Gran Turismo 7 apologizes for controversial patch with credits

Gran Turismo 7 developer Polphony Digital has released a new blog post that apologizes for changes made to the game’s economy after backlash from fans that has led to Sony’s lowest-ever user Metacritic score.

In the blog post, Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi apologized “for the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in, not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to the community.”

Specifically, Gran Turismo 7‘s servers went down for 30 hours last week after Polyphony released Update 1.07. When the servers were down, the only aspect of Gran Turismo 7 that was playable was its arcade mode.

However, the main issue that caused the game’s user score to plummet on Metacritic was the adjustments that Polyphony made to the game’s economy, which reduced the rewards earned in most events, effectively funneling players into the game’s microtransaction system if they wanted to unlock new cars.

As an apology, Polyphony “will be making a goodwill gesture” by making a free 1 million credit pack available to players who already owned the game prior to the release of Update 1.07. Eligible players have until April 25th to claim the free credits.

More importantly, Polyphony announced a “considerable patch” that’s coming in early April that will increase events and “re-establish the reward system with greater balance throughout the game to benefit all players,” including an increase of rewards in online races and rewards earned in latter-half World Circuits events.

The blog also laid out some “near-term updates” that Polyphony is working on for after the April update, including:

• Increase the payout value of limited time rewards as we develop as a live service.
• Further World Circuit event additions.
• Addition of Endurance Races to Missions including 24-hour races.
• Addition of Online Time Trials and awarding of rewards according to the player’s difference with the top ranked time.
• Make it so cars can be sold.

Gran Turismo 7 is available on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.