Gran Turismo 7's Microtransaction Pricing Revealed

[Sjokkomoes]

"To put these values into context, buying enough credits to pay for a single, 20,000,000-credit car in GT7 would cost $214. Although we haven’t seen full vehicle pricing yet there stands to be at least five such cars in the game, along with six other seven-figure cars."

Seem a bit steep and also why they will be missing out. Lets say little Robbie(or big ol'retired Steven) wants the big bad 20 mill. car but does not like grinding for cash. Neither Robbie or Steven will ever fork out $214,- for one car.

Id say dividing the prices by 10 would seem both the kind AND the smart move for PD.

 

[Imari]

Id say dividing the prices by 10 would seem both the kind AND the smart move for PD.

100% chance that those prices are based on people at Sony and Polyphony doing the math on past data and choosing what they think will optimise their returns. They don't necessarily want the most people to purchase MTs, they want the most money out of it.

Sometimes "silly" prices get you that, because even though few people buy them there are some out there with more money than sense who will happily drop tens of thousands of dollars on in-game MTs. Especially since they don't have the randomness of lootboxes/card packs/gacha to stretch out the payments.

 

[Sjokkomoes]

100% chance that those prices are based on people at Sony and Polyphony doing the math on past data and choosing what they think will optimise their returns. They don't necessarily want the most people to purchase MTs, they want the most money out of it.

Sometimes "silly" prices get you that, because even though few people buy them there are some out there with more money than sense who will happily drop tens of thousands of dollars on in-game MTs. Especially since they don't have the randomness of lootboxes/card packs/gacha to stretch out the payments.

I get what you are saying and I suppose so yes.
I guess Robbie and Steven don't actually calculate things the way I do...
I don't think it's a case of having more money per say, but more of not thinking things through for most people.

 

[Imari]

I get what you are saying and I suppose so yes.
I guess Robbie and Steven don't actually calculate things the way I do...
I don't think it's a case of having more money per say, but more of not thinking things through for most people.

The people they're after are called whales and just a few of them bring in a surprisingly large chunk of the money. You get some people like Robbie and Steven buying, but the systems are generally designed around trying to catch those whales.

Why It's Scary When 0.15% Mobile Gamers Bring In 50% Of The Revenue

There's a new report out from Swrve which says 0.15% of mobile players account for 50% of mobile games revenue. The general idea isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but those specific numbers seem even more imbalanced than previously thought. The existence of "whales" in mobile gaming has been a...

www.forbes.com

It's worth keeping in mind as well that some people are legitimately more susceptible to gambling and psychologically addictive things, just like some people are legitimately more susceptible to substance addiction. It's not fair sitting an alcoholic down at the dinner table with a bunch of bottles of beer and telling them just to ignore the presence of alcohol and eat their dinner. At best it's incredibly uncomfortable for them, at worst they're being put in a situation where they're more likely to behave in a way that's against their own interests.

Doing this stuff to kids is even worse, because while kids aren't dumb they simply don't have as much practice identifying and avoiding this sort of psychological manipulation. They're easy marks.

 

[Sjokkomoes]

The people they're after are called whales and just a few of them bring in a surprisingly large chunk of the money. You get some people like Robbie and Steven buying, but the systems are generally designed around trying to catch those whales.

Why It's Scary When 0.15% Mobile Gamers Bring In 50% Of The Revenue

There's a new report out from Swrve which says 0.15% of mobile players account for 50% of mobile games revenue. The general idea isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but those specific numbers seem even more imbalanced than previously thought. The existence of "whales" in mobile gaming has been a...

www.forbes.com

It's worth keeping in mind as well that some people are legitimately more susceptible to gambling and psychologically addictive things, just like some people are legitimately more susceptible to substance addiction. It's not fair sitting an alcoholic down at the dinner table with a bunch of bottles of beer and telling them just to ignore the presence of alcohol and eat their dinner. At best it's incredibly uncomfortable for them, at worst they're being put in a situation where they're more likely to behave in a way that's against their own interests.

Doing this stuff to kids is even worse, because while kids aren't dumb they simply don't have as much practice identifying and avoiding this sort of psychological manipulation. They're easy marks.

Yes, in politics over here there has been discussion regarding the loot boxes you can buy in games but do not know what is inside. Not 100% sure but aren't they banned? This is of course a very bad introduction to gambling for the younger ones.

I have a 10 year old stephdaughter and she is getting into the Pokemon card collecting thing. You can really see up close what a bad influence these things are, the addiction factor is all over the place.

At last the way it's handled in GT7 it's clear what you are getting at what price. I dont really have a big problem with the model in itself.

 

[kjeldsen]

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.

I don't think i used the word fair. But comparing PD to Putin is not fair, it is crazy talk.

Without mt and the same ingame economy there would be no one that thought a second about all this.

 

[NikNakTobasco]

have a 10 year old stephdaughter and she is getting into the Pokemon card collecting thing. You can really see up close what a bad influence these things are, the addiction factor is all over the place

Have a mate who’s into that. He was going on about spending a fortune on some limited edition cards. I was trying to explain to him that they’re not really limited, they could just print more lol. The whole thing is predatory.

 

[Scaff]

Yes, in politics over here there has been discussion regarding the loot boxes you can buy in games but do not know what is inside. Not 100% sure but aren't they banned? This is of course a very bad introduction to gambling for the younger ones.

It's not been banned universally, Holland is one of a number that (rightly) have.

I have a 10 year old stephdaughter and she is getting into the Pokemon card collecting thing. You can really see up close what a bad influence these things are, the addiction factor is all over the place.

Indeed and it's often forgotten how big a factor that is, overshadowed at times by the gambling element.

At last the way it's handled in GT7 it's clear what you are getting at what price. I dont really have a big problem with the model in itself.

It's not though. The pricing in GT is done in Credits, and you pay for those using your local currency. Which is the first level.

You then have the staggered costs, in the UK that's as follows:

Cr. 100,000 = £1.99
Cr. 250,000 = £3.99
Cr. 750,000 = £7.99
Cr. 2,000,000 = £16.99

Per Cr.100,000 that's £1.99, £1.596, £1.065, or £0.85. Which is not only not clear, but designed to punish those who can only afford the lower packs (these are digital items - no cost of scale for production exists) and pushes people towards spending more by offering 'better value'.

You then have the issue over the break-points for them, no Cr1 million or Cr.1.5 Million. What if the car you want is Cr3 million, you can't buy just what you need, it's designed to get you to overspend.

I don't think i used the word fair. But comparing PD to Putin is not fair, it is crazy talk.

It's an analogy!

I'm not literally comparing PD to Putin, I'm pointing out the absurdity of your defence.

Without mt and the same ingame economy there would be no one that thought a second about all this.

Yes they would, they would be complaining about the absurd grind. and it's easy to do given we have a number of past titles to directly compare it to.

 

[Samus]

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.

Removing them or not is irrelevant if I'm personally not going to buy them, the game is still clearly influenced by them with the massively reduced credit payouts in all but a couple of events. Just as they were in GTS.

For someone who claims not be defending MTs, you're sure having a ruddy good go at it.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Not a problem for me its just optional

Except the ridiculous grind for credits is designed with micro transactions in mind so it IS a problem for you.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Then you aren't the customer so why bother what others might wonna do with their money?

Even if people think that it's a good way to spend their money, it's an absolutely terrible deal to pay nearly 30 dollars Canadian, when that could buy a half decent dinner for two at a restaurant, and also find out that you need to spend more in order to get anywhere close to enough to buy the 20 million credit cars.

And I'm not defending I'm at most explaining and surprised by the total lack of gaming knowledge in a video game forum.

Uh huh. That's totally what it is. Us not understanding, and not you brazenly defending Polyphony for doing a very bad thing.

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.

Fun fact, played Black Ops Cold War for most of the game's life, stopped after the Acti-Blizzard lawsuit. Even Cold War/Warzone's Battle Pass and COD points ultimately didn't matter in the grand scheme of things considering it was all cosmetic stuff that you were getting. New weapons were usually very early in the Battle Pass, which most people could knock out in a day of playing multiplayer (or even Zombies!) if they truly wanted it. Certainly not anywhere close to the level of Polyphony pretty clearly creating the in game economy system to revolve around artificial scarcity, and to always have the looming shadow of micro-transactions hanging over the game and the players as a way to 'skip the line' (but only just, you gotta spend the big bucks in order to get anywhere close to the credit cap!)

So yeah, I'm calling a spade a spade, and calling GT7's economy, and Polyphony's insistence on micro-transactions going back to GT6 as predatory. And I'm calling you a defender of Polyphony's actions since you don't seem to understand (or more then likely, don't want to) how bad of a precedent this sets.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

you gotta spend the big bucks in order to get anywhere close to the credit cap!

Just wanna point out, credits bought with microtransactions have no cap. They're separate from the 20M "free credits" cap.
(To be clear, my "paid credits" are from the physical 25th Anniversary edition lol)

 

[Samus]

Just wanna point out, credits bought with microtransactions have no cap. They're separate from the 20M "free credits" cap.
(To be clear, my "paid credits" are from the physical 25th Anniversary edition lol)
View attachment 1122754

Wow, the scummy behaviour just continues. So a player knows they have to save up credits to buy expensive cars when they appear for a limited time in the future, or you get invited, but sorry, you can't save up more than 20 million, so if three or four expensive cars turn up over the course of a few days and you haven't got enough for them all, you can't buy them....unless you give us some more money, of which we'll let you store as much as you want.

What on earth has happened at Sony and PD?

 

[R3V]

After spending some time now, I can say this is worse than RDR2, Battlefront II, GTA V and anything I played from Activision. I don't remember the last time greedier decisions were made. The game is designed around making you pay. What year is this? All other publishers started moving in a better direction and Sony went full greed.

• Game centered around collecting cars
• lootbox for completing missions
• Most cars in random rotation dealerships
• Cannot sell bought cars
• Extremely low payout
• Extremely pricey cars

Even NFS payback was pretty generous in comparison.

This, not having VR, the broken traction problem and allowing tuning in sports mode. Ugh. I'm shelving this after completeing circuit experience and missions.

edit

Forgot to add, they made it always online for this reason as well

 

[Dak0ta]

It would be a scam if you needed to pay money to progress in the game, but you absolutely don't.
It would be a scam if you could expect to own every last bit of items in the game, but you can't.
It would be a scam if exclusive items were only attainable with credits you buy but it's the exact opposite.

There are 2 ways to see it, it's either an option to save time for the players and for PD to earn money. Or its something everything in the game is centered around and the only reason the game exist.

Those that play the game doesn't care because either way they get what they need 😀

so i cant expect to own every last bit of items in the game on the gran turismo entry most centered around car collections and customizations? thats ****ed up

who says those who play the game doesnt care? lol

Wow, the scummy behaviour just continues. So a player knows they have to save up credits to buy expensive cars when they appear for a limited time in the future, or you get invited, but sorry, you can't save up more than 20 million, so if three or four expensive cars turn up over the course of a few days and you haven't got enough for them all, you can't buy them....unless you give us some more money, of which we'll let you store as much as you want.

What on earth has happened at Sony and PD?

not only that, if you want a car that costs 20m, you have 19.750.000 credits and you win a race that gives you 300k, the game is taking 50k

 

[AutumnalGlow]

not only that, if you want a car that costs 20m, you have 19.750.000 credits and you win a race that gives you 300k, the game is taking 50k

It's ok though, because you will never do a race that will pay 300k. 24 hour hour race on the Nordschleife and a few other high paying tracks with opponents set to Gr.1 and Professional is about the only way you'll get there. No pre-made races pay that much and custom races are abysmally low (for reference, you could simply do two 1 hour races on those same tracks to earn even more).

 

[tankuroded]

Since paying for tickets doesn't seem like something that might happen, what would stop them from doing this?


(It is worth noting that the expiry rule also applies if you bought them in your own)

 

[Silver Arrows]

Absolutely nothing. But then again we'll have to deal with excuses from those who think Polyphony are their friends and believe that they are still the small time devs they were in 1998.

 

[JoaoSilva]

It's clear that every single thing economy-wise is detrimental to the non-MTX buying player. I never thought a Gran Turismo game would become this.

My honeymoon period has ended and reality kicked in.

 

[B80]

Even if people think that it's a good way to spend their money, it's an absolutely terrible deal to pay nearly 30 dollars Canadian, when that could buy a half decent dinner for two at a restaurant, and also find out that you need to spend more in order to get anywhere close to enough to buy the 20 million credit cars.


Uh huh. That's totally what it is. Us not understanding, and not you brazenly defending Polyphony for doing a very bad thing.


Fun fact, played Black Ops Cold War for most of the game's life, stopped after the Acti-Blizzard lawsuit. Even Cold War/Warzone's Battle Pass and COD points ultimately didn't matter in the grand scheme of things considering it was all cosmetic stuff that you were getting. New weapons were usually very early in the Battle Pass, which most people could knock out in a day of playing multiplayer (or even Zombies!) if they truly wanted it. Certainly not anywhere close to the level of Polyphony pretty clearly creating the in game economy system to revolve around artificial scarcity, and to always have the looming shadow of micro-transactions hanging over the game and the players as a way to 'skip the line' (but only just, you gotta spend the big bucks in order to get anywhere close to the credit cap!)

So yeah, I'm calling a spade a spade, and calling GT7's economy, and Polyphony's insistence on micro-transactions going back to GT6 as predatory. And I'm calling you a defender of Polyphony's actions since you don't seem to understand (or more then likely, don't want to) how bad of a precedent this sets.

Beat me to it. Battlepass and other crap yiu buy in COD has pretty much zero tangible impact on gameplay. Its mainly skins, charms, calling cards. Yeah you get some guns, but like yiu say, nothing that can't be unlocked without a few hours normal play.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

It's clear that every single thing economy-wise is detrimental to the non-MTX buying player. I never thought a Gran Turismo game would become this.

My honeymoon period has ended and reality kicked in.

I feel exactly the same. As soon as I finished the last menu book and was out of the long guided portion, I realized that wasn't "just the beginning". That was effectively the end of the career mode. There weren't many more races to do. I'm in the endgame now, already. Except I can't really keep collecting cars without grinding the few well-paying races. It's just not fun. At least when I'm grinding in RuneScape I can have it as a secondary activity. I can't really take my attention off Gran Turismo, so all I can focus on is the grind. It's not fun when there's no variety to it.

In Forza I set up custom races all the time to earn credits. I have all the variety I want. I don't get that variety in GT7. It's either doing the few races they set up for me, or I get paid peanuts.

 

[FPV MIC]

so i cant expect to own every last bit of items in the game on the gran turismo entry most centered around car collections and customizations? thats ****ed up

I don't think many of us will ever own every last item in GT 7 unfortunately with microtransactions or not. The game design is so bad it will probably take this whole community a long time just to find out what all the possible engines and parts are.

As an example I won this yesterday on my one a day Daily Workout, which now seems the only way to gain more tickets, for a car I don't even own. A part that isn't for sale

I hope PD have something up their sleeve in regards to correcting the low race pay-outs, crazy grind, and the stupid locked behind a once per day daily workout ticket that then gives you a one in five chance of ''winning'' otherwise unobtainable parts to salvage what is otherwise a pretty decent game.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I never thought a Gran Turismo game would become this.

I had a feeling that they'd take this sort of route after they straight up lied and added in micro-transactions to GT Sport when they initially said that they wouldn't. Should have been other people's wake up call too.

What bothers me more then anything else is the relative editorial silence from this site here on this topic. The review doesn't mention micro-transactions at all, and Jordan himself says that the always online nature of the game (which to be frank, feels like an added layer around said MTX's) was ultimately immaterial to most player's enjoyment of the game even though it basically knocks out a game that ostensibly is based around single player if online connection is not available - such as downtime for updates. The only real chatter from the site itself on MTX's are the article for this thread, even though it's becoming ever clearer that the game's economy was designed around them.

At what point do we get some push back editorially? GTPlanet has at least a line to Kaz and Polyphony, and the longer the game is out and more of the roots on the game's economy is revealed, the more noticeable and disappointing that silence becomes. It'd certainly would be nice for the writing staff, or Jordan himself, to make it clear that the tactics that Polyphony are using are bad, and are an active detriment to the game as a whole.

 

[GTvsForza]

I'll only use MT's if I'm desperate enough, like this morning when the F40 showed up in the Legends dealer...

 

[Silver Arrows]

I don't think many of us will ever own every last item in GT 7 unfortunately with microtransactions or not. The game design is so bad it will probably take this whole community a long time just to find out what all the possible engines and parts are.

Which, for a game around car collecting (by Polyphony's own admission!) is pretty bad! For as much guff as people give Forza Horizon's in game economy for devaluing everything and handing everything to you on a silver platter, at the very least I know that if I put the time and effort in, I can complete the Car Collection menu through normal gameplay, and have it be restricted to only the base game cars and what, two Forzathon cars that will absolutely come back up as rewards?

 

[FPV MIC]

Which, for a game around car collecting (by Polyphony's own admission!) is pretty bad! For as much guff as people give Forza Horizon's in game economy for devaluing everything and handing everything to you on a silver platter, at the very least I know that if I put the time and effort in, I can complete the Car Collection menu through normal gameplay, and have it be restricted to only the base game cars and what, two Forzathon cars that will absolutely come back up as rewards?

I don't think it would be too difficult to collect all the cars if we were just given a more reasonable way to earn credits because I think all the cars will more than likely all cycle through, even the invitational ones. The old 200% login bonus would probably be enough to get us there (edit: or at least be a good start). It's the unobtainable engines for engine swaps and unknown amounts of tuning parts that aren't for sale that can only be won once a day (for those that have completed level 39) that really grinds my gears.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

Which, for a game around car collecting (by Polyphony's own admission!) is pretty bad! For as much guff as people give Forza Horizon's in game economy for devaluing everything and handing everything to you on a silver platter, at the very least I know that if I put the time and effort in, I can complete the Car Collection menu through normal gameplay, and have it be restricted to only the base game cars and what, two Forzathon cars that will absolutely come back up as rewards?

There's a huge middle ground between Forza Horizon 5 and Gran Turismo 7. FH5 is a sandbox. It showers you with cars because you're meant to just go drive and do whatever you want. GT7 is a massive grind. The series has a history of making you earn your cars, yes, but this game is excessively slow and offers little variety in how you will earn them.

It's disappointing that when people are talking about the bad economy in this game after we realize how bad it is, fanboys will cry "you want everything in a week!"

No. There's a very long gap between a week and 12 years. Custom races alone would take 12 years (Edit: assuming an average of 1 hour per day). Grinding Fishermans Ranch isn't fun. There is not much to do.

If I could get everything in a year or two of varied racing (not chase the rabbit!) I would be happy with the balance. But at the moment, I'm looking at a 12 year grind, and there's no way I'm doing that. That isn't a "long haul", that's a life commitment. A job.

 

[Silver Arrows]

The old 200% login bonus would probably be enough to get us there (edit: or at least be a good start).

This eventually gets into the same territory that the return of Seasonals brings though - we have not a damn idea whether the same rules apply from GT6 to 7. Whether the Seasonals will be high 6 figures or low 7 figures, or will be 'adjusted' to fit the new in game economy Polyphony has for 7. Whether, if login bonuses do return, how much to a level they apply.

And of course, this does nothing when the game is at end of life and taken offline, considering how tedious the grind is in GT5 and 6 with the servers offline.

Grinding Fishermans Ranch isn't fun.

This is the biggest thing. I'd be fine with a bit of a grind to get my goodies if the actual underlying gameplay was good. I know quite a few people who grind for rare loot and the like in Destiny 2 - they're fine with it because at it's core, the game is rock solid and buttery smooth in it's gameplay.

In GT, since 5, the gameplay has been the same. Chase the rabbit, catch up to stupid and slow AI who only are hard because they start out literally miles ahead of you, and hope that you don't lose your clean race bonus because you got punted by said moronic AI. Why the hell would I put in any more time to play the game then what is needed to complete the game if this is what I'm dealing with?

 

[McLaren]

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.

I wonder what the odds are of a youngster whose PS Plus is tied to a parent's CC, going ahead and confirming they want some credits to buy a car & the parents don't find out til' the end of the month.

 

[UndeniablyTre]

Huge Supra and overall import fan here. For the most part all of my faves are available... I just money to tune! Let's goo!