Gran Turismo 7 Back Online After 32 Hours; Devs Apologize [UPDATED]
Yesterday's announcement that the racing rewards in Gran Turismo 7 will be nerfed isn't the only thing that's keeping gamers up at night. Equally distressing is the fact that the game has been virtually unplayable for 32 hours due to server maintenance.
Update
After approximately 32 hours of "technical break" Gran Turismo 7 has returned to the land of the living. The game has also received update 1.08, which fixes a last minute issue found in yesterday's Patch 1.07, and the servers are back online.. At the same time the game's director, Kazunori Yamauchi, prepared a message, in which he apologizes and explains the situation, as well as the decisions he has made regarding race rewards.
The delayed activation of the servers was due to a bug that caused the game to not start properly in some cases, which could put saved player data at risk. As for the reduced payouts for wins...
"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 (...). We would really appreciate it if everyone could watch over the growth of Gran Turismo 7 from a somewhat longer term point of view."
Are you prepared to trust Polyphony Digital that they know what they're doing, and lowering race rewards is actually a step towards avoiding "a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again"? I for one would appreciate it if Yamauchi would say something more about these future updates...
Original message
If anything has dampened players' enthusiasm for Gran Turismo 7 prior to its release, it was the announcement that an internet connection would be required for almost all of the game's features (including single player). Today we can see how unfortunate that decision was.
Yesterday, began "server maintenance" during the upload of patch 1.07. This operation was supposed to finish after 2 hours at most, but there were unspecified problems, which caused it to be drastically delayed. As a result GT7 has been virtually unplayable for over 24 hours..
Yes, in offline mode you can play music rallies, single races or time trials (although just loading the menu currently takes almost 10 minutes), but it can hardly be considered a satisfying form of fun. Especially since you don't get paid for it or even build up distance for the so-called daily workout (driving 42.2 km each day is rewarded with a roulette coupon). These and all other ways of progression, included within the career mode, are blocked.
This is the main menu in offline mode. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/granturismo/comments/tg3zr0/im_glad_they_fixed_it_in_7_so_the_game_is/
This is especially frustrating for players, because they are not happy with the changes announced in patch 1.07. On the contrary. Polyphony Digital has announced that it will be "adjusting" the rewards for various races - in other words, reducing them significantly in most cases.
In any case, waiting for Gran Turismo 7 servers to be back on is a bit like holding your head on a stump and waiting for the executioner's axe to fall. And since gamers have nothing better to do until that happens, they kill time by venting their grievances on Reddit or GTPlanet... and sparing no words about how disappointed they are with Polyphony Digital. Well, no doubt this is not a day of glory for this Japanese developer.
