Gran Turismo 7 Launches Today and the Monetization is Terrible
Gran Turismo 7 is finally available on PS5 and PS4. The grand launch and very high ratings, however, are overshadowed by the game's intrusive monetization. The good thing is that Polyphony Digital is still committed to expanding the game with free updates.
Gran Turismo Sport launched almost four and a half years, but single player career mode fans have been waiting for Gran Turismo 7 for over eight years (that's how long it's been since the PS3 version of Gran Turismo 6 launched). Today, the new work of Polyphony Digital hit the PS4 and PS5 consoles.
Has your patience been duly rewarded? According to the global consensus of reviewers - yes, by all means. The average rating of the PS5 version on Metacritic is 87%. Pur editor, however, was more restrained and gave GT7 7/10, pointing out, for example, deficiencies in the game's AI and set-up options, as well as microtransactions.
Microtransactions worse than expected
That's right, microtransactions. At the time of writing the review, we had no insight into the game's monetization systems - all we knew was that there would be an option to buy virtual currency with real money. The specific options only became apparent when the game debuted and... I was shocked when I looked at the PS Store.
Credits (Cr.) in GT7 can be purchased in four packs:
- $2.49 - 100,000 Cr.
- $4.49 - 250,000 Cr.
- $9.49 - 750.000 Cr.
- $19.99 - Cr. 2,000,000.
How do these amounts relate to in-game economics? The prices of the cars have hardly changed compared to GT Sport. The Gr. 4 racing vehicles of are priced at 350k credits each, the upper class (Gr. 3) cars are priced at 450k credits each, and for the top of the line cars - the Gr. 1 cars and the exclusive Vision Gran Turismo prototypes - the price is set at 1 million credits. There are also dozens of more expensive, iconic cars that can be worth up to 10 million Cr. (or even more).
If we convert the credits to dollars, calculating from the perspective of the largest currency package, it would come out that the price of the most expensive cars in the game equals to several dozen bucks. Each concept model costs around $10, and for a quick start in the races in Gr. 3 or Gr. 4 (the leading categories in the game) you should spend - respectively - about $4 or $3.
"Limited Stock" means that the Ferrari will disappear from the offer any moment. What to do - recharge the account for almost $100 or save credits and wait for the next opportunity (coming in nobody knows how long)?
What is interesting, GT Sport also featured microtransactions, but in a much lighter form.. Instead of credits, you bought specific cars from the PS Store, with prototypes costing $4 each, and Gr. 3 cars costing $3 each.
This is further exacerbated by the fact that in GT7 the draws for 'daily training'. (driving around 42km) has been completely transformed. In GT Sport the player had a guaranteed car, now the chance of getting a car is (theoretically) 1:4, and the rest of the prizes are money and tuning parts. In practice for several dozens of draws for me and my colleagues in the editorial office, there was almost always 2 or 5 thousand credits - hardly worth the effort.
In turn, the problem with cars is that not all of them are available for purchase at any time in the showroom (Brand Central). A large number have been dispersed across other places where they appear sporadically in rotation - and also some of the ones from the showroom can only be bought after receiving a special invitation that has a limited expiration date. It's yet another factor that might prompt someone to visit the PS Store for an instant injection of virtual cash (as collecting credits through racing could take too long).
Thankfully, not all the cars in GT7 cost hundreds of thousands of credits.
Gran Turismo 7 post-release development
Finally, let's mention something more pleasant. Polyphony Digital presented an outline of planned post-release support for Gran Turismo 7. Just like with GT Sport, we can expect updates with free content, which will include, among other things:
- Tracks,
- Cars,
- Global Circuit Competitions (single-player),
- Missions,
- Music Rallies,
- Tuning engine parts,
- Time trials in Sport mode (multiplayer).
