Once upon a time I would have made a similar speech about Blizzard. It would not have aged well.
Things change. I hope you're right, but these aren't charities. Polyphony and Sony are smart, but they're not necessarily using their smarts on things that directly benefit you and me. These are businesses owned by people who hold money above all else. We've seen plenty of companies burn goodwill for the sake of immediate returns, and it hurts.
You can't say that Polyphony will never do that. You can say that they haven't so far (which is sort of debatable, given GT6, but they seem to have learned their lesson), and you can keep an eye out for things that might be a red flag. Like a microtransaction system where you pay money to bypass gameplay.
I'm fine with paying for entertainment, and my Steam library will absolutely attest that I've bought games from publishers that I never played simply because I wanted to support them more. The world needs more Yoko Taro games. But there are some ways of "supporting" a company that probably shouldn't exist. Buying in-game currency is one of them.
I would prefer release day Car Passes or Season Passes to buying in-game currency, because at least those things are tied to specific assets that you're purchasing access to. Sell a GT Cafe career expansion, sell a Tourist Trophy expansion, sell more ridiculous magical VGTs if they have to. All these things have incentives for the developer to make the best product possible.
But buying in-game currency is paying to skip playing parts of the game, and how attractive that is to a player is entirely controlled by the developer. The incentive is to make the game grindier not because it makes the game better, but because it makes more money.
Grind isn't necessarily bad if it's there for a good design reason. Elden Ring is a prime example of a game where you have to put in a lot of hard work to achieve something, and the achievement is only as rewarding as it is because you had to work so hard for it. It's great, and that's the path the GT7 grind should be going down. You play because it's fun and you're rewarded appropriately for your time and skill.
Grind is bad if it's there to frustrate the player into dropping money to overcome it. And even if it's not primarily being used that way, the MTX system is in the game because someone had the thought "I bet some people will give us money to make the game less annoying" instead of "I bet we could design out some of the annoyances in our game".
Bringing us full circle to if the AI didn't blow, the thought of doing micro transactions wouldn't even cross my mind. It's unlikely that the AI is bad because they want the gameplay to be boring to incentivise microtransactions, but it's another small reason for them not to care that much about improving it...
I do really like your idea of car passes or season passes. That content I for one would absolutely buy and probably not use
. Much like a lot of content I've bought for ACC. As long as the content is relevant and worth it, I have no problem buying it in order to keep this franchise strong.
......and having followed your posts for a time now, I think we could both agree that
Both Of Us speak from both sides of our mouth sometimes. Mainly because I've expressed the same sentiments that you have with PD, Sony, PS5 vs PS4 integration for GT7, so on and so forth. In the end, SONY (and by extension PD) is only accountable to their stockholders. Like
EVERYTHING, its a balance of DOLLARS AND CENTS.
And as a true believer in the good of capitalism, it isn't without its faults.... INCLUDING companies deceitfully creating an artificial supply and demand issue to drive up costs
.....However, like most long term strategy investors (which I very much am), its not a
Hard Sell to convince me to sign off on the long term investment plan of said company.
.....
HOWEVER, its also difficult to sell me on turning my back on a short term plan that has very promising returns.
This is when I will (without any inside knowledge) speculate to Sony, PD (in particularly Kaz) thinks in regards to Gran Turismo and Play Stations future.
In a somewhat loose order:
- Kaz is an enthusiast
- Kaz is a Visionary
- Kaz is a ROMANTIC
- Kaz is a businessman
I think this is Kaz's
Swan Song to Gran Turismo before he passes the reigns to someone else. I think after 4 years time, we will see the
inevitability and
conclusion of his life's work. We're talking 30+ years, from the inception of Gran Turismo 1 till 2026. That's a HUGE career.
Like I've said a few times now.....
in the end, after 2 years time, this game will manifest into 90% of the game we all want. If I can support that where I see fit, I will. If I get taken for a fool, I'll gladly eat my words.
At any rate, I have a
MID LIFE CRISIS inbound in a few years that I've already planned for, and quite honestly, am looking forward to!!
Gran Turismo, is a sizable part of that plan
