Gran Turismo 7 is the latest title to be hit with a review bomb after devs release patch to nerf winnings in order to sell MTX

[Master Disaster]

I'm really surprised how little coverage this is getting considering its a first party Sony IP and honestly, what they've done here would make Bobby Kotick sweat. Its a classic bait & switch like Activision used to do until they got destroyed for it.

 

The first offence was them tying the entire game to be online only. This backfired very quickly however after the game servers were down for over a full day because scheduled maintenance went wrong and as you can imagine, fans were not exactly happy that they were unable to play their $70 single player (mostly) game because the devs made a mistake with a patch.

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Despite its high sales, Gran Turismo 7 is not having a good launch month. On Friday, developers Polyphony Digital took the game offline for almost two days of maintenance. This meant that even much of the game’s single player mode was also unplayable since that also requires an internet connection.

But wait, there's more. When the game finally came back up players immediately noticed that many of the higher tier races with good payouts had been nerfed by as much as 60%. So what Sony did here is give reviewers and journalists access to one version of the game then within 48hrs of it being released to the public went and changed the terms.  For the first time ever in a GT title, you also cannot sell the cars you win for money either, I wonder why?

 

To add fuel to the fire, Polyphony digital tried to justify the insane prices of the most iconic and sought after cars by saying "because realism" which might be the most tone deaf response since "a sense of pride and accomplishment in achievement". All the iconic GT cars (Skylines, GTOs, NSXs etc etc) are a half million each. You want a race car? That'll be upto 4 million. How about a legendary race car? Yeah, that's cost ya upto 20 million. To paraphrase Yong Yea, "you don't get to call your game the ultimate race fantasy while at the same time pricing your cars at real world values, the point of a game is to live a fantasy that you otherwise couldn't and the point of fantasy is that you remove the bad parts and focus on the good".

 

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I wanted to explain what happened in this update.

Immediately before the release of the 1.07 update, we discovered an issue where the game would not start properly in some cases on product versions for the PS4™ and PS5™.

This was a rare issue that was not seen during tests on the development hardware or the QA sessions prior to the release, but in order to prioritize the safety of the save data of the users, we decided to interrupt the release of the 1.07 update, and to make a 1.08 correctional update.

This is the reason for the delay.
My sincere apologies for the late report to everyone.

Also in this update, some event rewards have been adjusted. I wanted to also explain the reasons for it and our plans going forward.

In GT7 I would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions.
At the same time the pricing of cars is an important element that conveys their value and rarity, 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.

We will in time let you know the update plans for additional content, additional race events and additional features that will constructively resolve this.
It pains me that I can’t explain the details regarding this at this moment, but we plan on continuing to revise GT7 so that as many players as possible can enjoy the game.
We would really appreciate it if everyone could watch over the growth of Gran Turismo 7 from a somewhat longer term point of view.

Kazunori Yamauchi

https://www.gran-turismo.com/us/gt7/news/00_3802725.html

 

Other big names have chimed in too with Digital Foundry doing the old "i was right" twitter flex.

As of the writing of this post the game sits at 1.7 on Metacritic which is lower than Battlefield 2142 ever reached

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/gran-turismo-7

 

Source - https://kotaku.com/gt7-gran-turismo-7-metacritic-review-bomb-offline-sony-1848680758

 

I'm actually glad, not that Sony ripped of their customers but that said customers have finally started to push back against this absolute bullshit. Its disgusting that they think they can get away with this on a $70 games and even worse, this is a Sony first party IP and in the past those have been relatively free of gaming blight.

 

I'm so glad I only play old games these days.

[Arika]

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Yamauchi added that he wanted players to experience the game without microtransactions but that “it’s important for [in-game cars] to be linked with the real world prices.” It’s a baffling statement to make, since video game cars are fake and Sony can make them cost whatever they want.

wow, what a big "fuck you" to all the GT fans out there.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Arika S said:

wow, what a big "fuck you" to all the GT fans out there.

I think he actually meant to say

Quote

it’s important for our bank balance that [in-game cars] to be linked with the real world prices.

 

[Roswell]

7 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

customers have finally started to push back against this absolute bullshit.

...by making it the best selling video game by a mile?

 

While it's shitty behavior, the masses aren't pushing back whatsoever. On the contrary, they're clearly showing that they don't care (their shitty micro transactions were in before launch) and will buy into stuff like this regardless.

[Master Disaster]

4 minutes ago, Roswell said:

...by making it the best selling video game by a mile?

 

While it's shitty behavior, the masses aren't pushing back whatsoever. On the contrary, they're clearly showing that they don't care (their shitty micro transactions were in before launch) and will buy into stuff like this regardless.

Did you miss the point here? They released one build to reviewers, allowed them to show it off before the game released then once it had released they nerfed everything.

 

So many people bought the game based off the reviewer and influencer footage they were fed only to actually receive something very different. Heck even the big racing simmers on Twitch & YT are pissed that they got used by Sony to rip people off.

[leadeater]

24 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I'm really surprised how little coverage this is getting considering its a first party Sony IP and honestly, what they've done here would make Bobby Kotick sweat. Its a classic bait & switch like Activision used to do until they got destroyed for it.

I think people would notice more if they could get PS5's lol

 

24 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

For the first time ever in a GT title, you also cannot sell the cars you win for money either, I wonder why?

Brah, that was the BEST way of earning money. Win race with high value car and sell it over and over. Wow what jerks.

[williamcll]

Could this be the year that Forza overtakes Gran Turismo?

[leadeater]

Just now, williamcll said:

Could this be the year that Forza overtakes Gran Turismo?

Nope 

[Roswell]

18 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Did you miss the point here? They released one build to reviewers, allowed them to show it off before the game released then once it had released they nerfed everything.

 

So many people bought the game based off the reviewer and influencer footage they were fed only to actually receive something very different. Heck even the big racing simmers on Twitch & YT are pissed that they got used by Sony to rip people off.

The prices were already like 5x as much as the previous title and that was widespread info well before launch. People didn't care about that, I fail to see how they'll magically care now.

[SorryBella]

14 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Brah, that was the BEST way of earning money. Win race with high value car and sell it over and over. Wow what jerks.

I have to say for all the times ive played GT, if you wanna aim for all cars collected you really do better off just keeping it. 

12 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Could this be the year that Forza overtakes Gran Turismo?

FM7 was a gigantic flop with nonexistent stewardship and none is excited for FM8 as far as i can tell compared to GT7 and Project Cars 3 turns to arcade game. GT essentially now has a monopoly on closed circuit, simulation-arcade racing genre.

 

1 minute ago, Roswell said:

The prices were already like 5x as much as the previous title and that was widespread info well before launch. People didn't care about that, I fail to see how they'll magically care now.

If you see how old GT titles behave even down to GT sport, those prices are compensated with insanely high pay rate. you can get 100-300k credits per hour and you can sell price car for fast cash infusion if you only want to own the cars you care. GT7 does not.

[Roswell]

3 minutes ago, SorryClaire said:

If you see how old GT titles behave even down to GT sport, those prices are compensated with insanely high pay rate. you can get 100-300k credits per hour and you can sell price car for fast cash infusion if you only want to own the cars you care. GT7 does not.

I know, I agree. I was telling the other person that GT7 was already a total scam before these changes and that it was reported on before the game was even released.

 

 

[SorryBella]

Just now, Roswell said:

I know, I agree. I was telling the other person that GT7 was already a total scam before these changes and that it was reported on before the game was even released.

Yeah, i have to say that the credit rate as is on early access really made the game to be enthusiast-only on playing the game legitimately without gouging your wallet, with MTX existing as timesaver which i already dont like as a business scheme but as ya can tell, im a GT enthusiast so i dont mind.

 

But now, im just disgusted.

[Master Disaster]

28 minutes ago, Roswell said:

The prices were already like 5x as much as the previous title and that was widespread info well before launch. People didn't care about that, I fail to see how they'll magically care now.

Because at that point it seemed as though they were somewhat attainable given higher tier races were paying ~100k each. Now those same races are paying ~50k which makes everything 2x more expensive. Either 2x the grind or pay money...

 

Higher prices are fine if you are giving players a nice reward but they're not. You get the same as you did in previous GT games except you cannot sell your prize and everything is 5x more money.

[xAcid9]

The type of exploit that I approved. Basically giving middle finger to Sony and Polyphony greedy behavior.

 

Polyphony: "with this update player will have to grind whole day unless they pay with real money. Haha!"

Sony: "That's what I'm talking about!"

Player: *literally grind whole day w/o touching the controller*

 

[OhioYJ]

1 hour ago, Roswell said:

ile it's shitty behavior, the masses aren't pushing back whatsoever. On the contrary, they're clearly showing that they don't care (their shitty micro transactions were in before launch) and will buy into stuff like this regardless.

Pretty much what gamers do general. They complain about (insert random example here: COD, Madden, Fifa, Epic, EA, etc), say they are done. Then pre-order the next one. 

 

I made a comment on here once about I don't care for Epic and don't use them even for free games... vote with your wallet. I quickly got a response that Vote with your wallet is dumb because these are billion dollar companies so that doesn't work. It does actually work if people  do it. If people buy the crap anyways yeah it will never work.

 

This one is a bit different as it got made much worse after release. So harder for people to know or avoid that one. 

[suicidalfranco]

Cause PS bros are the same as fifa fans. Buy what ever PlayStation sells them no matter what and have more money than common sense.

[porina]

I'll admit, I got a PS5 and the only paid title I have on it is Gran Turismo 7. Basically I got a chance to get a PS5 after the game's launch, so I didn't follow any hype before. I played the series since at least version 3 on the PS2. Impressions of the game so far, it is classic Gran Turismo formula with better than ever graphics. I've played relatively little due to lack of time, but I have hit a wall with progression if you want to follow the "menu" route, which I guess is a kinda story mode? You need certain cars with a certain performance to complete those. You can often get the cars from racing elsewhere, but upgrades cost. I feel I'm at the point I need to farm for credits to do the upgrades. I don't mind slow but consistent progression, but if it is a slow grind, I'll probably spend my time elsewhere. My mistake for not checking up on it more before buying? 

 

In my play so far, the races that "drop" cars for high placing only give them once, hence the lack of ability to sell cars I guess? Basically once you unlock it, you have it and can't get dupes. Not 100% sure on that though.

 

It was a bit annoying they nerfed they digital collectors edition, as the pre-order version is much more interesting than the post-launch version. I got the basic version so I'm constantly broke in game.

 

In parallel news, I downloaded Chocobo GP on Switch, not played it yet. Based on reports that seemed to have similar problems. Game industry is forgetting we want to play games for fun, not to be milked for cash. 

[OhioYJ]

25 minutes ago, porina said:

In my play so far, the races that "drop" cars for high placing only give them once, hence the lack of ability to sell cars I guess? Basically once you unlock it, you have it and can't get dupes. Not 100% sure on that though.

 

If you don't get duplicates, got to give them credit there. My son and I have been play Hot Wheels Unleashed, and that's all that game does is hand out duplicates, it's very clear they want you to buy their DLC and buy cars and not earn them... 

 

In fact he wanted to cover the game on his channel so we did. We opened up a loot box, umm, I mean blind box on the video and this happened.. (spoiler it was a duplicate, well triplicate).

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, SorryClaire said:

I have to say for all the times ive played GT, if you wanna aim for all cars collected you really do better off just keeping it. 

This is for earning money, if you can keep winning the car then selling it has no downside at all. Just keep doing the race, collect the car, sell it, Repeat as much as you like. This has been the long standing best and fastest way to earn money in GT games. Race prize money is terrible, optimize, optimize, optimize 

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, xAcid9 said:

Player: *literally grind whole day w/o touching the controller

hahaha nice!

[Master Disaster]

18 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

 

If you don't get duplicates, got to give them credit there. My son and I have been play Hot Wheels Unleashed, and that's all that game does is hand out duplicates, it's very clear they want you to buy their DLC and buy cars and not earn them... 

 

In fact he wanted to cover the game on his channel so we did. We opened up a loot box, umm, I mean blind box on the video and this happened.. (spoiler it was a duplicate, well triplicate).

Not at all, the entire point of that mechanic existing in older games was so players could farm races that give nice cars as a prize to sell for cash. By removing they have removed the best method the players ever had to get money.

 

Lets be absolutely clear here, in older games all cars were available to the player, new cars were in GT Auto and second hand cars were in the used market, granted used cars were randomised but the car you want would always come up eventually. Alongside this prizes were shown (at least in the later ones, IIRC GT1 & 2 did not show car prizes) to the player before you entered anything.

 

Now you can only earn each car once (except for if you happen to buy a car that you later win and even then you still cannot sell the dupe) and the used market is ran online meaning they have complete control over what cars are available and when.

 

Dupes in older GT games were desirable, predictable and a good way for players to earn extra cash. The used market was a good way for players to get hold of decent cars that are not for sale in GT Auto or were but cost significantly less.

 

They've essentially artificially throttled the players ability to earn money in every possible way.

Way more expensive cars?

Way less money for winning?

No way to sell dupes or unwanted cars?

No way to pick up a bargain on the used market?

 

Oh, and can we talk about the ability to "refit" your engine and body which costs you money to do and causes you to lose all upgrades you bought for that vehicle.

[porina]

28 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

If you don't get duplicates, got to give them credit there. My son and I have been play Hot Wheels Unleashed, and that's all that game does is hand out duplicates, it's very clear they want you to buy their DLC and buy cars and not earn them... 

Again, I'm only in limited gameplay with GT7. A race can drop a specific car once. There may be a condition, which has been placing in top 3 so far. I don't know if that changes later on. Once you get the car, you're done. So there's no randomness in that part.

 

This does remind me, there is a lootbox element. You get a "free" crate for completing the daily marathon (drive 26 miles). On all but one I got the lowest credit prize. Only once ever did I get 2nd from bottom prize. It's a joke. Can occasionally unlock more from other activities, with no better luck on the outcome.

 

It's a bad trend many traditional single and/or multiplayer games are adding mobile gaming like progression blocks as a monetisation scheme.

[Stahlmann]

Maybe AAA publishers finally start to see that fucking over their playerbase with microtransactions leads to less players and less money. Again, Elden Ring showed us that a good game can make A LOT of money without microtransactions.

 

Ah come on, who am i kidding... As long as games like GT7 still have their "whales" and people keep pre-ordering AAA titles just for the sake of playing the newest games they won't stop doing shit like this.

 

Nowadays "AAA" doesn't mean shit when it comes to a game's quality. It only means it's a high-budget game. Most gems or memorable experiences come out of the indie space where devs still mostly make games out of love, not greed.

[Fnige]

2 hours ago, williamcll said:

Could this be the year that Forza overtakes Gran Turismo?

That'll probably never happen. Though I do wonder how Forza Motorsport (8?) would compare whenever that comes out

[RejZoR]

3 hours ago, Arika S said:

wow, what a big "fuck you" to all the GT fans out there.

In-game sports and exotic cars at real world prices. And devs give you minimum wage to buy them. Good luck everyone lol