A surprise announcement from Japan looks set to require
Gran Turismo 7 players to prepare for increased car prices across the board in order to reflect real-life trends — but only if they reside in America.
Per an Executive Order, April 2 sees the implementation of controversial tariffs on imported cars and car parts in the USA, with a 25% tax levied on non-US made products. This comes despite warnings that this will drive up prices, with importers forced to pay the 25% fee, cutting into profit margins off the shelf and leading to costs being passed on to the end consumer.
Rather than being an exclusive levy on cars made outside the USA, it may have consequences for domestic products too. Cars are commonly constructed from components that are made overseas and brought in for final vehicle assembly. Indeed major components — such as engines — may themselves be made from parts from various countries.
In fact, every time a component crosses the border into the USA, it will be subject to the 25% tariff and this will increase costs even for vehicles that are eventually put together in a facility in the USA — even for domestic marques.
Long-term GT players will know that — with the
Hagerty dealership in Gran Turismo 7 and its almost-quarterly pricing updates to reflect changes in the classic car market a more recent example — Polyphony Digital strives for accurate pricing of vehicles in-game, and generally to European prices.
For example
a Hyundai Ioniq 5N will cost ¥8,580,000 ($57,500) in Japan, £65,000 ($84,000) in the UK, and €74,000 ($84,000) in Europe — compared to $67,675 for the US market price up to April 1. In
GT7, it’s priced near the European value, at 85,000cr.
Our US players though could see prices for most “Brand Central” cars (those produced from 2001 to the present) increasing by a quarter. The increases haven’t been specifically released, but we’re expecting only a handful of cars – Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette, Ford F-150 and Mustang, Tesla Model 3 and S, and Toyota Tundra – to be barely affected, if it all, and almost every other vehicle to increase by 25%.
Of course that will vastly increase the amount of credits players will need to buy every Brand Central car once apiece. Currently it costs almost 200m credits to buy each individual car once, so we’d estimate that’s going to be an increase of ~50m credits that players will need to scrape together to complete their Car Collection from scratch, or a little less if you don’t mind buying the used versions of 2001-2009 models.
Live operations and logistics manager Eipuru Irufuru remarked that “we always strive towards realism, and we find that as fidelity to the real world increases so player satisfaction also increases. Matching car price values to those of reality improves players’ social relationships with the vehicles they buy, and we’re sure that this will only enhance player enjoyment.”
Stay tuned for all the latest on this developing story.
