Sony has confirmed that much antisipated Gran Turismo 4 will be out before Christmas, however at the cost of dropping the online play element which will be removed from the game.

In a move similar to Microsoft's Longhorn project, a key element has been removed to guarntee the launch date. The news will dissapoint many fans gearing up to race friends online and is a blow for Sony as it tries to push its network adapter and online play capabilites.

However Sony hasn't completely ditched the idea of taking the game online and is hoping to release an online version in 2005 with speculation being thatwhen the game does appear it will be a marked down add-on similar to Gran Tursimo 3 Concept was when that was released after the main title Gran Turismo 3.

>> Sony - Official website of Sony