There’s just one more day to tear off on your page-a-day calendar for 2023, and it’s been another intriguing 12 months to be a fan of racing games in general — and Gran Turismo in particular.
After a couple of pretty ropey years, 2022 seemed like the turning of a corner as things started to return to normal. There was certainly some small cause for optimism (even if some ongoing world events made it qualified optimism) as the gaming industry began to move back into pre-20s state.
We’ve seen hardware — so blighted by semiconductor shortages — return to the fore with strengthening sales and more options, the return of one major franchise after a staggering six years’ absence, and an entirely new way to enjoy Gran Turismo without having to even pick up a controller…
Table of Contents
- Gran Turismo 7 Launches PlayStation VR2
- Gran Turismo Sophy Arrives In-Game
- Gran Turismo 7 Spec II
- Live Audiences Return to the GT World Series
- Gran Turismo Hits the Silver Screen
- Sport Shutdown
- Forza Motorsport Reboots
- WRC Titles Move to EA
- Toys Spring a Surprise
- PlayStation Portal
- Fanatec ClubSport DD & DD+
- Thanks for a Great 2023!
Gran Turismo 7 Launches PlayStation VR2
For us the biggest single moment of 2023 came with Gran Turismo 7, almost a full year on from its original launch in 2022, with the title used to launch the new PlayStation VR2 hardware.
Unlike the first foray into VR in Gran Turismo Sport, in a limited game mode, GT7’s VR support is total and game-wide. Any time you drive a car in GT7 you can do it in VR, and it’s a transformative experience. Many players find it difficult to go back to a flat-screen after playing the title in VR.
Of course you will need a PlayStation 5 — sales of which have now exceeded 50m as the issues of 2021-22 have eased — to make use of the PlayStation VR2 device, so PlayStation 4 users do miss out on the experience.
GT7 picked up a nomination at The Game Awards for its VR mode, but missed out to Resident Evil Village VR Mode. We guess the judges were more wowed by a ten-foot tall woman…
Gran Turismo Sophy Arrives In-Game
AI might be one of the biggest criticisms leveled at the Gran Turismo series across its 25-year history, but that all began to change in 2023 with the arrival of the new “Gran Turismo Sophy” AI in the game.
Sophy had been initially created by the newly created Sony AI as a study into whether it was possible to make an AI drive in Gran Turismo Sport at “superhuman” speeds. The project evolved into the creation of a complete AI driver using reinforcement learning techniques, and was used for demonstration events against the world’s fastest Gran Turismo players.
Come February 2023, Sophy made its surprise Gran Turismo debut, appearing in a small, limited-time test mode — and again PlayStation 5-exclusive — where the players could race against up to four of the completed Sophy agents.
Player reaction to that brief taster was used to refine expectations of Sophy, and it returned as a far broader offering later that year with grids of up to 20 cars at nine of the game’s circuits, and around 75% of the car list supported.
Gran Turismo 7 Spec II
Sophy’s second — and permanent — appearance in GT7 came in the surprise “Spec II” update to the game in November 2023, which also saw some of the biggest changes to the game just over 18 months post-launch.
That included a brand-new snow circuit, Lake Louise, for the first time since Gran Turismo 6, and the biggest single car drop in the game’s life. More significant though were some changes to enhance the user experience and the title’s longevity.
New Weekly Challenges were part of that, serving up some of the game’s events as well as occasional new events as a playlist of sorts with bonus prizes. That was accompanied by a new Event Directory, as an overview of your single-player progress, and a new Dashboard that provides an at-a-glance review of your game experience.
We also saw a new “Master License” level added, a change to Meeting Places, an upgraded, four-player split screen mode, new shooting methods in Photomode, and a brand-new opening movie.
Live Audiences Return to the GT World Series
In 2022 the Gran Turismo World Series returned to live events with the Showdown and World Final in their usual homes in Austria and Monaco. These events were private, though, open only to qualifiers and sponsor, media, and influencer guests.
Having set its sights on public events before being forced into a change after Sydney 2020, Polyphony Digital returned to this format in 2023 for the Showdown and Final — in Amsterdam and Barcelona — for which tickets were made available to members of the public.
While there may have been some trepidation before the Amsterdam opener, it’s safe to say that it was a very successful event. Barcelona proved to be one of the best events of the championship so far — with a home victory certainly whipping the crowd up!
Gran Turismo Hits the Silver Screen
2023 was also the year that — after over a decade of waiting — Gran Turismo finally became a movie, enjoying a premiere at the aforementioned Amsterdam Showdown.
The story of the film, titled Gran Turismo, is a dramatization of the real events around the career of Jann Mardenborough who became a professional racing driver through winning the GT Academy competition in 2011. It’s directed by District 9 director Neill Blomkamp, and stars Archie Madekwe (Saltburn) as Mardenborough — alongside Orlando Bloom (The Hobbit) and David Harbour (Hellboy).
While the initial critical response was middling, fan reaction has been much more positive and the film still holds a 98% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. It also made its debut at #1 in the US box office and recently passed $121m globally — roughly corresponding to break-even. However it too lost out in The Game Awards for Best Adaptation to fellow PlayStation Productions project The Last of Us.
If you haven’t yet caught the movie for yourself, it’s now available on physical media worldwide, as well as Netflix and the Sony Pictures Core service.
Sport Shutdown
With so much going on in Gran Turismo 7, it’s probably little surprise that PD has finally announced the retirement of its predecessor will take place early in the New Year.
Gran Turismo Sport was the title that represented and successfully spawned Gran Turismo-based esports, and although the heavily pared-back title met with some criticism early in its life there’s no doubting its success.
By the latest numbers from Polyphony Digital, Sport sold 12.7 million copies across its life to become the second highest-selling title in the series’ history behind Gran Turismo 3, and generated $355m in revenue.
When the game does shut down on January 31, all of the online services will terminate — including not only multiplayer modes but the mileage store and, sadly, user-created liveries. However the bulk of the game will remain playable and progress can be saved locally from that point on.
Forza Motorsport Reboots
Forza Motorsport also returned in 2023, with a first new game in six years — following a reliable two-year cycle across its first seven titles. Called just Forza Motorsport, the title represents a complete reboot of the series as Turn 10 went back to the drawing board. Or at least to the ground…
There was plenty of promise, with T10 making myriad references over the intervening period to the complete reworking of a number of integral systems — from suspension and tire physics through to ray-traced lighting and a new audio system — as well as a refocus back to circuit racing.
While we liked the title generally, we did find it an inconsistent experience even on the standardized hardware of the Xbox Series X. It soon became clear that PC players were having it even rougher, with a number of issues that T10 has been resolving. That key car-progression gameplay loop was also walked back somewhat after an early and largely negative response.
In fact Forza Motorsport has proven sufficiently underwhelming generally that when it won Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards earlier this month, the reaction from the racing game community was incredulity. 2024 will be an important year for the series then…
WRC Titles Move to EA
2023 also saw the move of the WRC license to EA, following several solid entries from Nacon’s KT Racing studio. We had to wait awhile to see the first title in the series — now renamed EA SPORTS WRC in accordance with the company’s new branding — but it did finally come in October.
Like Forza Motorsport, there was plenty of promise. Codemasters developed the title, and with it having plenty of experience with rally from both the days of Colin McRae Rally and — as it became due to the license going elsewhere — the DIRT and DIRT Rally series, there was some hope for it too.
While we didn’t get a chance to review the title in its initial state (with the company’s PR team sending a review code over five hours before the embargo…), the general response was somewhere between muted and couched — although again EA is addressing the performance issues of its first racing game based on the Unreal Engine.
Toys Spring a Surprise
A couple of toy-based racers came out in 2023 too and actually proved to be among the most enjoyable racing games we’ve played this year.
Okay, we perhaps shouldn’t have been surprised at Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, because the first one was ridiculously good fun — and Milestone’s most successful racing game ever. For the sequel, the team actually took out the bad parts and put in some more good ones.
LEGO 2K Drive was the other revelation, and virtually came out of nowhere. Of course we could all see the microtransactions — for buying additional bricks to build your cars — coming from the moment the title was announced (two months before launch) but it doesn’t change the fact that what’s there is extremely good fun and addictive. If you’re quick you can get it free through PS Plus this month too.
PlayStation Portal
The PlayStation 5 ecosystem increased by two whole devices in 2023, with PlayStation VR2 first in February and — at the other end of the scale — the new PlayStation Portal (PSP? We see what they did there…) coming in November.
Portal was first announced in May 2023 as “Project Q” and certainly divided opinion. Unlike the PSP of old, Portal is a device that cannot play its own games. Instead it’s a dedicated Remote Play device, streaming games from your home PlayStation 5 console over WiFi from anywhere in the world.
It resembles a DualSense cleaved in two, with an eight-inch LCD screen mounted between the two halves because it pretty much is, and while there’s a modicum of input lag it gives the convenience of playing on a PS5 without the hassle of having to lug one everywhere.
Fanatec ClubSport DD & DD+
Peripheral options for sim racers expanded in 2023 as Fanatec brought new direct drive wheels to the market under its ClubSport product range.
The ClubSport DD and DD+ are in effect enhanced versions of the CSL DD and GT DD wheelbases, with the larger units providing more torque, improved slew rates, and the debut of a new “FullForce” technology.
If you want the full experience, the DD+ generates up to 15Nm of torque and provides PlayStation compatibility — becoming totally cross-platform with an Xbox-compatible wheel fitted — while the regular DD is PC and Xbox only, with a 12Nm torque peak.
Fanatec has also introduced its new QR2 quick release system at long last.
Thanks for a Great 2023!
2023 was another fantastic year for the GTPlanet community, and we want to give a special thanks to our millions of readers and users from around the world who make this site possible. We look forward to bringing you even more in 2024!
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