Only hours away from release, Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced via Twitter the release of Gran Turismo 5‘s first DLC - including the highly anticipated Spa Francorchamps circuit - has been delayed in North America until October 25th, 2011. No further explanation is offered, but the tweet does mention the content will include a “special bonus” when it is eventually released next week:

Update: GT5 DLC will hit the North American Store on 10/25 but will include a special bonus. Apologies for the inconvenience!

The DLC is presumably still on schedule to be available to the rest of the world on Tuesday, October 18th, at 07:00 UTC (convert this to your local time zone here), according to another tweet from Kazunori Yamauchi earlier today.

UPDATE:  This news apparently comes as a surprise to Kazunori Yamauchi himself, who, according to further Twitter comments, has only just now learned of Sony America’s last-minute change of plans. Fortunately for European gamers, Kazunori has also announced there will be only a slight delay of the content’s release in their region (as of writing, it’s now expected to go live at 09:00 UTC). It is already available in Asian territories.

Since Sony Computer Entertainment America’s surprise announcement regarding the delay of GT5‘s DLC in North America late last night, it’s been a rocky road for fans eager to enjoy the new content.

Though the DLC packs were released as scheduled in Europe, Asia, and Australia, users in our forums have quickly made an unpleasant discovery: the content can only be accessed in the game when signed into the PSN account you used to make the purchase. The official UK site has been updated to acknowledge the issue:

This is a notice regarding the Gran Turismo 5 DLC, for those who have multiple accounts on the PlayStation®Network.

The DLC released on October 18th is tied to the Account ID used to purchase the DLC. It is not possible to use the DLC with accounts other than the one that was used to make the actual purchase. Therefore please make sure to purchase the DLC with the account that is used to play Gran Turismo 5.

Kazunori Yamauchi has also responded to complaints via Twitter, offering the following explanation:

Resolving the problem with using the DLC on multiple accounts, is not simple. t would be best if we could attribute the entitlement to use the DLC items to multiple accounts in the same PS3, but there is nothing like that in the PSN setup, and we can only assign the entitlements per User ID. There just isn’t a good solution for this I can think of. The entitlement to these non-onetime DLC’s can’t be attributed to the PS3 console.

Following the community reaction to some of the intricacies of the downloadable content released earlier in the week (or next week for North America), Kazunori Yamauchi has been busy working on solutions and responding to complaints via Twitter. The latest of these includes a nod to the present, one-off nature of the car pack:

We’re planning an another update for GT5 in December. In that update users who purchased cars and tracks from the DLC already, can receive a free “family upgrade” in the PS Store, which will let all users in the same PS console use the DLC.

People who bought the DLC cars will have those cars added to the dealers in the December update.

After this December update you can purchase a second car and so on from the dealer.

This comes as great news to gamers who’ve bought the car pack but who have been reticent to drive the cars for fear of wearing them out and for those unable to buy the DLC packs for their primary Gran Turismo gaming accounts (or their children’s accounts).

Following on from these Tweets, Yamauchi also provided a tantalising teaser (and a small caution) to those gamers who have already purchased the DLC packs:

Next, don’t get your hopes up too high, but PDI is also readying a X-mas present for those who’ve already bought multiple DLCs.

Quite what form the “present” will take, or what “multiple” means isn’t clear, but we have two months to speculate. Thanks to homeforsummer for the tip-off!

GT5 Photomode image by bmxmitch.