Editor's take: Polyphony Digital's upcoming racer Gran Turismo 7 won't meet its original 2021 target launch date. It's a bit of a bummer but given the pandemic and Poly's track record, we're not entirely surprised by the admission. Here's to hoping the extra development time pushes the game from good to great.

Gran Turismo 7 was announced on June 11, 2020, during the PlayStation 5 unveiling. Despite its name, it'll be the eighth game in the mainline franchise, which dates back to the groundbreaking Gran Turismo for the original PlayStation in 1997. The primary releases reached peak sales in 2001 with the launch of Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec on the PS2.

In a recent GQ interview with Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a Sony rep confirmed that production challenges related to the pandemic have pushed the game back from 2021 to 2022.

"With the ongoing pandemic, it's a dynamic and changing situation and some critical aspects of game production have been slowed over the past several months," the rep said, promising to share more specifics on the game's release date when they become available.

Gran Turismo 7 certainly looked the part in its announcement trailer last spring, but as with any simulation racer, it'll ultimately come down to the feel of the game. Cutting-edge graphics don't mean squat if the vehicles don't handle and behave as they would in the real world. Fortunately, Polyphony Digital has a solid track record when it comes to racing sims.