLY IN TWO WEEKS

London & Paris - 18 July, 2013:The 2013 version of Nissan and PlayStation®'s innovative GT Academy gamer-to-racer competition is set to become the biggest and best yet. The online qualifying competition, played out on a specially-designed demo version of the forthcoming Gran Turismo®6 game, has attracted almost 600,000 entrants from the 18 participating European countries (including Russia)

 

With the GT Academy qualifying demo remaining open until the night of Sunday, 28 July, there is still plenty of time for racing-driver hopefuls to download the demo from the PlayStation®Store and enter GT Academy. The phenomenally successful Driver Development Programme has already achieved two-class podiums in the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race for previous winners, so the stakes are high!

 

The ultra competitive ‘leader board', that can be viewed on www.gran-turismo.com, shows that Spain is proving to be the GT Academy country to beat with 41 of the fastest 250 entries two weeks into this year's competition (Note: leaderboard and numbers of participants recorded on Tuesday, 16 July at 0900BST).

 

The overall best lap time, recorded around the painstakingly accurate recreation of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, after two weeks was held by a well-known French competitor (PSN ID: Ti-tech85). The 2:16.516 was recorded in the tuned Nissan 370Z. The lap in the virtual car was a realistic 14 seconds slower than the 2012 GT Academy champions recorded at Silverstone while racing the real Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 race car in the Blancpain Endurance race there earlier this year.

 

The GT6TMdemo gives players a series of challenges and practice sessions with trophies up for the grabs before they head into the final qualifying time trial. After a warm-up lap of Silverstone in a Nissan 370Z, players take on some ‘beginner events' with two races in both the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the Nissan 370Z (GTAcademy) '08. With success in those races, players continue into some practice sessions on different sections of the newly-created Silverstone circuit before tackling the final time trial challenge in the 370Z Tuned Car (GT Academy) '08 on the full Grand Prix circuit.

 

Anyone with a Sony Entertainment Network account and access to a PlayStation®3 connected to the internet can download the demo free from the PlayStation®Store, with no ownership of the Gran Turismo® game required. The GT Academy competition is open to competitors over 18 years of age (other terms and conditions apply, seehttp://www.gran-turismo.com/for details).

 

The GT Academy qualifying time-trial remains open until the night of Sunday, 28thJuly (closing at 2359 BST, which is 0059 CET on Monday, 29thJuly), but more demo challenges and cars will be released after this date, remaining playable until the end of August. They include the Nissan GT-R Black edition (GT Academy) '12 and GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Schulze Motorsport '13.

 

The online qualification for GT Academy will lead to the fastest gamers being invited to the National Final events where they will be challenged on the game as well as in real Nissan Nismo cars. From there, the action switches to the famous Race Camp at Silverstone, with the winner there set to potentially join the elite band of Nissan's Nismo Athletes.

 

Details of how to enter GT Academy 2013 can be found on various platforms including:www.facebook.com/GTAcademy,http://eu.gran-turismo.comandwww.twitter.com/GTAcademy.

KOM IGANG