Gran Turismo 7's release has been rocky, to say the least. Looking at the critic reviews, you really wouldn't think so - the initial reception was super positive. However, right after the game officially came out, a bunch of really chunky microtransactions also went live, and so began the downfall of what initially appeared to be one of PlayStation's strongest titles of the year.
As well as charging extortionate amounts of credits for cars (some of which cost $40 if you use real money to buy credits), things got even worse when in a recent update, Polyphony reduced the amount of rewards you get from races, making it an even longer grind to rack up the in-game currency yourself. Needless to say, players really haven't been happy, and the devs have finally addressed the situation.
If you can cast the microtransaction issues aside for a moment, there's no doubt that Gran Turismo 7 looks stunning - take a look below.
"Thank you for your continued support and feedback on Gran Turismo 7, your voices have not gone unheard," Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi wrote in a statement. "I would like to apologise for the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in, not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to our community.
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"The patch update previously deployed was intended to rectify an issue with inconsistent reward payouts within a part of the World Circuit Events," he continued. "But, to re-establish the intended equilibrium and provide more accurate rewards based on time investment and completion, it was necessary to recalculate the rewards system as a whole. To improve the player experience, we will be rolling out a considerable patch in the beginning of April. The number of events will be increased, and we will reestablish the reward system with greater balance throughout the game to benefit all players."
Online races will see an increased amount of rewards, as will events in the latter half of the World Circuits (which will apparently, on average, double). There's also going to be some new high rewards for clearing the Circuit Experience with an all Gold or all Bronze result. Additionally, anyone affected by the issue (who owned the game before today, when the statement was published), will be able to grab a free pack of 1 million credits as a good-will gesture.
Whether or not these changes will appease the understandably very annoyed player-base is yet to be seen, but you can't deny that it's positive that the devs have acknowledged the problem and were willing to do something about it. Anyone wanting to grab that free pack of credits needs to do so by 25 April, by the way, so don't forget to claim it while you can.
Featured Image Credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment, Polyphony DigitalTopics: Gran Turismo, PlayStation