Gran Turismo 7's Microtransaction Pricing Revealed
- Thread starter Famine
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Silver Arrows
(Banned)
- 4,715
- Brandon, MB
- Silver-Arrows21
I think it should be pretty apparent by this point that Polyphony aren't your friends. Nor is Kaz.
It's truly amazing how utterly unwilling some people are in divorcing from the idea that Polyphony are still the plucky developers they were in the 90's, when the games industry was so much smaller, and the margins of failure so much more apparent. But now, in 2022? Polyphony are basically too big to fail.
Therefore, it would be real easy in that scenario to accept that Polyphony would do something like build an in game economy around grinding more then any other GT game prior, and design it around artificial scarcity and especially micro-transactions, and criticize both that fact, and the possibilities that Polyphony nakedly saying that they're going to continue with it also says that they may try to take things further.
Apparently not, though!
It's truly amazing how utterly unwilling some people are in divorcing from the idea that Polyphony are still the plucky developers they were in the 90's, when the games industry was so much smaller, and the margins of failure so much more apparent. But now, in 2022? Polyphony are basically too big to fail.
Therefore, it would be real easy in that scenario to accept that Polyphony would do something like build an in game economy around grinding more then any other GT game prior, and design it around artificial scarcity and especially micro-transactions, and criticize both that fact, and the possibilities that Polyphony nakedly saying that they're going to continue with it also says that they may try to take things further.
Apparently not, though!
- 813
- United Kingdom
Yeah, what the hell? No way I'd pay that amount of money for 2 million credits. Would much rather grind some boring events (even though I really wish it didn't have to be this way.)
That money is like some shopping for the week or fuel for my car (atleast, before the prices went up
)
Silver Arrows
(Banned)
- 4,715
- Brandon, MB
- Silver-Arrows21
It's truly wild how Polyphony and Kaz can do no wrong to some. Even when they do wrong, and should be criticized for it.
Yep. For proof's sake:
And the link.
Baffling the lengths people will go to to defend multi billion dollar corporations that don't care about them. "These people can afford it, who cares if they're unnecessary?"
GT7 is practically guaranteed to sell at least 10 million copies, at $70 that is a net of $700m. Last I heard first party publishers get around 50% of the income from games, so that's something in the region of $350M to Sony. They get even more for digital copies. Even if we take into account reduced price sales in later life, let's say they're only making $200M. The most expensive GT ever, GT5, cost $60M, because of it taking so long, having to upsize for the HD era, and practically re-start the game over with all new assets. Given that so much of this game is based on GTS there is no way it has cost anywhere near that. Plus you also have to factor in any new consoles people buy because of GT7. In short, without MTs this game is all but guaranteed to make a tidy profit for Sony.
Remember, we're talking about Sony here, not an indie publisher struggling to survive. They could even afford to take a loss on the game and still be perfectly rosy. They do not NEED to set this game up the way they have done. They have done it because they are greedy for even more.
Supporting practices like this just because you perceive it to be the norm is what leads to even more shady stuff in future and I just don't get it. Consumers have been demanding change in every industry there is for years, and it works. MTs were phased out of many games because of backlash against them. Yet here is PD/Sony, throwing them in again for the third game running and far too many people are just saying "Yeah cool, thanks Sony!" or "I don't care".
How bad does it have to get before you say "Hold on, this isn't right"?
- 1,251
- Australia
I believe a lot of people wanted GT7 to be a perfect homage to the glory and nostalgia of older GT titles...
It is unfortunate that micro-transactions kind of ruins that image so thoroughly.
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McLaren
Premium
- 45,423
- Texas
$20 for 2 million credits is roughly 1-2 hours worth of many folks' paychecks. If you grind Fishermans Ranch, that's 1,750,000/hour & still then some for the difference. I'm still allocating an hour of my day whether through my day job for the $20 needed, or an hour with the game after work, for those 2 million credits and that's under the best possible scenario. I'm not so sure I see said value.
Personally, I would take the couple hours with the game & save that $20 for something more meaningful, but the issue then becomes doing the same race over and over and over. I see folks saying they can complete Fishermans Ranch in under 4 minutes. How tedious is that? Doing the same race over a dozen times to make a quick 2 million credits. And after a while, someone might actually say, "Man, I'm not doing that boring race over and over again. Think I might spend the $20". This is why people are saying the game's economy needs to be balanced better. The additional posts highlighting that some expensive cars show up through limited time invitations or dealer rotations, does nothing but exacerbate the issue & will most definitely lead people to wonder if they should spend real world money on credits or let the car pass and wait for who knows how long to reappear.
You say it's pocket change but $20 can add up quick if it's 1 car over 2,000,000 cr.
Based on my brief conversation with @Scaff regarding DLC where you pay real money for the content & then have to pay in-game money to acquire it, I'm not so sure that's a good thing to believe in. PD models & releases the AMG-One as a $3 add-on & then sells for 3,000,000 cr. in-game w/ the current MXT options IF someone wanted to bypass another grind for it. That's over $30.... This is a reason Rockstar has been raked over their Shark Cards in relation to their in-game pricing for stuff, but Rockstar manages to band-aid the issue by releasing all its DLC for free.
Never the less, the added money from MXTs isn't doing anything to help boost additional content. The incentive to create more content comes from releasing content people want & knowing folks will be paying $1.00-$3.00 to recover whatever development cost that item had.
- 13,865
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Yeah, GT6 has been the only one with no paid DLC. It was a funny one because it released on PS3 after the PS4 was out, and with a lot of awesome features promised but not actually in the game at release. There was a lot of incentive for Polyphony to try and generate goodwill for the players of the game because it came with a lot of compromise.
I don't know where you live or what you do for a job, but that's really not true. Grats on being wealthy though. Must be nice.
It's a shame because as a game it really does pretty well despite the ongoing issues with AI, the weird career, etc. I think without the microtransactions stuff the game would be seen as peak Gran Turismo even if it's imperfect in that particularly Polyphony way which sort of makes it more charming.
The microtransactions just make it seem like a cash grab, and it brings every single weird design decision into question. Did they make the game the way it is because that was their artistic vision and they legitimately thought that was what players would enjoy the most, or did they do it to optimise revenue?
Just having that question hanging in the air spoils a lot. It's like hanging out with a mate that does MLM, they're kinda fun but you're constantly screening everything they say for the next ******** pitch to sell organic vegan makeup for pets.
- 2,130
- Porto
- JPSILVA1893
With GT Sport's microtransactions I really wasn't bothered, I could get what I wanted easy enough, and the microtransactions that were there weren't the most egregious thing I've ever seen. I could even hide the prompt and pretend they never existed.
However with GT7, PD/Sony crossed the line, and they know that, that's why they only revealed the MTX prices after all the reviews dropped.
That, coupled with artificially scarcity of in-game items (invites, needed to buy certain cars, tuning parts being locked behind RNG), inability to sell cars, and the short event list with low payouts, I think PD are staining what otherwise is in my opinion a great game.
Hopefully they get rid of microtransactions in the future or balance the in-game economy so that everyone can enjoy the content the game provides in a more natural way, by completing events that take full advantage of the game's car list and not doing the same thing over and over.
However with GT7, PD/Sony crossed the line, and they know that, that's why they only revealed the MTX prices after all the reviews dropped.
That, coupled with artificially scarcity of in-game items (invites, needed to buy certain cars, tuning parts being locked behind RNG), inability to sell cars, and the short event list with low payouts, I think PD are staining what otherwise is in my opinion a great game.
Hopefully they get rid of microtransactions in the future or balance the in-game economy so that everyone can enjoy the content the game provides in a more natural way, by completing events that take full advantage of the game's car list and not doing the same thing over and over.
- 1,251
- Australia
Man you've really painted a bleak outlook. I guess console gaming has already peaked and PC will still be the ideal to follow for the foreseeable future. Console gaming reached some limits for me with the PS4, it's possible the PS5 will be my last new gaming console, but i'll still enjoy the heck out of whatever fun is there to be had as it's fun for the time being. The Dualsense controller for one is an amazing step forward I keep hearing, Nothing else like it.
One frustrating aspect of these is that we will probably never hear/see PD explain anything about them. Other companies with something like this they'd do interviews and discuss the MTs, why they added them, why they think it's a good thing. Sure, it's 90% bull, but at least it told us they were aware of what was being said and they were having to think of good answers to the complaints raised.
But PD prefer to remain silent with the community. There will be no blog posts, there will be no developers popping up on the forums, there will be nothing but vague, matter of fact robotic patch notes and messages about known issues. We never get any human discussion with them. Whether a positive or a negative change, we NEVER get those community type messages.
Look at all the times they changed the physics and penalty system in GTS. Did they ever once properly explain what they changed, why they felt it was better, and what the changes were based on? No. Just "The penalty system has been improved" "FF car handing has been improved". No developer blog where they explain the rationale behind their decisions, what issues they faced etc.
It's the same with RWD physics right now in GT7. Some people feel they're accurate and good, others don't. There is a good chance PD make changes to that in the future, will they go into detail about it? Why it's the way it is now, what they changed any why? No, they'll say "Handing of RWD cars has been improved" in the patch notes and that's that.
So frustrating.
But PD prefer to remain silent with the community. There will be no blog posts, there will be no developers popping up on the forums, there will be nothing but vague, matter of fact robotic patch notes and messages about known issues. We never get any human discussion with them. Whether a positive or a negative change, we NEVER get those community type messages.
Look at all the times they changed the physics and penalty system in GTS. Did they ever once properly explain what they changed, why they felt it was better, and what the changes were based on? No. Just "The penalty system has been improved" "FF car handing has been improved". No developer blog where they explain the rationale behind their decisions, what issues they faced etc.
It's the same with RWD physics right now in GT7. Some people feel they're accurate and good, others don't. There is a good chance PD make changes to that in the future, will they go into detail about it? Why it's the way it is now, what they changed any why? No, they'll say "Handing of RWD cars has been improved" in the patch notes and that's that.
So frustrating.
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- 1,251
- Australia
I actually forgot GT6 had no paid DLC since all the GT5 DLC carried over with no MTX, that's indeed very funny, in some sense GT6 is sort of the odd game now that a lot people didn't buy and yet it tried "something" something.
This is a big question with no answer that can be agreed upon, as per usual lol
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- 2,371
Then you aren't the customer so why bother what others might wonna do with their money?
And I'm not defending I'm at most explaining and surprised by the total lack of gaming knowledge in a video game forum. If people get so worked up over this easy to avoid and zero game breaking doesn't matter micro transactions i would like to see them play an Activision or Bungie game.
- 2,099
- Zimbabwe
Activision games have only gotten to this point because people initially accepted those microtransactions as "easy to avoid and zero game breaking doesn't matter."
Those little microtransactions will eventually balloon out and take over the fundamental design of the game because it's just that profitable. It's bad enough as it is in GT7 but I can easily see PD lean even more heavily into it with future updates and future games.
Those little microtransactions will eventually balloon out and take over the fundamental design of the game because it's just that profitable. It's bad enough as it is in GT7 but I can easily see PD lean even more heavily into it with future updates and future games.
- 2,099
- Zimbabwe
I have. Haven't touched an Activision game in more than a decade.
Has it made a single bit of difference? No.
Has media attention following player complaints made game studios walk back on predatory monetization? Yes (AC Unity and Forza 7 just off the top of my head).
Silently voting with your wallet has about as much impact as GT7's music rally.
Has it made a single bit of difference? No.
Has media attention following player complaints made game studios walk back on predatory monetization? Yes (AC Unity and Forza 7 just off the top of my head).
Silently voting with your wallet has about as much impact as GT7's music rally.
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- 1,441
- They/Them
- Autumnal_Glow
- AutumnalGlow
- 13,865
- Adelaide
- Neomone
Because it affects the design of the rest of the game. You keep painting microtransactions as this wholly separate thing that are completely unrelated to the rest of the game. They aren't. They're a fundamental part of how the economy was designed.
Even if you never even think about buying a microtransaction, you're playing a game that is shaped by the fact that microtransactions exist in it.
That's what we're trying to avoid Gran Turismo becoming. You seem to be fine with it. Just don't buy the MTs, right? The games are fine and totally not built around microtransactions.
- 2,371
In the eye of the beholder, disable the "buy credits" and your prejudice and it's a game about earning credits by playing the game or in my case right now, trying to get GOLD at the nordschleife.
Of course it does, the wallets that voted are just fatter...
- 2,371
Ohh i thought you could disable it in the options?
And the economy isn't centered around micro transactions. There isn't a single item that requires you to use real money to optain it.
Buying credits only makes sense to people that can afford it and as we can see from the responses above it seems it makes more sense to earn credits in game vs in the real world. And that really is the only proof you need, or am I on the wrong foot here?
And the point about Activision is that those games keeps exclusive items behind micro transactions. It's a perfectly valid example.
Scaff
Moderator
- 29,447
- He/Him
- ScaffUK
Nope, tried it, makes zero difference at all.
That isn't the sole measure for an in-game economy being based around MXT's, and I think you know that full well.
And yet research has shown countless times that people that can't afford them still spend on them, and in some cases in an addictive manner, particularly if a title is geared towards pushing them in that direction, and GT 7's is.
And saying 'look PD/Sony aren't as bad as one of the worst in the industry' doesn't then paint them in a good light or invalidate the manner in which they have designed a game economy around MXT's.
Putin isn't responsible for as many innocent deaths as Mao/Stalin/Hitler, doesn't mean he's not an authoritarian dictator who's illegally invaded countries and is responsible for thousands of innocent deaths.
That's the argument you are making, that Sony/PD are actually playing fair because they are not being as bad as they could be. It's an absurd position and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all.
Scaff
Moderator
- 29,447
- He/Him
- ScaffUK
That doesn't change the validity of the points made or your inability to counter them.
It in no way changes this:
That's the argument you are making, that Sony/PD are actually playing fair because they are not being as bad as they could be. It's an absurd position and it doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all.
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