Sony has confirmed that Gran Turismo 4 has slipped in Europe, and will miss the holiday season, with a Q1 2005 launch now planned due to delays to the localisation process for the long-awaited title.

"We can confirm that GT4 will now be released in Q1 2005," a Sony Computer Entertainment UK representative said this morning. "The localisation of GT4 across the PAL territories is a huge undertaking because the product is localised into 13 different languages across the PAL territories, therefore the process takes considerably longer than it does in Japan."

"The GT brand strives for perfection," the representative continued, "therefore we need to ensure that the localisation and testing of the product is done to the highest possible standard."

The game, which was seen as one of the biggest titles for the PS2 in the run up to Christmas, is still expected to ship on schedule in Japan and North America, with only the European launch being affected by this fresh delay.

However, as previously reported, Sony has removed the online component of Gran Turismo 4 from the product in order to get the title out in this timeframe, and now plans to launch a separate online Gran Turismo title instead, which is tentatively scheduled for 2005.

From gamesindustry.biz