Car enthusiast blog Jalopnik has reported that Polyphony Digital's Kazunori Yamauchi has confirmed in an interview that Gran Turismo 5 has finally gone gold and that "the discs are being stamped as we speak".

The game has had a particularly protracted development cycles, with a number of ever-shifting release dates. The news bodes well for Sony's promise that the game will ship before Christmas. One Japanese retailer recently listed the game's on-sale date as December 23rd before it was hastily removed from its website. We'll let you know just as soon as an official New Zealand release date is confirmed.