Kazunori Yamauchi Responds to Gran Turismo 7 Fan Outrage

[AutumnalGlow]

You actually think everyone is going to read all of this? You might be right in what you're saying, but maybe be more concise and to the point?

I read all of it, and I think it was very much worth it.

 

[McLaren]

You actually think everyone is going to read all of this? You might be right in what you're saying, but maybe be more concise and to the point?

I read it. It's only long because he's setting up the basis for his point towards the end.

It's worth it. @Tornado definitely kept the receipts.

 

[Boxout]

You actually think everyone is going to read all of this? You might be right in what you're saying, but maybe be more concise and to the point?

To be fair I admire the effort to compile all of this info/data, so I read it, and it was worth it, pretty good memory refresher.

 

[Rudenut]

Probably a poor choice of words by me, as they probably can't change it as they see fit. Getting a refund when they make drastic changes, sure, this hasn't happened though. I don't remember seeing a selling point on the box being 'obtain the most expensive car in 250 races or less' then 2 weeks later it is now more than 300. You would then have a leg to stand on.

So you were ok with the game taking 5 years to 'complete' but now it is up to 10 its a no go?


I don't know, I haven't gotten there yet. I'm at Café menu 20 with more than 2 million credits earned. So I was assuming I would have at least double with the better pay-outs on the way up.

I would say yes, I am ok with it taking 5 years to "Complete"...and absolutely not ok with 10. Exactly this point.. Brava!!

 

[TobbeGTE]

9 years of development and this is what they come up with...
9 years...
GT Sport was to this point the biggest disapointment.
Then this... "GT Sport 2.0" as it should be called.
It's a disgrace to call this Gran Turismo.
If you don't act quickly to fix this piece of **** game you thrown out really soon I promise you that I and many fans will NEVER buy another GT game again!

From what I can see it looks like you started develop this game right before christmas 2021...
How can you launch such a underdeveloped game to full price and demand your players to buy in game currency?

I get so angry!
I want my money back!!!

And you don't want players grinding money. Bwahahaha come on there is barely races enough to not make it look like a grind...

Hope you sleep well knowing you made the whole GT family pay for nothing.
Like I said in previous post, I've always been a huge fan and always talked back to people who says otherwise.
But really, Im done!
I am so sad over this game that I don't know what to say or do.

How can you treat and ripp off your fans like this?

 

[Rotax2020]

Refund is now open in Amazon for my 25th AE physical-edition.

They had the chance to stop the credit-nerfe today. They didn't do anything.

Why should i now continue with the career? People who already finished have more credits. And when they maybe bring it back to old credit-earnings, i am already finished then (also with less credits). So its a clear disadvantage for me in both cases.

Its unacceptable to change the credit-earnings AFTER release. And most likely its also illegal, at least here in germany.

They need to get rid of the managers who decided this.

 

[Wheatybic]

lol another dev telling us how to play the game. if we want to grind a race for cash let us, we still have to for money but now there's less incentive because of the nerf and in return less incentive to log on

 

[ruggermole]

lol another dev telling us how to play the game. if we want to grind a race for cash let us, we still have to for money but now there's less incentive because of the nerf and in return less incentive to log on

he'd rather you stay at the office another two hours and hand the cash to him than play the game

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

I read it. It's only long because he's setting up the basis for his point towards the end.

It's worth it. @Tornado definitely kept the receipts.

He's a damn good writer that's for sure.

 

[CeeJay]

I'm sure someone addressed this but I just cannot BELIEVE the tone deafness of that note from Kaz... I mean "[we] would like to try to avoid a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again" while reducing the payout for events??? This is some twisted and insane logic. I find the statement SO insincere, for him to say "in GT7 I would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransaction" well, then take the microtransactions out of the game!! I just can't stop laughing at this insanity. Whatever...

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

Platitudes. And at this point nothing new from him in response to criticism, to be frank; just like vaguely talking about "car culture" is his go to reason for why the next GT is going to be so great. This is the exact same thing he kind of just-barely-beyond-canned-response interactions when backlash against a specific thing in, say, GT5 would reach a fever pitch after that game launched in a miserable state. He references the specific things people don't like, he subtly shifts the blame away from PD for implementing it and onto the people who take issue with it as if they don't understand why it was done, misrepresents the basis for the criticism being levied, then offers a completely empty gesture that something may happen to assuage complaints about it even when obvious solutions are already present.






When PD added dozens of fake regional variations of cars to GT5 to pad out the car list, and people rightly took issue with the "1000 cars" in the game being made up of literally hundreds of cars where PD took multiple models and changed the text string in the car name and did nothing else (even in instances where doing so could have led to legitimately different models),

1. Kaz specifically noted how people took issue with the practice.
2. Then he framed the issue as just not understanding the reasoning behind them doing it rather than a deliberate decision PD took for a marketing checkbox:
3. While also seemingly deliberately being obtuse about what the actual issue people had was:
4. Before making an vague assertion that Kaz agrees with the problem and that there is a vague hanging implication that something will be done about it:

GT6 came out.


They did nothing to improve in this area, because they again needed the marketing checkbox to be higher than the marketing checkbox for the previous game so in fact made it even worse; even though all they needed to do to improve it was remove some cars that they made up and change some values on an internal spreadsheet for ones that they didn't correctly implement.





What about GT5's car sounds?

1. Many here probably remember the infamous interview where he referenced people's complaints about that with GT5.
2. He framed the issue people had with it as them not knowing enough to know they shouldn't be upset:
3. Was deliberately obtuse about the reasoning people were taking issue with what PD had put together:
4. Made vague notes about how it's something that the team will sort out:

In spite of the initial insistence that seemingly everything in GT6's early appearances that people didn't like were merely placeholders (to the extent that it became a meme), nothing was ever done about it for an entire console generation even though very little effort (so little effort that people could fix the problems themselves somewhat in that period of time where GT5 saves could be hacked) would have been needed to at least make it look like they cared at all.




For funsies, that last link has a double whammy because this:

Was in fact a bald-faced lie for that game, and functionally was a lie for the next decade of their output as well. But don't worry Sophie is definitely going to come to the game and fix everything.






But sidestepping that, let's compare those statements above to the statements in this post:

1. Responding to a specific, loud criticism against the game:
2. Reframing the issue as the people raising the criticism not actually understanding why PD are doing what they are doing rather than PD deliberately doing something that had a negative impact on the game quality
3. Being deliberately obtuse about the actual basis that people are expressing the criticisms:
4. Making meaningless statements that something may happen at some point (but please understand, they can't say what those might actually be) even though a quick solution is obvious and has already been widely discussed:

This one in particular is extra meaningless because it's basically the same thing that was trotted out for GT6 on two separate occasions when the initial reactions to its announcement was open confusion for why none of the supposed features of the game couldn't be added to GT5 instead (since GT6 was going to be a PS3 game for no reason beyond maximizing profit). The problems with GT7 are also a direct repeat of the problems with the game structure (ie. not having enough events to actually progress through the game) of GT5; which was a mistake he also acknowledged then but at least PD sort of put a band-aid on to fix (at lest before shutting the game's servers off almost immediately after GT6 launched).

Also note that he didn't actually say anything about the microtransactions. Not about their implementation into the game interface. Not about their prices being wildly higher than before. Not about how strongly they seem to correlate to the game's tortured structure and economy.
Also note that he didn't actually say anything about why they revised the event payments. Not about them being drastically reduced specifically as it pertains to the ones that were the fastest to gain money. Not about why they didn't simply raise the rest of the payments to try and "have users enjoy lots of cars." Not about why the solution that people had already found to get around microtransactions was deemed an unacceptable solution to the problem he acknowledged (but actively worked to make worse).







At this point it's legitimately kind of hard to tell if Yamauchi is early career Peter Molyneux (shoots his mouth off about things he really shouldn't talk about at the point in time he's doing so, over promises things to himself and underdelivers constantly but always promises to try harder next time, notes challenges faced and how they will be overcome next time) or later career Peter Molyneux (uses his fame to stifle criticism of him, overpromises about things that will be in his next title because he knows that is enough to get the hype going, says things he knows people will want to hear because he knows that his fans will use his statements to beat down people criticizing him, blames his failings on outside actors that he failed to account for.)







And people complained about them in the context of this series alone ten years ago as well. They complained about the mere threat of them so much in GT's immediate rival series that they anything resembling them was stripped from the game and public statements were made about them not ever returning.


An awful lot of people in fact specifically referenced the PSN hack and subsequent outage as why an always online single player game is a terrible idea (alongside all of the other infamous examples of the terrible idea causing problems) when it was confirmed (and later defended) for GT7. That PD ended up screwing the pooch themselves and taking their own game down only a couple weeks after launch is merely evidence of how terrible of an idea it was to do in the first place for those who don't remember Sony's past incompetence in this area. Or EA's. Or Blizzard's. Or Bethesda's.

Damn, when you put it like that he really is as out of touch, stubborn and full of excuses as Vince McMahon is behind the scenes at WWE, whilst also being a Sam Tramiel-level fountain of total utter BS.

At this point I'm surprised he's not firing shots at Turn 10 in interviews, he's worse than Ian Bell.

 

[mrPetros]

Well that escalated quickly. He gave a statement, which lets us know he is aware of the issues we feel.

He off course doesn’t have a solution yet, because he and the team have to come up with a solution. Despite all suggestions from this thread, they will have to come up with something they want to do. It’s their game.

So be patient and let’s see what happens.

Yeah, lets wait and see what happens....

He is aware of the issues, he's working on the solutions.

Game is up again, payouts are cut by 50% on the "best paying tracks"
and hagerty shop has another 4.000.000 car on the timer, the mondial.

So, THREE cars, SEVENTEEN MILLION CREDITS. on a timer.


I am wondering... what will happen? We need to be more patient for sure...

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

Yeah, lets wait and see what happens....

He is aware of the issues, he's working on the solutions.

Game is up again, payouts are cut by 50% on the "best paying tracks"
and hagerty shop has another 4.000.000 car on the timer, the mondial.

So, THREE cars, SEVENTEEN MILLION CREDITS. on a timer.


I am wondering... what will happen? We need to be more patient for sure...

He doesn't care, he's made his money, he now laughs at the customers from his golden nismo toilet.

 

[mrPetros]

He doesn't care, he's made his money, he now laughs at the customers from his golden nismo toilet.

yeah, exactly where he wrote his "letter" from

"In GT7 Ι would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions."

So what are you doing here? Go grind your asses for 17million credits in a few days

BUT also
"avoid a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again"


This is more than a joke, it is offending.
Playing a game like it is a full time job and still not being able to catch its FOMO offers... Not even a medium free2play game would do that.

 

[Jayson619]

There is no longterm future for this game, they've completely destroyed any goodwill they had with their fans to the point of no return.

This franchise is finished.

It's already finished when we need to be online for Single Player.

 

[BossBattle]

You actually think everyone is going to read all of this? You might be right in what you're saying, but maybe be more concise and to the point?

I read it. Nice post @Tornado !

 

[Chevy Heavy]

This is literally what's wrong with the current gaming market I think. I guess I'm just used to having a game be complete as the publisher intented on the day it came out because there wasn't another option besides making a sequel...

Actually, I find this a good thing. This is what prevented GTS from becoming stale after say the first year. That and of course Sport Mode, which was the intention of the game in the first place to get people to participate in competitive online racing. Then people complained that is wasn't like previous versions. So they added some of the old features. But the point is they continued to update the game, instead of charging full price for another edition.

Look at other games, like EA Sports for example, that expect you buy a sequel every year with a little tweak to the game. I know a lot of people anticipated the monthly GTS updates and had fun speculating what cars or tracks we would get. Some people will point out that the game should have had that content at launch. What they fail to realize is the amount of time and effort it takes to model a car or track to add to the game. Not to mention licensing issues.

I'm sure Sony put a lot of pressure on PD to release GT7 even though Kaz probably would have liked more time. He is never satisfied with the game, which is a good thing. This means they will continue to make the game better. So, people that complain the game isn't complete and doesn't have enough content need to understand this. Like Kaz stated, GT7 is meant to played and enjoyed over a long time. I'm sure we will see more missions, events, etc. that will make it easier to obtain cars at some point. Too many people don't have patience and want everything handed to them right away. GT doesn't work that way. If you don't like it, sell it and play something else.

Sorry if this is a little long winded and isn't entirely aimed at you @ND4SPD. I just see so many people complaining in these threads and feel they don't understand all the hoops developers have to jump through to produce a AAA title for companies that just are just worried about profit margins.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

yeah, exactly where he wrote his "letter" from

"In GT7 Ι would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions."

So what are you doing here? Go grind your asses for 17million credits in a few days

BUT also
"avoid a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again"


This is more than a joke, it is offending.
Playing a game like it is a full time job and still not being able to catch its FOMO offers... Not even a medium free2play game would do that.

He's out of touch, stubborn, arrogant and behind the curve.

 

[Kraftwabe]

I don't understand why people keep grasping onto the getting cars in record time thing. No one -- no, let me try this a different way:

NO ONE IS COMPLAINING ABOUT THAT. NO ONE HAS EVER COMPLAINED ABOUT THAT.

You'll have to pardon to shouting nonsense, but I don't know how to make it clearer at this point. The gripe is the economy itself, full stop. It is garbage trash. Yes, that's redundant but it drives the point home.

You seriously need to chill out. We are still talking about a video game right? Jesus...

 

[SoapMacLavish]

Too many people don't have patience and want everything handed to them right away. GT doesn't work that way. If you don't like it, sell it and play something else.

Who is saying that we need everything, right now?

I'll wait.

Edit: We just want to be rewarded fairly for the time that we are putting into the game, not have that kneecapped for seemingly no reason.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

Oh and also, Polyphony Digital are foolish if they think that staying radio-silent on social media is going to make this go away, everyone should make their voices heard (in a civilised manner) in the mentions the moment the nerve to start posting again as if nothing ever happened, which they will inevitably will because they're clearly arrogant enough to insult and abuse their fans.

They're following the archetypal PR tactics that every scummy fan-abusing company follows.

 

[JoaoSilva]

Who is saying that we need everything, right now?

I'll wait.

Nobody, except the very people making this nonsensical argument. They're missing the point on purpose to justify the lack of a better argument.

 

[Jayson619]

The actual statement that should have been posted during the maintenance...

Thank you for your support of Gran Turismo 7. We know you are all eagerly waiting to drive your favorite cars once the maintenance is finished. However we are unable to meet the completion time and we deeply apologize for this situation.

Among the many changes and fixes for patch 1.07, one of them was the lowering of payout rewards in the World Circuit races.

We wanted players to feel the sense of PRIDE AND ACCOMPLISHMENT when they finally managed to get their dream car through endless driving or by making use of microtransactions which we highly recommend to accomplish your collection. However this change has seemingly triggered an error that affects players' progresses and a horde of bugs our underpaid team are powerless to fend off against.

We are still committed to resolve the issues at hand. We have made many fixes especially in cases where the wrong tyres were installed instead. But we are hell bent on lowering the payout rewards even if it means that it will destroy our servers and the sanity of our supporters unless we revert it back or increase the payouts; which we won't because your are not spending enough on microtransactions.

So hopefully you'll understand. We will not increase the payouts and if we want to, we'll lower ot even further.

Thank you and go to hell!

Sincerely, the Gran Turismo team.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

Who is saying that we need everything, right now?

I'll wait.

Edit: We just want to be rewarded fairly for the time that we are putting into the game, not have that kneecapped for seemingly no reason.

Seriously. Holy ****.

I'll just link back to this post. This "everyone wants everything right away" bs is tiring.

Kazunori Yamauchi Responds to Gran Turismo 7 Fan Outrage

I can understand people being upset about always online and then the servers going offline but MTX? I have done the license tests, missions and the cafe stuff and I have over a hundred cars but only used maybe 10 of them so far and only tuned and costomized three. This is not a sprint race, have...

www.gtplanet.net

 

[Ande3200]

More events and championchips is what game needs the most in my opinion, if seasonal events come back it might be good way to earn money,

 

[jacookie]

post deleted

 

[AudiMan2011]

Too many people don't have patience and want everything handed to them right away. GT doesn't work that way. If you don't like it, sell it and play something else.

Nobody 👏 Wants 👏 Everything 👏 Right 👏 Away 👏

People want races to pay out meaningfully without needing to, as Kaz puts it "mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again". People want the grind to just suck less, and not be made to deal with a garbage in-game economy.

 

[Benny44]

More events and championchips is what game needs the most in my opinion, if seasonal events come back it might be good way to earn money,

Exactly this. This what we want and need. Simultaneously address the economy issue and the content issue. For people like me who burned through career mode, some extra races would go a long way, especially if they pay out. I'm OK with ignoring MTX, as should everyone (ignore them, that is)

 

[MagpieRacer]

GTPlanet gets renamed to Grid Planet or Forza Planet.

www.forzaplanet.net 😉

It felt like a very forced apology, he knew something had to be said but he doesn't feel like he's got anything to say, so hasn't. Disappointing really, and no sign of in game compensation or anything to say sorry for the downtime.

 

[Phaceless_Ph]

You seriously need to chill out. We are still talking about a video game right? Jesus...

You're missing the point, they've deployed a scummy and predatory in-game economy which forces people towards microtransactions.

It's even worse when you consider that this game carries an "E" rating and will be played by children, those children will then pester their parents into paying for those microtransactions or do it without those parents' knowledge as we've seen in many news stories.

I used to work in the gambling industry years back, and this is on par with the scummy and predatory tactics at play in that industry with their minimum staking rules on free bets and absolute total reluctance to suspend accounts belonging to customers who clearly have compulsive addictions to gambling.