Gran Turismo[b][c] is a 1997 sim racing video game developed and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation.After five years of development time, Gran Turismo was well-received both commercially and critically, shipping a total of 10.85 million copies worldwide[1][6] (making it the best-selling PlayStation game), and scoring an average of 95% in GameRankings' aggregate, making it the highest rated racing video game at the time of the site's closure in 2019.[18] In its first month on the Japanese market, it sold over 1 million copies, making it the best-selling video game of the 1997 holiday shopping season in Japan.[8] According to Weekly Famitsu, it sold an additional 1.34 million units during the first half of 1998, which made it Japan's second-best selling game for that period.[26] It received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) in August 1998,[27] for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[28] It sold 270,000 units in the German market from January through September 1998, which made it the region's best-selling console game of the period across all systems.[34] By February 2000, it had sold 7 million units worldwide, for which it was awarded the Guinness World Record for Best-Selling Driving Simulator.[38] A number of critics gave particular praise to the replay mode, lauding the usage of multiple camera views and likening the quality to live action video.[44][47][51] Dean Hager of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and Vince Broady of GameSpot both particularly noted Gran Turismo's successful blend of arcade-style and simulation racing, with Broady commenting, "Some players enjoy the raw excitement and unfettered control of an action-oriented contest, while others go gaga over the realistic physics and heavy-duty customization features of a sim-style game.Rare indeed, almost nonexistent, is a racer that has a legitimate appeal to both camps, a game that blends the elements of action and sim in such a subtle manner that something altogether new is the result."[42][44] Next Generation stated that "as it stands in the Japanese version, everything about Gran Turismo is a class act, and it raises the bar for racing games on almost every possible level.