Gran Turismo 7 Update Draws Criticism Over Payouts

Gran Turismo 7 Economy Controversy 01.jpg
Gran Turismo 7's in-game economy has been a source of controversy for the newly released racing title, and the latest update has complicated the matter even more.

The latest release in the massively successful and influential Gran Turismo series has been met with mostly positive reviews, which praise GT7 gorgeous graphics, improvements to the sounds and driving physics, and a return to the car customization options that helped popularize the series.

One thing that has been met with far less praise is the in-game economy of GT7. For those not familiar with the title, Gran Turismo 7 rewards players for winning races or challenges with credits. These credits can be used toward buying new cars or parts upgrades. But this edition of Gran Turismo makes earning these credits a slower process than recent installments of title, which has frustrated many owners of the game.

The slower economy has also raised concern from some, as it could indicate that the game intends to steer players toward purchasing in game credits with real money. This system is known to most as micro-transactions.

The payout rate for credits earned through achievements in game isn't the lowest in the series history, nor is this the first Gran Turismo title to offer micro-transactions, but GT7's credit system remains one of the most discussed features. A common counter argument to those criticizing the payout rates is that this release is one of the rare racing titles that encourages you to earn your content, rather than giving players too much too soon.

Gran Turismo 7 Economy Controversy 02.jpg


The most recent update as of the time of this writing brought GT7 to version 1.07. Among the changes were adjustments to the payouts for several events, including a one lap race at the fictional Fisherman's Ranch course. This race stood out to those trying to earn credits, since its payout relative to time invested made it the leading choice to "grind". Grinding involves running the same race again and again to earn a repeating payout. The Fisherman's Ranch payout has now been reduced to less than half of its previous amount, which has effectively eliminated the fastest way to earn credits for free in the game.

What are your thoughts on the Gran Turismo 7 payout system? Is this game designed to encourage micro-transactions? Does the credit system encourage earning rewards rather than being given everything too soon? Let us know in the comments below.
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

P
I'd like to see a similar article entitled: "Assetto Corsa Competizione receives criticism over poor graphics, poor performance, VR fail and MP being an utter wreckfest." Then we can talk.
Anyway, for those who haven't noticed, the gaming community has become a cesspool of haters that simply hate everything. Social media and rabid gamers will wind up destroying the gaming industry.
 
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TeddyBearx said:
you seem to not be able to control the car with Simulation mode and no assist, that's why there are assists and normal mode for unskilled I mean drivers with difficulties.
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Yes, I have difficulty controlling a car that does not obey physical laws. The handling is a disaster and you never have the feeling of being in control of the car.

It's not because of my skills, I have no problems with simulations like iRacing, rFactor 2 or AMS 2. Cars there behave like cars.
 
MJQT
Last GT game I played was GT5 – and I played it a ton as a teenager – and what I remember is that the "Seasonal Events" single player events that Polyphony rotated from time to time would give much larger payouts than 'stock' single player and thus facilitate progression (especially if you grinded them occasionally). Plus they changed the events periodically – which made for nice variety. I really enjoyed those! :) Sadly, with the death of GT5 online services, they are no longer available.

With only regular single player events, I think GT5 would have felt overly grind-y (with too little reward for each race) and I wouldn't have enjoyed the game for very long. If GT7 (in single player, not multiplayer) is basically only unchanging and low-payout 'regular' GT5-type single player events, I'm not sure the game is for me. EDIT: I'm also unconvinced the game would be for 'teenager me' either.
 
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Keith Joyce
UnixRoot said:
I bought Forza Motorsport 7 for PC last week and find it completely undriveable. The cars behave so unrealistically that I can't handle them at all. In simulation mode, you're constantly spinning without warning and can't catch the cars either. The physics are so strange that I don't understand what the car is doing next, it doesn't feel like driving a car at all.

The tracks are also horrible. When I look at how good fantasy tracks like Trial Mountain, Deep Forest or Rome City were in Gran Turismo, I can't understand what the designers were thinking with the Forza tracks.

I knew it wouldn't be on iRacing or rFactor 2 level, but I didn't expect the game to be completely undriveable with a steering wheel. Even the old PS2 Gran Turismos were fun with a wheel.

Strangely enough, the game is described in many reviews as simulation-heavy. Gran Turismo is way better than Forza.
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Totally agree. For me it's the fixed FOV and over-dark tracks that consign my copy to the dustbin.
 
B
Console racing games should feel like real work. People are craving for such experience in their car collect-a-thon journey they self-inflict. Whatever is happening is deserved.
 
D
Refund is now open in Amazon for my 25th AE physical-edition.

They had the chance to stop the credit-nerfe today. They didn't do anything.

Why should i now continue with the career? People who already finished have more credits. And when they maybe bring it back to old credit-earnings, i am already finished then (also with less credits). So its a clear disadvantage for me in both cases.

Its unacceptable to change the credit-earnings AFTER release. And most likely its also illegal, at least here in germany.

They need to get rid of the managers who decided this.
 
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Slapped said:
This is partly why I stay away from triple A titles these days. The other part is that they're all bland and for the most part use exactly the same boring game mechanics.

The big studios no longer take innovative risks with gameplay, and just churn out the same crap year after year with slightly different graphics - some exceptions do exist, but they're thin on the ground.

These days I play indie titles almost exclusively - you don't get the most polished graphics or the longest games, but you do get some very interesting, different, and addictive gameplay mechanics (with no MTs)
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Change triple A titles for movies and almost the same applies. Those big studios (both in games and movies) are slaves of stock holders that have no interest whatsoever in the final product nor in the company itself, they are there only to speculate with the value of their stock. The CEOs of those companies are alergic to take risks, and as a result we get sequels of sequels and titles that feel copy-pasted with just a slight change in setting and a little graphics engine improvement, like the total war franchise always does.

When the video game industry was a lot smaller in the late 80s until late 90s a lot of the studios still where funded, owned and lead mostly by people passionate about what they where doing, programmers that had professional pride in their craft that had the will to try new things and be creative even if it risked the company. Now almost nobody takes a risk, the studios either churn out a new sequel of a past successful title or they copy anything new that has no complication and sells well like the mangakas are forced to do by their publishers in japan: churning out left right and centre generic copy-paste isekais in medieval ambientation with mc's that out of nowhere become op and grow their own massive harems of girls with inhuman bust sizes that fall in love with the mc just because.

Thank god that at least the online game distribution has allowed the creation of indy studios independent of publishers, or at least way less dependent of them. Most of those indy studios keep the same mentality than the ones on the 80s and 90s in daring to try something new.
 
Mekonrider
protonv5 said:
I'd like to see a similar article entitled: "Assetto Corsa Competizione receives criticism over poor graphics, poor performance, VR fail and MP being an utter wreckfest." Then we can talk.
Anyway, for those who haven't noticed, the gaming community has become a cesspool of haters that simply hate everything. Social media and rabid gamers will wind up destroying the gaming industry.
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This doesn't absolve games companies of deserved criticism though. The BUYERS will not destroy the gaming industry. What games companies are cynically selling us wil destroy the gaming industry. Remember E.T. and other shovelware that companies thought they could get away with?
 
T
The simple fact is that PD are simulating the real world economy in a game. I play games to exit the real world, don't we all? I don't need to spend $70 to have a list of cars I would love to drive and own but never will... real life already gives me that.

Think about the Porsche 917k. Beautifully modeled, used heavily to market the game. I read somewhere that it costs $18 million credits to buy it in game. That is countless hours of playing to buy one car. Ok, I'll just buy it with cash in the PS Store then. In GT Sport you could buy cars directly for 2,3 or 4 dollars but you could not buy unicorns like the Ferrari GTO in the store, you had to grind or go without. In GT7 you can only purchase credits. 2 million credits costs $20 USD. So the Porsche 917 would cost $180 USD through microtransactions. Ridiculous.

Essentially, PD makes beautiful car models of rare cars and 99% of GT players never get to use any of them. It's a warped, very poor design choice. As i said earlier, I already have my real life where I will never drive a 917 or a GTO, why should I be given the same thing in a video game that actually has the content in game?
 
Keith Joyce
traind said:
The simple fact is that PD are simulating the real world economy in a game. I play games to exit the real world, don't we all? I don't need to spend $70 to have a list of cars I would love to drive and own but never will... real life already gives me that.

Think about the Porsche 917k. Beautifully modeled, used heavily to market the game. I read somewhere that it costs $18 million credits to buy it in game. That is countless hours of playing to buy one car. Ok, I'll just buy it with cash in the PS Store then. In GT Sport you could buy cars directly for 2,3 or 4 dollars but you could not buy unicorns like the Ferrari GTO in the store, you had to grind or go without. In GT7 you can only purchase credits. 2 million credits costs $20 USD. So the Porsche 917 would cost $180 USD through microtransactions. Ridiculous.

Essentially, PD makes beautiful car models of rare cars and 99% of GT players never get to use any of them. It's a warped, very poor design choice. As i said earlier, I already have my real life where I will never drive a 917 or a GTO, why should I be given the same thing in a video game that actually has the content in game?
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$180 for a sim-race car? That's just ridiculous. It's almost as if anyone would buy a ship in a space sim for $1000 - oh, wait...
 
T
Keith Joyce said:
$180 for a sim-race car? That's just ridiculous. It's almost as if anyone would buy a ship in a space sim for $1000 - oh, wait...
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And the next step to that madness are the NFTs, in where you pay to get a digital certificate that says that you own a link. Not the digital content of what that link points to, just the link itself.
 
V
UnixRoot said:
I bought Forza Motorsport 7 for PC last week and find it completely undriveable. The cars behave so unrealistically that I can't handle them at all. In simulation mode, you're constantly spinning without warning and can't catch the cars either. The physics are so strange that I don't understand what the car is doing next, it doesn't feel like driving a car at all.

The tracks are also horrible. When I look at how good fantasy tracks like Trial Mountain, Deep Forest or Rome City were in Gran Turismo, I can't understand what the designers were thinking with the Forza tracks.

I knew it wouldn't be on iRacing or rFactor 2 level, but I didn't expect the game to be completely undriveable with a steering wheel. Even the old PS2 Gran Turismos were fun with a wheel.

Strangely enough, the game is described in many reviews as simulation-heavy. Gran Turismo is way better than Forza.
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Simulation mode is an undriveable mess and has been since like FM3. You should have played on normal steering, I used a G27 with that and found the game physics perfectly controllable on a wheel.
 
U
Vadara said:
Simulation mode is an undriveable mess and has been since like FM3. You should have played on normal steering, I used a G27 with that and found the game physics perfectly controllable on a wheel.
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I tried it on normal, the slow and spongy FFB didn't really help. When you feel that the rear is getting light, it's already to late to countersteer. I had to go down to 360° wheel rotation to be able to catch the cars. It's better than simulation mode but it still feels wrong.

Even if it were drivable, I'm still bothered by the way too wide FOV, the pitch black night driving and the really poorly designed fantasy tracks. There is not one memorable track in Forza. Trial Mountain, Mid Field, Rome or Deep Forest have been in my head for almost 30 years. Polyphony did something right with the track design.

Pretty graphics aren't everything, unfortunately.
 
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T
protonv5 said:
I'd like to see a similar article entitled: "Assetto Corsa Competizione receives criticism over poor graphics, poor performance, VR fail and MP being an utter wreckfest." Then we can talk.
Anyway, for those who haven't noticed, the gaming community has become a cesspool of haters that simply hate everything. Social media and rabid gamers will wind up destroying the gaming industry.
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Only half of it. The other half is full of fanboys such as you, who will be happy with anything as long as it carries the "brand", even if it's overpriced cash grabbing garbage, like GT7.
You can't even make a half decent comparison. ACC has received it's share of negative reviews and harsh criticism, but not for being an shameless overpriced cash grab. It had issues, it got fixed. That's it.
As for MP, it's the same in every racing game. Meet the wrong people and you get a wreckfest. Meet the right people and you get a good race. It's a matter of luck. I've had GREAT races even in FM7.
It's people like you the ones who are destroying the gaming industry.
 
T
UnixRoot said:
I bought Forza Motorsport 7 for PC last week and find it completely undriveable. The cars behave so unrealistically that I can't handle them at all. In simulation mode, you're constantly spinning without warning and can't catch the cars either. The physics are so strange that I don't understand what the car is doing next, it doesn't feel like driving a car at all.

The tracks are also horrible. When I look at how good fantasy tracks like Trial Mountain, Deep Forest or Rome City were in Gran Turismo, I can't understand what the designers were thinking with the Forza tracks.

I knew it wouldn't be on iRacing or rFactor 2 level, but I didn't expect the game to be completely undriveable with a steering wheel. Even the old PS2 Gran Turismos were fun with a wheel.

Strangely enough, the game is described in many reviews as simulation-heavy. Gran Turismo is way better than Forza.
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Well, i play FM7 in sim mode WITH A KEYBOARD and i do just fine. If you are unable to handle FM7, i suggest you stay away from racing games other than Need for Speed. But even those might be a challenge for you. By the way, the thread is about GT7, not FM7. Why do you GT fanatics have to ALWAYS bash on the competition when your favorite game gets criticized? You ALWAYS do that.
 
U
turbo86 said:
Well, i play FM7 in sim mode WITH A KEYBOARD and i do just fine. If you are unable to handle FM7, i suggest you stay away from racing games other than Need for Speed. But even those might be a challenge for you. By the way, the thread is about GT7, not FM7. Why do you GT fanatics have to ALWAYS bash on the competition when your favorite game gets criticized? You ALWAYS do that.
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Yeah, with keyboard or gamepad you have the reaction time to countersteer the crappy handling cars. That's the only way to be fast in Forza. Try it with a wheel and you'll be shocked how unintuitive and unrealistic the handling really is.

Nice that you bring up Need for Speed, the older titles had much more plausible physics and way better wheel support and FFB than Forza. Try NFS 3, 4 or Porsche for example.

And I'm not a Gran Turismo fanboy, the only titles I own are GT 3 and 4, and they're both fun to drive with a wheel. They're not hardcore simulations but the cars are intuitive to drive and the physics are not that unrealistic.

Forza is a game for gamepad or keyboard players. They shouldn't market it as a racing simulation with that crappy physics and really bad wheel support and FFB. Then it wouldn't get all the hate.
 
S
Not a console gamer, though listening to this thread, since couple of days ago I reviewed my Google Play payments and observed an old subscription for the phone/tablet arcade game 'Real Racing 3' and installed it right away on my newest tablet.

But I think I have to live on Eaton Sq., London, UK or otherwise with expressively padded personal finances, calling those RR3 teasings of new cars 'micro'-transactions, with prices set up to DKK499/€67/ $75/£55 in real money.
Would not only have to sell my house and my car but also had to find other means, if I had to go through 'microtransactions' for every single time during the years downloading my tons of free quality mods for AC, GTR2, rF1, older Reiza Sims, GPL and the SimBin family :confused::roflmao:

Edit: Also a reason why I discontinued my iRacing account. Fine if you hook for only a few sims and have all available time, but expensive DLC's and on top of that only for renting and not your permanent property will never in a lifetime be my hobby.
 
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T
UnixRoot said:
Yeah, with keyboard or gamepad you have the reaction time to countersteer the crappy handling cars. That's the only way to be fast in Forza. Try it with a wheel and you'll be shocked how unintuitive and unrealistic the handling really is.

Nice that you bring up Need for Speed, the older titles had much more plausible physics and way better wheel support and FFB than Forza. Try NFS 3, 4 or Porsche for example.
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NO.
NOPE.
Just.....NO.
Absolutely NO.
1000% NO.
What you just said is just.....NO. a BIG NO. I'm trying hard not to say the world S$#%D here.
You simply can't drive. It's ok. Not everybody can. Just stop making a fool out of yourself. I'm trying to help you out here.
 

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