A reader is unimpressed by Sony’s handling of Gran Turismo 7’s problems and explains why it convinced him to buy an Xbox Series X instead.
I was thinking of writing a Reader’s Feature about the disaster that has been Gran Turismo 7 and then the news came that Sony has, as GC predicted, instituted a major U-turn. The latest in a long line of U-turns for the PlayStation 5 that has included free (but mostly not free) upgrades, cross-gen releases, and cross-play. They’re constantly making bad decisions, that anyone could have warned them about, and then having to publicly backtrack them afterwards.
I have enjoyed previous Gran Turismo games a lot and by all accounts this is a good entry, if it hadn’t been ruined by decision makers at the top being greedy. Not unusual for any company you might say but this is such basic stuff, especially when it comes to the question of microtransactions which I thought we’d settled long ago with Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
The bizarre thing with Gran Turismo 7 is that Sony thought that changing the ease with which you can earn ‘free’ in-game currency just a couple of weeks after launch would be something people wouldn’t notice. If you’re going to push people towards microtransactions that’s awful but at least be competent about your evilness. If they’d had it that way from the start there probably would’ve been less complaints but no, you release it as an update and then have the director claim it’s doing the opposite of what it’s actually for.
On top of that they still haven’t explained why the game is online-only or why they’re not doing anything to change that, despite 30 hours of proof of why it’s a bad idea. Being a greedy corporation is one thing but being a greedy, incompetent corporation is even worse.
I’m now going to say that you don’t see Xbox doing this sort of thing, which is true, but there’s a reason for that and it’s not because they’re a ‘better’ or more moral company. It’s because they got punished last gen for very similar mistakes and they’ve learnt their lessons. Not completely, Halo Infinite was still pretty bad when it came to microtransactions, but you certainly don’t see them making mistakes on the scale of Gran Turismo 7.
Microsoft needed a knock last gen and now Sony needs one this gen, I feel, or they’re just going to get worse and worse. The PlayStation 5 is currently ahead in sales, but I think Sony knows that their long-term prospects are far less certain and that they need to up their game if they’re to continue to compete with Microsoft. That means no more mistakes that are obvious a mile off to everyone else that’s ever played a game but which you, somehow, convince yourself is a good idea.
You see this with all companies. They all want the FIFA and the Fortnite money, where people spend money on meaningless digital items that take no effort to create. So publishers just put in similar options to every game they can and throw them at the wall and see which ones stick. Gran Turismo 7 didn’t but I have no confidence that Sony won’t see it as worth the risk to try again with the next suitable game.
We’ve all heard about Sony arrogance before and I think it’s real, just like Microsoft arrogance is real the second they have something go right for them. I’m not sticking around for my point to be proven again though.
With the recent influx of Xbox Series X consoles to UK stores I bought one and will stick with that this gen. Maybe Microsoft will go downhill as well but at some point you have to make a decision and Sony’s terrible handling of Gran Turismo 7, and all the other backtracking this gen, has put me off.
By reader Camber
The reader’s feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.
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