Kazunori Yamauchi Responds to Gran Turismo 7 Fan Outrage

[Johnnn]

The game is 20 days old.
We're getting new cars.
New events.
New menus.
Other additional features.
Seasonal events coming too, apparently.

Why the need to own everything NOW?

After 20 days.

You don't need every unicorn car available, right now.

GTS ruined things for a lot of you, I'm sure.

Because we paid for it. Normal gaming is like consuming. You buy a game, have fun and then switch to other games. After 20 days, you should play something else already and no wait for second half of the game.

They didn't announce it's just paid demo or early access game.

 

[Scaff]

The game is 20 days old.
We're getting new cars.
New events.
New menus.
Other additional features.
Seasonal events coming too, apparently.

Why the need to own everything NOW?

After 20 days.

You don't need every unicorn car available, right now.

GTS ruined things for a lot of you, I'm sure.

Literally not the argument people are making, at all.

A balanced game design, with sufficient events to utilise the majority of the car and track content, curated and in the game from day 1 is not too much to ask from a full price, first party studio, particularly given that they did just that with GT, GT2, GT3, GT4, GT5 and GT6!

Also forgets that you literally are able to own every car in the game right now, regardless of credit cost!

 

[GTP_reddevil]

The game is 20 days old.
We're getting new cars.
New events.
New menus.
Other additional features.
Seasonal events coming too, apparently.

Why the need to own everything NOW?

After 20 days.

You don't need every unicorn car available, right now.

GTS ruined things for a lot of you, I'm sure.

Again, we don’t want to own everything NOW - it’s just the economy makes it almost impossible at this point which is beyond unreasonable. If payouts weren’t nerfed and improved for custom races, complaints wouldn’t be as substantial.

 

[Adam Barber]

LOL, what? Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Project Cars 1, Project Cars 2, F1 and many others. Even in casual games you usually have some renting.

And if I look at Horizon 4 I played it more than 1500 hours because it has so many cars and things to do. Horizon never bored me. Economy there is a bit slow but way faster than in GT7.And non of those have much game to them

Given that nothing else of that nature in the game is, or ever has been in the series, I find that very unlikley.

I didn't say it was.

Which is a game design mechanic.

You =/= everyone

I literally own every GT title, numbered or otherwise, including such oddities as the BMW 1-Series demo (fun fact - first time the 'ring appeared in GT), all day 1, have met Kaz, got my copy of GT3 signed by him. It's also ironic that you claim others haven't a history with the series because GTS 'threw cars at you', it's been well documented already in this thread and others than the majority of the past titles not only threw cars at you, but had significantly less grind (we even published an article on that) than either GTS or GT7, and also let you sell those cars as well.

As such, no I don't think I will take your instruction to stop playing it, what I will do instead is continue to discuss what I do and don not like about it, just as I have done here for near 20 years.

If you don't like something don't play it, it's as simple as that. Same thing goes for any form of entertainment. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy those vehicles or even play the game in first place. There's way worse stuff going in even in the gaming world, go direct anger towards those and not as PD because you don't have access to everything immediately.

 

[El_Beardo]

Again, we don’t want to own everything NOW - it’s just the economy makes it almost impossible at this point which is beyond unreasonable. If payouts weren’t nerfed and improved for custom races, complaints wouldn’t be as substantial.

As the game stands now, yes.

We don't know what the payouts are going to be for new events/online time trials/seasonal events, etc.

All I'm saying is, maybe we need to wait more than 3 weeks from release, before eveyone loses their minds.

 

[Adam Barber]

The game is 20 days old.
We're getting new cars.
New events.
New menus.
Other additional features.
Seasonal events coming too, apparently.

Why the need to own everything NOW?

After 20 days.

You don't need every unicorn car available, right now.

GTS ruined things for a lot of you, I'm sure.

Sums things up perfectly, a lot of takes are abandoned immediately after release, GTSport had lots of free updated that massively expanded that title and people still complained bectthe exact thing they wanted wasn't added. People just need to grow up, there's way bigger problems in the world but "Video game bad" is apparently the worst of them?

 

[Lomic]

expecting that be able to afford them immediately is never going to happen

I am really tired of that recurent strawman 🙄

Except 1 user here NO ONE ASKS TO GET ALL CONTENT IMMEDIATELY WITH NO EFFORT , SO STOP NOW WITH THAT ****** REBUTAL PLEASE.

I don't need any unicorn right now, nor next week, I don't want to receive loads of cars for the café menus.

But I would like it to be possible without a dumb grind to death for days to get enough credits to buy 1 expensive car before 2023. I am not even asking for all cars (I don't care about the collection aspect regularly put forward by the communication campaign around GT7) just one !

At my current pace, I'll need 120 hours to buy the McLaren (which won't be available when I'll have the credits anyway), if I keep everything I earn. That's ridiculous.

 

[Johnnn]

If you don't like something don't play it, it's as simple as that. Same thing goes for any form of entertainment. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy those vehicles or even play the game in first place. There's way worse stuff going in even in the gaming world, go direct anger towards those and not as PD because you don't have access to everything immediately.

I play all other games and know what is going on. Only GT7 has MC score 1.6. It's not about the game is just broken, it creates hate, so much hate around. The game trolls us all. It's like Sony laugh hard how we can't play with the content. That's the problem. Only broken game is rather fine, but this is intentional.

 

[MaxAttack]

Literally not the argument people are making, at all.

A balanced game design, with sufficient events to utilise the majority of the car and track content, curated and in the game from day 1 is not too much to ask from a full price, first party studio, particularly given that they did just that with GT, GT2, GT3, GT4, GT5 and GT6!

Once again,

...update plans for additional content, additional race events and additional features that will constructively resolve this.

Patience is a virtue.

 

[Scaff]

If you don't like something don't play it, it's as simple as that. Same thing goes for any form of entertainment. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy those vehicles or even play the game in first place. There's way worse stuff going in even in the gaming world, go direct anger towards those and not as PD because you don't have access to everything immediately.

Once again, no, I don't take instructions from you.

It is perfectly possible to play a title and be critical of it, and no amount of demands from yourself or whataboutism will change that.

Once again,



Patience is a virtue.

I addressed that in the very post you quoted! I can't based an opinion of a title, any title, on what it may be, I can and will only base it on what it is now. I will comment on the changes and the additional content when it arrives, but a future promise doesn't negate critique of the current product.

People just need to grow up,

If you can't post without repeatedly making personal digs and attacks, then I suggest you step away from the keyboard for a while.

Play the ball, not the player.

The AUP is quite clear that this is not acceptable.

 

[dhandeh]

If you got access the everything immediately then you'd get bored within a week and there wouldn't be any game to it.

I have access to everything, can't afford most of it and am bored within a week.

 

[Adam Barber]

Once again, no, I don't take instructions from you.

It is perfectly possible to play a title and be critical of it, and no amount of demands from yourself or whataboutism will change that.


I addressed that in the very post you quoted!


If you can't post without repeatedly making personal digs and attacks, then I suggest you step away from the keyboard for a while.

Play the ball, not the player.

The AUP is quite clear that this is not acceptable.

I'm not demanding anything from you, I'm just stating the obvious

 

[Scaff]

I'm not demanding anything from you, I'm just stating the obvious

No, you're providing instruction, unwarranted and unwelcome instruction.

"If you don't like something don't play it"
"...don't like it? Go play something else."


It's not a binary choice, and as has been repeatedly explained, it's perfectly possible to continue to play a product while being critical of it.

 

[kungtotte_]

I am really tired of that recurent strawman 🙄

Except 1 user here NO ONE ASKS TO GET ALL CONTENT IMMEDIATELY WITH NO EFFORT , SO STOP NOW WITH THAT ****** REBUTAL PLEASE.

I don't need any unicorn right now, nor next week, I don't want to receive loads of cars for the café menus.

But I would like it to be possible without a dumb grind to death for days to get enough credits to buy 1 expensive car before 2023. I am not even asking for all cars (I don't care about the collection aspect regularly put forward by the communication campaign around GT7) just one !

At my current pace, I'll need 120 hours to buy the McLaren (which won't be available when I'll have the credits anyway), if I keep everything I earn. That's ridiculous.

If you're only getting ~155K per hour when there are events where you can make that much in 15 minutes, maybe the issue isn't the payouts or the price of the McLaren?

 

[Dave A]

It's also possible to enjoy a product overall whilst being very critical of things in it which you dislike/are poorly designed and implemented.

 

[MaxAttack]

I addressed that in the very post you quoted! I can't based an opinion of a title, any title, on what it may be, I can and will only base it on what it is now. I will comment on the changes and the additional content when it arrives, but a future promise doesn't negate critique of the current product.

I see it, and I hear you, my point stepping into this thread has only ever been to express a hearty disdain for reviewbombing as a practice and try to point out some reasons I don't think it's an apportioned response to the game in its current state.

It doesn't in the slightest annoy me that people don't like the game I like; I have hundreds and hundreds of hours in dirt 4, the very mention of which is enough to make the skin crawl to many rally inclined gamers.

What annoys me is the instant vitriol and readiness to throw GT7 in the bin over what in context are largely a bunch of unfortunate coincidences beyond the developer's control.

I feel that, already feeling the sting of some wonky rear axle behaviour, the limited campaign and the very thin initial multiplayer (lobbies are the biggest issue in the game and it's insane how little this is mentioned particularly here), a lot of the playerbase took the 1.07/1.08 issues as their final straw, but when we really look at these issues I think that's quite unfortunate; because of the Kaz quote I've picked out of the letter, I really do think the current payout imbalance is temporary, and the other big issue was the server outage which really was unrelated to everything.

On top of this we have Kaz directly appealing to the playerbase with pretty fulfilling info as to what went wrong, an outline of his vision for the game and an assurance that they see what's wrong (with the economy) and better things are on the way.

How at the end of all of this anyone is left with justification to drop a 1/10 review is absolutely beyond me. They, in my opinion, clearly do not care to pay attention to the real situation, and should be returned the same level of attention from PD, Sony and everyone else.

 

[Ande3200]

Stating 'most people' would require proof, it's far better to say that people have different preferences in this regard.

It is, that doesn't however excuse them from implementing it badly

Or maybe PD implementing it better. It's perfectly possible to have a 'buy and upgrade' game design and still allow people to test drive cars, have them available in Free Run/Arcade, or loan them for events for a decreased payout. Plenty of titles follow this route and it provides a good balance for all cars, hell I know of one title that actually lets you try out paid DLC cars before you buy them!

They could Bring loan cars like forza motorsport, but buying and building cars should still be a thing becouse its to big of a feature ro throw away, and that really made gt sport useless for roadcars in my opinion they have much more use and pontential in gt7, they just need to sort out the economy and add more events

 

[Lomic]

If you're only getting ~155K per hour when there are events where you can make that much in 15 minutes, maybe the issue isn't the payouts or the price of the McLaren?

well maybe it is because I am not grinding but playing the available content in a manner that is fun or at the minimum, not boring?

and I have not been driving for 40 hours (apparently there are plenty of things do aside driving in this game), so I am more around 370k per driven hour, I know I can double that by grinding but I don't want to.

 

[Adam Barber]

I see it, and I hear you, my point stepping into this thread has only ever been to express a hearty disdain for reviewbombing as a practice and try to point out some reasons I don't think it's an apportioned response to the game in its current state.

It doesn't in the slightest annoy me that people don't like the game I like; I have hundreds and hundreds of hours in dirt 4, the very mention of which is enough to make the skin crawl to many rally inclined gamers.

What annoys me is the instant vitriol and readiness to throw GT7 in the bin over what in context are largely a bunch of unfortunate coincidences beyond the developer's control.

I feel that, already feeling the sting of some wonky rear axle behaviour, the limited campaign and the very thin initial multiplayer (lobbies are the biggest issue in the game and it's insane how little this is mentioned particularly here), a lot of the playerbase took the 1.07/1.08 issues as their final straw, but when we really look at these issues I think that's quite unfortunate; because of the Kaz quote I've picked out of the letter, I really do think the current payout imbalance is temporary, and the other big issue was the server outage which really was unrelated to everything.

On top of this we have Kaz directly appealing to the playerbase with pretty fulfilling info as to what went wrong, an outline of his vision for the game and an assurance that they see what's wrong (with the economy) and better things are on the way.

How at the end of all of this anyone is left with justification to drop a 1/10 review is absolutely beyond me. They, in my opinion, clearly do not care to pay attention to the real situation, and should be returned the same level of attention from PD, Sony and everyone else.

A lot of this smells of entitlement to me and defending review bombing as a practice is also laughable as games/devs are review bombed for the stupidest of reasons 99% of the time

 

[tankuroded]

I get your thinking, but to be honest I just think it's the result of a trend in the video-game industry to streamline and make the gaming experience more addictive, to maximise appeal and profit. It wants to get that rush of dopamine into people's brains pretty much outright. The pachinko system in GT7's rewards is a gambling mechanic - all the way down to the fact that the potential prizes are set up for you to think you have an equal chance of getting any one of them.

Pardon for the necro-quote, but do you mean the roulette tickets? And by legal definition, you need to be able to pay for the tickets for it to be legally considered gambling (there is no way to do that at the moment).

 

[AttackDickie]

Flat wrong on that. PC1 and PC2 are very playable with game pad. Just have to find the right settings for you and make the in game adjustements. With that said for me not anywhere close to same as a wheel. There are players though with game pad with very fast lap records.

I'm using the default settings for PC2 on the XSX. It's actually 'easier' than FM7 at times.
Although I do use 'low' TC & ABS in PC2 and the rain is another matter in PC2...

 

[Lomic]

I don't think it's an apportioned response to the game in its current state.

So what is your solution ? Stay quiet and say nothing while hoping they correct the issues ? When they carefully crafted the game to push MTX ? It is not some unfortunate coincidence. It is done on purpose.

If payouts where not perfect, given all the issues in the game (the lack of content for example), why was it among the first thing they changed, for the worse ?

It doesn't in the slightest annoy me that people don't like the game I like

If people didn't like this game, they'll be on their merry way playing HZD, Elden Ring or any other recent and good game available. Not losing their time review bombing it.

 

[Johnnn]

Pardon for the necro-quote, but do you mean the roulette tickets? And by legal definition, you need to be able to pay for the tickets for it to be legally considered gambling (there is no way to do that at the moment).

They are careful with that. MC should teach them much more.

And yes, it's gambling-like in pure form. It shouldn't be normal in any game or social networks.

 

[Silverfox1984]

People need to understand that the 'promise' of future content does not absolve the game from criticism NOW, which is what people are doing. W're critiquing the game in its CURRENT state, not what it could eventually become.

Remember that all we have is a 'promise' of more content; we don't even know what that will be, whether it will also involve more tedious grinding or if it will even add any more depth to the experience. The 'extra content' might just be a legendary cars competition, with the extra cars being more legendary models, so the core state of the game remains as it is.

 

[tankuroded]

They are careful with that. MC should teach them much more.

And yes, it's gambling-like in pure form. It shouldn't be normal in any game or social networks.

What's MC? Also coincidentally I did make this failure of this "change my view" thread about whether loot boxes for which you cannot pay any money for are regulatable or not.

 

[Johnnn]

I'm using the default settings for PC2 on the XSX. It's actually 'easier' than FM7 at times.
Although I do use 'low' TC & ABS in PC2 and the rain is another matter in PC2...

I missed the former text but you are rather right. M7 is artificially hard because of strange front grip. On the other hand GT and Forza have steering helper which you need to compensate in PC2. I think there is maybe some kind of it but it's probably not as in casual games. So you need to learn some new skill before enjoy it.

 

[Imari]

That is what makes ac and pcars boring to me, i prefer buying and winning the cars, and lack of any car customization is big no for me, but its of course very subjective, i am not trying to defend the grind in gt7, its a bit to much at the moment, but i prefer owning the cars and customize them, extra important for me if you use road cars, for same reason why you custmize your sports cars in real life,

To be clear, I think that's totally fine. In fact, I think we could do with more games that have progression, customisation and a deep single player experience. I've got heaps of games that are open sandbox hardcore sims. I love them, but they're not always what I want.

The problem now is that there's basically no games on the market that fit the original GT formula. GT7 has a F2P economy, GTS is iRacing-lite, FM7 has been taken off sale and FH5 is an arcade racer. There were never many of these sorts of games made, but I'm not sure we've ever been at zero on sale since 1997.

Respect is a two way street.

No it isn't. We're paying customers. Not to go full Karen, but if he can't tell us what he's going to do to address the obvious issues in his game we're under no obligation to believe his vague platitudes.

The players have already shown respect to him by buying his game. Now he can show them respect by acknowledging the problems and giving clear direction on how it's going to be addressed.

If you got access the everything immediately then you'd get bored within a week and there wouldn't be any game to it.

Demonstrably not true, from all the other games that have everything available from the outset. If everything was available it would be a different game, that's all you can say. The career wouldn't work if everything was available immediately, but the career barely works now so it's hard to see that as a massive downside.

Giving people everything immediately isn't fun, that's the point. Look at the Forza Horizon games as an example, they come out and people love them but after a few weeks nobody cares and the playerbase have all got bored.

Except for all those people still play? It peaked at about 80k on Steam in November, and it's about 10-15k now. Seems about normal? FH5 is fun if you can put aside being a super serial simulator for a bit.

There's way worse stuff going in even in the gaming world, go direct anger towards those and not as PD because you don't have access to everything immediately.

Why? Why are people not allowed to talk about this? Who are you to tell people what they should be angry about?

What annoys me is the instant vitriol and readiness to throw GT7 in the bin over what in context are largely a bunch of unfortunate coincidences beyond the developer's control.

No way. The problems with GT7 are explicit game design decisions. That's why people are so mad. If it was a game that happened to randomly come together in a way that was unfun, sure, **** happens. That's not what happened. Polyphony made a game with a lot of decisions made explicitly to encourage microtransaction purchases, and people are pushing back against it.

Primarily, the economy is borked for anyone who doesn't want to pay for MTX or spend hours to buy a car that they can't try first or sell if they don't like it. The game isn't just restricting access to content to make it more desirable, it's doing so in order to try and frustrate people into engaging with their microtransaction service.

Add in that this is something that Polyphony have been trying to work into their games for decades, and people have had enough. Ironically, the forced downtime from the broken patch is something that is an unfortunate coincidence that was probably largely beyond their control, but it just happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back and started the crusade.

 

[MaxAttack]

When they carefully crafted the game to push MTX ? It is not some unfortunate coincidence. It is done on purpose.

This is conspiratorial speculation that shouldn't be entertained by anyone. People who already despise microtransactions with a fervent hatred (why? Just don't look in the store) will find a reason to hate them wherever they're present.

But there is a difference between microtransactions being present and ruining a game, or a game being cooked to sell them. I implore you to try a f2p grind model game like Warframe and then come back to me and complain that gran turismo throws it in your face; there is barely a screen in that game without a "skip this for 30pl" button - most of which you can readily accidentally press.

Context is everything, and there's no reasonable context in which GT7 is a 1/10 game, therefore reviewbombing is dumb and says far more about the reviewer than the game. In my opinion.

(Much of this addresses you too @Imari , your post was while I was typing.)

 

[stpatty]

I see it, and I hear you, my point stepping into this thread has only ever been to express a hearty disdain for reviewbombing as a practice and try to point out some reasons I don't think it's an apportioned response to the game in its current state.

It doesn't in the slightest annoy me that people don't like the game I like; I have hundreds and hundreds of hours in dirt 4, the very mention of which is enough to make the skin crawl to many rally inclined gamers.

What annoys me is the instant vitriol and readiness to throw GT7 in the bin over what in context are largely a bunch of unfortunate coincidences beyond the developer's control.

I feel that, already feeling the sting of some wonky rear axle behaviour, the limited campaign and the very thin initial multiplayer (lobbies are the biggest issue in the game and it's insane how little this is mentioned particularly here), a lot of the playerbase took the 1.07/1.08 issues as their final straw, but when we really look at these issues I think that's quite unfortunate; because of the Kaz quote I've picked out of the letter, I really do think the current payout imbalance is temporary, and the other big issue was the server outage which really was unrelated to everything.

On top of this we have Kaz directly appealing to the playerbase with pretty fulfilling info as to what went wrong, an outline of his vision for the game and an assurance that they see what's wrong (with the economy) and better things are on the way.

How at the end of all of this anyone is left with justification to drop a 1/10 review is absolutely beyond me. They, in my opinion, clearly do not care to pay attention to the real situation, and should be returned the same level of attention from PD, Sony and everyone else.

Bold 1: The content of a game is completely within the developer's control. Even with payouts "fixed" as they are now they're still not proportionate or appropriate.

Bold 2: No we don't. There's no clarity, certainty or anything. "We will in time let you know the update plans" could mean anything. I have no issue with playing the game for a long time but right now in terms of the future, there's nothing but standard vagueness and a complete lack of detail.

 

[tankuroded]

Did anyone ask for a review retraction? Someone already did, it seems.