Gran Turismo HD To Cost £450??? News

Over the past year, gamers who've taken the plunge and purchased an Xbox 360 will have got used to micro-transactions; Gamer Pictures, new items for games, and Xbox Live Arcade titles have been downloaded with high frequency.

The prospect of micro-transactions has also been previously confirmed by Sony for PlayStation3, although whether anybody had predicted the sort of radical model reported by Famitsu for Gran Turismo HD, is highly unlikely.

According to the Japanese publication, two versions of the game will be available: Classic and Premium. What's particularly drastic is that Famitsu claims that Gran Turismo HD: Classic will be released with no cars of course...just a set of menus. From there, players will apparently be expected to use micro-transactions to fill their garages with cars, and buy tracks to race them on. Each of the 750 cars that are being developed for the game will retail for between 50 and 100 Yen (£0.23 - £0.46), whilst tracks will reportedly cost between 200 and 500 Yen (£0.90 - £2.25). By themselves, the figures perhaps don't seem that high, but purchasing all of the cars and tracks available could top £450...for one complete PlayStation3 game.

Hope you get damage modelling for that...

Gran Turismo HD: Premium will ship with thirty cars and two course, with a second batch of cars and tracks available at a later date.

If this business model turns out to be accurate, then it continues to cement Sony's intentions for PlayStation3 as a high-end luxury gadget, out of reach from the mainstream. It's a further nail in the coffin of expectations for the PS3 to sustain the brand's number one position, following the high cost of the machine itself, the one year head start by Xbox 360, and the delay of the system in Europe.

Quite frankly, if true, then it's micro-transactions gone macro-mad.

We'll have more news shortly...