The cat is out of the bag, so to speak, about the cost of the long-awaited Gran Turismo 5. According to sources, the PlayStation 3 racer that has been in development by Polyphony Digital for over five years has reached an astounding $60 million in development costs.

While the developers are downplaying the expensive nature of the title, the developers claim that there are other titles that have cost far more to develop. The development cost is what they consider reasonable for the scope and sheer size that is encompassed in the yet-to- be released title.

It remains unclear how much of this cost will be recouped due to participation from car companies and advertisers that will be featured in the game. Sources suggest that a large part of the cost came from the need to develop a brand new engine from scratch for the PlayStation 3 to create the title.

While the developers admit that the development cycle has been long for the title, it was necessary to get things right. It has been suggested that the next title in the franchise, which will also likely be for the PlayStation 3, will not take as long to develop because of the groundwork that has already been completed once Gran Turismo 5 is released.