Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi has revealed that game data shows a generational divide in how players engage with Gran Turismo 7 during a recent round-table media interview at the Gran Turismo World Finals in Monaco.
Gran Turismo fans will know that, unlike the largely online intent of GT Sport, GT7 has returned to the model of previous games — albeit with its own twist — in having a progressional single-player mode in addition to the online component.
The question of which of the two aspects of the game, single- or multiplayer, was considered more important for GT7 came up in the interview, and unsurprisingly Yamauchi answered that they’re treated equally. However he then expanded on that with some insight on how players actually play Gran Turismo.
“When you look at the distribution of the age groups playing Gran Turismo,” he explains, “it becomes apparent that those in the higher age groups prefer playing offline and the younger generation actually like playing online against others”.
That’s not the whole story either, as not only does player preference differ by generation, player behavior does too.
“The traditional Gran Turismo players, they play offline and they spend hours and hours in the game,” says Yamauchi. “The new generation of users will log in online, play maybe one or two races, and then log off. So the playing style is quite different between the two”.
It’s an interesting insight, and could go some way towards explaining some of the development directions of recent titles.
While GT Sport catered to the younger players, the lack of offline progression may have alienated the fans who’ve been with the series since it launched in 1997. GT7 of course brought it back, with a slightly different interpretation, but also introduced features like online vehicle rental to allow the younger players access to cars needed for the online races without the need to sink time into offline progression.
We’ll have more from these other round-tables in the coming days.
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