Few of my friends play anymore.

[Voodoovaj]

I've noticed for the last few weeks that whenever I log in, there is either 1 or 0 friends playing at the same time.

The folks that I used to play open lobbies with in GT5 and GT6 have abandoned the game. They haven't played in weeks/months. I know that the lack of balance in the street car racing is the problem here. Few of them were fans of the BoP, finding it of little help in balancing the street cars, and having no BoP on leaves the N classes a complete mess.

Maybe there's other regions where the game has maintained popularity, but it seems it has fallen off a cliff here. If I go into the open lobbies looking for some street car racing, there is precious little out there, and what is out there is almost insufferable.

Note - please don't suggest leagues and stuff, that misses the point.

I know some have said tuning is a painstaking process, but with the dumping of the PP system and no tuning in the dailies, that entire aspect of the game seems to have been tossed out the window. Not to mention the loss of server settings, like a timer.

The mileage exchange hasn't seen anything new, other than paint, in months now. So, is this all we get???

For years, I could fire up GT and play with friends, some of whom have become quite close. We came to discuss the ups and downs of life. It was more than just a quick race. Still, the game had the underpinnings that supported nearly endless play. Now, with the changes that have simplified the game, it's all fallen apart.

Is my experience common for anyone else or is this just an issue for me? I know many GTPlanet folks are into the leagues, but I'm sure some just play with friends from time to time.

Is this how this franchise dies?

 

[Brend]

The game has still pulled about 3 million in sales, numbers that most other racing games could only dream of. Whilst long-term engagement might fall with Sport, there's still going to be a healthy audience of competitive racers who want to make the most of a (reasonably) clean racing environment.

I'm probably in the same camp as your friends in that I've found less and less reasons to play the game over time but I don't equate that to others feeling the same way. I just don't really enjoy the crux of what Sport is all about, despite it being done very well all things considered.

I'd say we're pretty much a lock for the next GT game returning to the old style of game with elements of Sport thrown in too. Sony and PD have made their money (perhaps, these are expensive games to make after all), I don't think a lack of interest 8 or so months from release signals the 'end' of the franchise.

 

[inri]

Plenty of mine still play and I make new ones all the time but even if they didn't it's unreasonable to expect people to play a game every day for years on end

 

[mthomas_95]

There are tens of thousands of players every day in Sport Mode, not bad for a dying franchise.

The online infrastructure now exists on the console to do proper ranked, scheduled races. Naturally this means a migration away from the open lobbies which were the only means to race online for a good decade or so, and many like myself avoided because of the one in a million chance of actually getting a clean race. The F1 games and Forza have kept the same basic online setup and their players' complaints have really increased since GT Sport came out, because they see just how much better an environment we have now.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

I'd say we're pretty much a lock for the next GT game returning to the old style of game with elements of Sport thrown in too. Sony and PD have made their money (perhaps, these are expensive games to make after all), I don't think a lack of interest 8 or so months from release signals the 'end' of the franchise.

I feel that GT Sport was like the proverbial ripping off of the band aid. There was a lot of net code work and foundational development that just had to be done if the series was going to move forward. With that stuff out of the way, I'd imagine that any future iteration would focus more on the single player experience while rolling all of their Sport advancements into future titles.

 

[Sander 001]

I wonder if they’re waiting for E3 to bring in changes.

I actually like N600. It’s kinda balanced in that some cars will be best on certain tires, tracks, tire wear while other cars will do better in different scenarios

 

[VBR]

@Voodoovaj - You're a man after my own heart.

 

[G1acom011]

I've noticed for the last few weeks that whenever I log in, there is either 1 or 0 friends playing at the same time.

The folks that I used to play open lobbies with in GT5 and GT6 have abandoned the game. They haven't played in weeks/months. I know that the lack of balance in the street car racing is the problem here. Few of them were fans of the BoP, finding it of little help in balancing the street cars, and having no BoP on leaves the N classes a complete mess.

Maybe there's other regions where the game has maintained popularity, but it seems it has fallen off a cliff here. If I go into the open lobbies looking for some street car racing, there is precious little out there, and what is out there is almost insufferable.

Note - please don't suggest leagues and stuff, that misses the point.

I know some have said tuning is a painstaking process, but with the dumping of the PP system and no tuning in the dailies, that entire aspect of the game seems to have been tossed out the window. Not to mention the loss of server settings, like a timer.

The mileage exchange hasn't seen anything new, other than paint, in months now. So, is this all we get???

For years, I could fire up GT and play with friends, some of whom have become quite close. We came to discuss the ups and downs of life. It was more than just a quick race. Still, the game had the underpinnings that supported nearly endless play. Now, with the changes that have simplified the game, it's all fallen apart.

Is my experience common for anyone else or is this just an issue for me? I know many GTPlanet folks are into the leagues, but I'm sure some just play with friends from time to time.

Is this how this franchise dies?

In italy isn't better. There aren't so much people who like GT Sport. I talk of teenagers about 14 years old, that for Polyphony are the salvation for the future of FIA GT Championship. I want to tell 2 facts:
1) 3 months ago, I asked at my friend if he bought GT, but after, he says no because he spent lots of money for other games (in few words, he didn't like GT Sport).
2) In Italy everyone has the same videogames. So, in Italy, a little part of the popolation (nostalgic people of 20-30 years old, I think), have GT Sport, because everyone, if you don't talk about that horrible game of Fortnite, or FIFA18, you are a "black sheep". It's horrible; and the youtubers continue to play that and to encourage the kids to play with this horrible games just for money.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

There are tens of thousands of players every day in Sport Mode, not bad for a dying franchise.

Are there sources for this? Genuinely just curious — I see we can now view the qualifying for the daily races in Sport Mode on the official site (very handy 👍 ) but it's hard to get a figure for the entire mode in term of unique players, especially in all the regions.

I've been checking the FIA stuff periodically and here in the Americas it's typically around 1500–2000 or so people by the end of the week.

The F1 games and Forza have kept the same basic online setup and their players' complaints have really increased since GT Sport came out, because they see just how much better an environment we have now.

That's a really hard one to measure.

I've noticed for the last few weeks that whenever I log in, there is either 1 or 0 friends playing at the same time.

The folks that I used to play open lobbies with in GT5 and GT6 have abandoned the game. They haven't played in weeks/months. I know that the lack of balance in the street car racing is the problem here. Few of them were fans of the BoP, finding it of little help in balancing the street cars, and having no BoP on leaves the N classes a complete mess.

Maybe there's other regions where the game has maintained popularity, but it seems it has fallen off a cliff here. If I go into the open lobbies looking for some street car racing, there is precious little out there, and what is out there is almost insufferable.

Note - please don't suggest leagues and stuff, that misses the point.

I know some have said tuning is a painstaking process, but with the dumping of the PP system and no tuning in the dailies, that entire aspect of the game seems to have been tossed out the window. Not to mention the loss of server settings, like a timer.

The mileage exchange hasn't seen anything new, other than paint, in months now. So, is this all we get???

For years, I could fire up GT and play with friends, some of whom have become quite close. We came to discuss the ups and downs of life. It was more than just a quick race. Still, the game had the underpinnings that supported nearly endless play. Now, with the changes that have simplified the game, it's all fallen apart.

Is my experience common for anyone else or is this just an issue for me? I know many GTPlanet folks are into the leagues, but I'm sure some just play with friends from time to time.

Is this how this franchise dies?

A fall-off of regular play isn't unheard of in a game approaching its first full year anniversary. To complicate matters, if I had to guess, I'd say GT6's arrival post-PS4 actually played into what you describe: racing game fans on the PS3 would be more likely to keep playing it because they weren't itching to upgrade to the racing-less PS4, at least for a while.

Also, we're (finally) approaching summer weather. That's going to take its toll on any playerbase.

 

[Pedinhuh]

It's been almost a month since I last played the game, it just got too stale for me, I can't leave the SR S/DR B rank no matter what I do after the changes made on the last update.

A month before that, no friend on my list was playing this game anymore.

So I guess you're not alone, OP

 

[Veinz]

I don't see a whole lot of people on my friends list play anymore either, and to be honest my own interest in the game is dwindling because of the watered down daily races. The fact that they removed tuning from sport mode just plain sucks, and all it does is take away the depth and longevity of the game for me.

It's stale and boring, I understand they probably got rid of tuning to balance the cars, but there is a meta car or two for every track and every category without tuning anyway, so what's the point?

 

[DesertPenguin]

Check out the SNAIL Racing League for some of the cleanest racing on GTPlanet. Our mission is to provide our members with clean, intense, and competitive racing - regardless of skill level! We believe that providing full grids of evenly-matched competition is the most realistic way to race, improve skill, and refine race craft.

Spec racing ensures that success is determined primarily by driving skill and not by differences in power, gearing, suspension, weight, or aerodynamics. Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill. It also produces intense battles for position because everyone in the same car which is equally strong or weak in the different areas of the track. Plus, you'll never spend hours tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.

Our league night is Sunday at 9:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm Pacific. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, please check us out to learn more about us and how to join.

www.snailracing.org or www.gtplanet.net/snail

 

[mthomas_95]

Are there sources for this? Genuinely just curious — I see we can now view the qualifying for the daily races in Sport Mode on the official site (very handy 👍 ) but it's hard to get a figure for the entire mode in term of unique players, especially in all the regions.

I've been checking the FIA stuff periodically and here in the Americas it's typically around 1500–2000 or so people by the end of the week.

I based that on http://www.kudosprime.com/gts/stats.php?stat_preset=daily_sport_activity, will have a margin of error but generally it has been around mid 30k since the start of April (half of what it was around Xmas).

With the new website update I've spammed the Load More button for Daily Race B today and just before peak EMEA time there have been 10,000+ qualifying times for that region alone (jasonguernsey.net has it at 11,049 but that updates periodically)

 

[DriftMethod]

I feel that GT Sport was like the proverbial ripping off of the band aid. There was a lot of net code work and foundational development that just had to be done if the series was going to move forward. With that stuff out of the way, I'd imagine that any future iteration would focus more on the single player experience while rolling all of their Sport advancements into future titles.

I know people are asking for more single player content, but I play everyday and have yet to complete the GT League section. After playing Sport Mode with real people, I've lost interest in the majority of the single player stuff. Maybe PD will find a way to make single player more exciting, but after catching the Sport Mode bug it'll be hard to go back.

I hope the focus for the future is adding cars/tracks and further development of Sport Mode. Maybe the real FIA Championship will create some excitement and bring some people back in.

 

[Pearl Jam]

Really tried loving the game but for some reason it just doesn’t hit the spot, not saying it’s a badly done but I just got bored very quickly and went back to my first love (Driveclub)

 

[CJ1045]

Always seem to be matched in Sports Mode against 100% D Dr S Sr players. Never anything else so seems pretty popular in Europe still. Personally I am enjoying it as much as I have always done. I do play a lot off-line too as I like to decide where I race and against who. Never tried a lobby.

CJ

 

[tofuhero]

Sport mode is the main reason I log in to play GTS, and the selection of races has lately been getting worse. And I think with so many car classes now, just three races a day can't satisfy the needs of everyone. Also the lack of circuits is just making those races we do get feel repetitive.

I'd probably guess that for the more casual players, the lack of communication on DLC doesn't leave much reason to stay "hyped" and invest time into it. I came to this title from DriveClub and it's a night and day experience in terms of the communication and support. There are the GT diehards that just say, "Well that's PD, deal with it", but modern gamers don't want to deal with it. They expect communication and a constant blip of content.

 

[Voodoovaj]

Check out the SNAIL Racing League for some of the cleanest racing on GTPlanet. Our mission is to provide our members with clean, intense, and competitive racing - regardless of skill level! We believe that providing full grids of evenly-matched competition is the most realistic way to race, improve skill, and refine race craft.

Spec racing ensures that success is determined primarily by driving skill and not by differences in power, gearing, suspension, weight, or aerodynamics. Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill. It also produces intense battles for position because everyone in the same car which is equally strong or weak in the different areas of the track. Plus, you'll never spend hours tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.

Our league night is Sunday at 9:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm Pacific. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, please check us out to learn more about us and how to join.

www.snailracing.org or www.gtplanet.net/snail

I guess you missed this line.

Note - please don't suggest leagues and stuff, that misses the point.

Maybe I should clarify that I am referring to friends that were specific to Gran Turismo.

I know people are asking for more single player content, but I play everyday and have yet to complete the GT League section. After playing Sport Mode with real people, I've lost interest in the majority of the single player stuff. Maybe PD will find a way to make single player more exciting, but after catching the Sport Mode bug it'll be hard to go back.

I hope the focus for the future is adding cars/tracks and further development of Sport Mode. Maybe the real FIA Championship will create some excitement and bring some people back in.

Ya, single player is pointless since there is ultimately no reason to play it other than to be a completionist. It's not like the old days where some cars could only be obtained through single player.

The friends I speak of are all hard core players and, as hard core players, tuning was a big part of the game. It created a great deal of emotional investment. Now, it's all rather meaningless. Yes, the dailies are nice and convenient, and yes the lack of tuning means a little more peace of mind when someone beats you in the same car. Yet, I have to agree that all those street cars that were added after release have seen precious few miles on them, I've driven them for a lap, or two.

Hypothetical situation, let's say there's a bug where only the dailies work and none of the street cars are accessible, would that render the game unplayable for anyone? I mean, I think the addition of SR and DR has massively shifted the focus to the dailies, but after nearly a decade of online street car racing, I was really hoping that all the improvements would also mean better street car racing as well. Most of my friends have no interest in Sport Mode, and Sport Mode doesn't really allow for the building of camaraderie.

Also, I know that the lack of tuning is a frustrating aspect for my friends. The GR3 458 and Huracan are so much better to drive with some suspension work, but even though I've spent the time to straighten those cars out, it's all wasted work.

And, of course games decline in popularity, but in this case, it all seems like an abnormal decline given how it's predecessors played out. If it's going to be another 3-4 years before we see another iteration, one that addresses the changes that have caused this decline, it's sure going to seem like a LOOOOOOONG wait.

 

[DesertPenguin]

Sorry for missing that bit. What exactly about leagues missis the point? What are you after then?

 

[photonrider]

Are there sources for this? Genuinely just curious — I see we can now view the qualifying for the daily races in Sport Mode on the official site (very handy 👍 ) but it's hard to get a figure for the entire mode in term of unique players, especially in all the regions.

I've been checking the FIA stuff periodically and here in the Americas it's typically around 1500–2000 or so people by the end of the week.

That's a really hard one to measure.

A fall-off of regular play isn't unheard of in a game approaching its first full year anniversary. To complicate matters, if I had to guess, I'd say GT6's arrival post-PS4 actually played into what you describe: racing game fans on the PS3 would be more likely to keep playing it because they weren't itching to upgrade to the racing-less PS4, at least for a while.

Also, we're (finally) approaching summer weather. That's going to take its toll on any playerbase.

^ here's a sensible way to look at it.

In addition - what stats are we comparing with? Is GTS really doing as well as GT5/6 - both in terms of 'live' online activity (hours/population) and actual disk use (the latter a bit hard to measure) by offline players?
There is always the $ comparison of stats - how successful is GTS.
Did the shut-down of GT6 Online boost sales and activity of GTS? If not to what game did those players migrate to - there was a fairly active fan-base cut off.
I'm curious to know where that market has gone? Many may have been forced to get a PS4 and GTS but others wouldn't have bothered.
And as has been said - it's still a little too early to judge (unless we're comparing time-frames - 8 months after GT6 was launched was it worse than what GTS is now? If it was then PD is doing at better at selling their games.

There are also many other scenarios possible, one of them being that if you split a market up and then develop them both independently they each grow as big as they formally were together.
GTS appears to satisfy a certain type of player - and from the years of reading these Forums and the huge amount of whining that went on I'm happy those players were satisfied, and have a curated playground (obviously still a work in progress) to develop the skills they want and compete with the talent that gets their juices flowing.
There are other players, though, who look for far more than that in a video-game involving cars - as well as an efficient and sturdy online playground that brings that community together 'live'; trading cars, kits, and liveries, exchanging information, setting up lobbies as they wish, ' a place to meet for whatever - track-day, league race, public lobby - and they shouldn't have to go about this together with work-arounds - considering that PD can produce (and have done so) a complex abundance of vehicles and tracks in past games.

Online is as important as the content available to be used. It is upto PD to find and take advantage of what the Gran Turismo community as a whole want - and provide it.

Check out the SNAIL Racing League for some of the cleanest racing on GTPlanet. Our mission is to provide our members with clean, intense, and competitive racing - regardless of skill level! We believe that providing full grids of evenly-matched competition is the most realistic way to race, improve skill, and refine race craft.

Spec racing ensures that success is determined primarily by driving skill and not by differences in power, gearing, suspension, weight, or aerodynamics. Because variables in the car are eliminated, spec racing is the truest measure of driver skill. It also produces intense battles for position because everyone in the same car which is equally strong or weak in the different areas of the track. Plus, you'll never spend hours tuning cars or wondering if someone is truly faster than you or if they just have a better tune.

Our league night is Sunday at 9:30pm Eastern / 6:30pm Pacific. If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, please check us out to learn more about us and how to join.

www.snailracing.org or www.gtplanet.net/snail

I cannot recommend these guys enough - a great place to start if one is actually serious about consistent game-play and some fine racing training.

 

[Crazy Taylor]

You need friends from then. There are plenty of us still active on here playing.

 

[Skeletor27]

I agree 100% with the OP. Everything you said is spot on. I thought I was one of the only ones who felt like this. During the GT5-6 days, there were several of us who would play hours a day, few days/week for years. The lobbies we ran were full almost every time. If there was no one I knew online, I could easily find another open lobby that ran similar regs as we did (usually street cars 300-500 pp on sort tires) and there were many to choose from. Now the options for a good street car room are almost non-existent.

I'm with you Voodoo, seems like the glory days are behind us. The volume of players in open lobbies seems way down compared to GT5-6. A limited car selection compared to GT5-6. Tracks were better in 5-6. BoP is broken for N class cars. Most people want to run GR.3.

Daily races in Sport Mode can be fun, but too competitive and mismatched. Leagues can be fun too, but again, often too competitive, too regulated, and I can't just show up whenever I want to race, and drive whatever car I want to drive.

There's a lot of good things going on with this game and I enjoy it, but GT5-6 had a certain magic that GTS does not have.

 

[John Crellin]

Over the last week I kept opening N300 or N400 lobbies with tire restrictions and no one would join. If i took the tire restrictions out of the title people would join but then leave after a lap of sliding around the track after telling me off for not allowing RSS tires.... where were you guys then lol

 

[Knukel]

Stock/spec races were huge part of GT5/6. There were literally 100 familiar names playing regularly, or even more... But GT Sport has been dead quiet since early months, even back then when there were like 10 friends playing at the moment. It doesn't offer more than AC & basically it's just dull repetitive quick racing with randoms. No wonder people left it, there's no hope for online lobbies w/ great variety.

 

[seslab]

The game has still pulled about 3 million in sales

Nice number, but not for PD/Sony. In fact, GTS is the second worst sale of all GT franchises. By all I really mean all from GT 1 to GTS including all the Prologue editions (excluding Concept editions). At this point and compared to previous editions, not sure one can not say it is a success for PD/Sony.

Some quick numbers for comparison:

Gran Turismo: 10,8 millions
Gran Turismo 2: 9,3 millions
Gran Turismo 3: 14,8 millions
Gran Turismo 4: 11,7 millions
Gran Turismo 5: 11,9 millions
Gran Turismo 6: 5,2 millions
Gran Turismo S: 3,3 millions so far.

 

[NevilleNobody]

You guys come across as a bunch of gamers rather than racers. if you like to race, this game is brilliant and never gets boring, ever .. .because there's always the next race.

It is in dire need of more real tracks, namely Spa and Road America for starters, tracks with passing zones and proper layouts.

 

[Skeletor27]

Over the last week I kept opening N300 or N400 lobbies with tire restrictions and no one would join. If i took the tire restrictions out of the title people would join but then leave after a lap of sliding around the track after telling me off for not allowing RSS tires.... where were you guys then lol

Fake news. I looked high and low for something like that all last week and never saw you.

That happens to me too when I attempt to open a N lobby. They usually rage quit after crashing 1st turn. If anyone stays, it turns into an AWD fest. I always open the room regulations before I join any N class room and if I see no tire restrictions or restrictions say RH or better, I pass. Which is about 100% of the time.

 

[NevilleNobody]

Lobbies are *****. Too many of them, not enough with 10+ entries and the absolute RIDICULOUS situation where you have no idea when the lobby organiser will start the race, it's insane.

Not to mention tuning in this game is just silly, you get GT3 cars running F1 lap times, just so silly.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

I know people are asking for more single player content, but I play everyday and have yet to complete the GT League section. After playing Sport Mode with real people, I've lost interest in the majority of the single player stuff. Maybe PD will find a way to make single player more exciting, but after catching the Sport Mode bug it'll be hard to go back.

I don't get the fixation on single player content either. The race sim genre is fairly stale when it comes to Single Player play progression. It would just be a series of progressively difficult races where your ability to buy cars is carefully constrained against your progress to give an artificial sense of accomplishment.

Meanwhile in GTsport, you can challenge yourself by trying to beat GT League with nothing but low powered cars. To me it's all the same but I usually don't need arbitrary game progression systems to encourage me to play a game.

 

[QTheRacer_31]

Many have made new accounts. Most are sick of getting penalized for dummies unaware of the need to use their brake pedal. Some are waiting for good daily races or the much anticipated endurance sport mode races.