State of the Game: Gran Turismo 7's recovery drive continues after its stuttering start
To say Gran Turismo 7 fluffed its opening moments earlier this year might be understating things a little; this was a getaway as catastrophic as Lewis Hamilton’s at the Baku restart last year, Polyphony Digital’s high profile PlayStation exclusive careering off-track in a cloud of self-inflicted chaos. The magic button that was the cause of all that drama was in this instance microtransactions, deployed aggressively on launch (and somewhat cynically activated once many of the reviews were already in) and leading to some deserved vitriol from fans.
Gran Turismo 7
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Developer: Polyphony Digital
- Platform: PS4 and PS5
- Launched: March 2022
- Monetisation: Full-price game with in-game microtransactions.
That controversy defined Gran Turismo 7’s early days, and in so many ways continues to do so today. Polyphony Digital’s initial updates only exacerbated the situation: an early patch nerfed payouts of some key grinding spots players had been exploiting, but most damningly its deployment took the servers down for 24 hours, underlining the madness of a single-player campaign rendered unplayable without an internet connection. The spotlight was on Sony’s series for its first numbered outing in almost a decade, and it duly shat itself.
Series creator Kazunori Yamauchi’s justification for the always online element and the inflated prices was simply maddening. “The pricing of cars is an important element that conveys their value and rarity,” he said in the heated aftermath of that early update. “So I do think it’s important for it to be linked with the real world prices. I want to make GT7 a game in which you can enjoy a variety of cars lots of different ways, and if possible would like to try to avoid a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again.”
It’s frankly ludicrous, though part of me admires Yamauchi’s commitment to his bit (an admiration that would come that much easier if it was possible to sell on your own cars in Gran Turismo 7, a promised feature that’s yet to materialise and that leaves the economy still firmly weighted against the player).
