Next week, one day before you settle down with four pounds of turkey, a two foot pile of mashed potatoes, and an above-ground pool's worth of gravy, you'll finally be able to pick up Gran Turismo 5. Thus brings to an end arguably one of the longest waits for any game in recent memory. However, a poster on the GTPlanet forums who has already secured a copy of next week's biggest HD release (DKC Returns may have the honors of "biggest overall") has informed the world that the game's install will take anywhere from 6 to 10 GB of storage space, and may require up to 50 minutes.

The install itself has been confirmed to need 6.4GB for the optional install, but the forum poster pointed out that as the game unpacks, it ends up using closer to 10GB. Sony confirmed to Eurogamer that there is an optional install, but claims that gamers will be able to play while the install is in progress. A rep told the site, "If users choose not to install the data straight away it will do it in stages as news areas, tracks, etc are accessed during normal gameplay.".

Obviously GT5 isn't the first PS3 game to utilize the optional install, with BioShock 2, Tom Clancy's EndWar and Devil May Cry and the recently released Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood all having eaten up their fair share of memory. However, Gran Turismo 5's file size is probably the largest we've seen to date. I guess you can excuse Polyphony Digital for the large file, especially when you consider that the game boasts over 1000 cars, all of them rendered in gorgeous 1080p at 60fps. It's not like another hour's wait is going to kill you, right?

[Via Destructoid]