Gran Turismo 7 Fans Fight Controversial Currency Nerfs with PS5, PS4 Farming Exploits

The damage is done. Too late. Thank god I stayed away from this disaster.

Never doubt a community. If farming souls in the Souls series has taught me anything, it's that a community will always find a way to make sure a developer leaves systems in place or creates a fair and balanced economy. GT7 is a fantastic game and I will never grind in it regardless of the economy, but Polyphony needs to find a way to appease the hardcore that want to see what is best for the game. Step one is for PD to quit appearing to push its players toward MTX.

I agree that the damage is done. Whilst I think they should fix the issue, I'm tired of seeing developers pull these moves despite knowing that it would anger the community (just like with NFTs) only to then reverse the move and apologise.

Despite me loving the GT series, the reputation is tarnished.

Looking forward to next week's UK sales charts

I was so looking forward to this game, and for about 15 hours I loved it, never felt like I was short of credits, got the cars I wanted, upgraded ETC ETC, but then that was it. Done.. the cafe menu things ran out, I got gold in all the license tests for the first 2 licenses (I'm not good enough/prepared to get good enoigh to gold the others, never will be!)
But then it's either online races or repeat the same few cups as before, the campaign was over and done with so quickly!
No endurance races, only a handful of tournaments and no real incentive to carry on the grind. I've sold it on and will probably pick up a cheap copy in a couple of years when, hopefully, there will be the content worthy of a £70 game.

I will continue to enjoy the game as it is. Hopefully they sort out any issues that they have had in recent days regarding the nerfing of payouts etc and add in new cups, races and tracks. I wont ever support the mtx's but i wont deny its still a bloody good racing game and im not going to cut my nose off to spite my face.

When not playing the game is more rewarding than actually playing it, you know you f****d up.

I had held off on buying until a price drop as $70 at launch is too steep for games I'm on the fence for. Glad I didn't as it doesn't seem you can afford the cars you would want to drive in the game. I'll stick with NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered.

I may give this a shot actually. Only time I did a script was for the ffix kill trophy (think it was 10000 enemies and legit would have taken over 50 hours of constant grinding). Found the process fairly interesting.

But hey Jim Ryan is alright amiright guys! Amiright...?

@lolwhatno there are 3 difficulty settings (using a chilli pepper system for some reason that I've not fully worked out) which alters the AI of other racers, even on the highest difficulty, you can set up and tweak your car enough to be able to confidently beat 90% of the races without too much issue. Rolling starts also got rid of the cheese exploit of starting with a car that destroys everything off the grid like that standing starts of early games in the series.
The missions were pretty hardcore in the later stages too, but not much to cause multiple replays of them, I guess, again, if you're going to get gold medals in all of them, that would give you some serious replay/grind time.

Restore the payouts to 'at least' what they were originally and give me the option to remove all those MT prompts from the game (GT Sport had this option, I believe).

Smashing game TBH, but Polyphonys rep has had a righteous kicking because of this BS. They need to take swift action.

Still playing it, still loving it. Total spent on MTX so far. £0.00. Estimated spend on MTX over the next 2-3 years I'll probably be playing it, £0.00.

@Uncharted2007 Why be put off? Far too early to know how MTX have changed the balance, if at all. So far I'm noticing absolutely no change in progression compared to any other GT I've played.

@curriemonster I'm just surprised they don't have endurance races. Kinda love those. I mean, if you never even need to pit are you really racing?

I'm sure they'll get there, as they plan to add tons of content, but still seems like more of a reason to hold off a while. Let them get this mess sorted and add some seemingly much needed content.

@zupertramp yeah the omission of endurance races is a strange one. Why have fuel consumption and pit ins when you dont get to use them. It is a strange one.

@SJBUK finally. The voice of reason.

@zupertramp yep, I'm annoyed at quite a few things in the game as it is at present, but I will say..

It looks and sounds incredible, what races are there are good fun, the cars are stunning! Each one feels like it is a completely different car, the weather system is impressive and makes you really try really hard to keep the car on the road!

In 8 months to a year I think itll be something very special indeed and I will 100% be buying it again when it's there, even in the first update, to add 64 music tracks is pretty incredible, the amount of new cars, tracks and extra content they added to GT sport over the years has been massively impressive.

Good. Hope the exploits continue until they cut microtransactions completely.

@zupertramp we need a Le Man's trophy. Now that would be a hardcore event. Haha

sure they will patch these out as well and we will get a statment saying how the patch has made it so we don't have to grind the same tracks over and over again!

This seems like an oddly forgiving writeup when it comes to this game and how the past few days have been handled by its makers.

@curriemonster I agree with everything you've said on here. Damn shame that the first update is such a controversial stinker.

There's a top drawer racer underneath it all, but still....

In the end there is no justification for having microtransactions in a £70 game, and especially in a Sony halo game.

Fony just seem to be turning into money grabbing plebs, it seems.

Was playing this lots before the update. Now it's pointless. You have to keep re-doing the same races just to earn enough to get better cars/parts etc to win later races

Ive just discovered how good the gyro controls are... I might give them an extra £16 reward AND get 2million cr back for my trouble.

Support the developers and all that ..

@SJBUK As stated... $70 is a bit much for me. Especially after this debacle... I expect the price to plummet shortly. I haven't even bought Horizon FW yet and that's of more interest to me.

@Shepherd_Tallon they really should have waited until some of that content was out, though, before they nerfed payouts.

@curriemonster @Kidfunkadelic83 yeah don't get me wrong, I've been fairly critical but I do want this game. Would have been day one but i was deep into HFW and didn't need to drop money on a game that's just gonna sit there. Definitely looking forward to it, but it's definitely sounding like a down the road purchase.

@EquiinoxGII that would be cool. Never had the courage to start the 24-hour Le Mans before because I believe that was an option in Sport or 6. I like endurance but that's too much. I wonder how long that would take me in real time?

@GoodGame Answer- "You have to keep re-doing the same races just to earn enough to get better cars/parts etc to win later races"

Question - describe every Gran Turismo ever made in one sentence?

I used something similar for the Vivi's hopping trophy in Final Fantasy 9!

Live service online only = not getting a single penny of my money. Cex is full of new and sealed copies so a lot of gamers have decided the same thing.

I’d never use this, but I’m interested to know whether the electricity cost for running this constantly exceeds the Microtransaction costs of just buying the credits…not that I’d ever buy credits either. I’d rather just play the game. The thing is, clearly PD just want to encourage people to play long term, and so nerfed rewards to stop grinding, but haven’t added yet the events to make up for that. I think they have the right idea there, but the execution is clearly lacking. They did clearly say they have plans and hope people can look longer term, but that doesn’t help people who want everything now and have already smashed through the main game.

@naruball "Looking forward to next week's UK sales charts"

Honest question but do you work for Sony? It just seems the most important thing to you is always that they are making lots money (which they are) and how much they sell.

They are a multi billion dollar corporation they will be fine if they get called out a little for bad decisions like always online and EA like mtx on a $70+ title. Is okay to side with the consumer every once in a while 👍

The irony. They wanted to lower the currency to discourage grinding the same races over and over...and now we have people who will run scripts and AFK to avoid playing your game entirely.

@ATaco don't get it twisted, they lowered the credits to try and force players to buy them through micro transactions. They will probably remove all free credits completely soon. Scumbags

@Shepherd_Tallon true enough. i imagine there's a sense that we'll, for the most part, whine about it but as mentioned in convo with @SJBUK, this may or may not translate into any tangible negatives for them. I mean I wouldn't be surprised to learn they've been a bit desensitized to gamer complaining. I get it, it's our thing. We throw a fit but still buy their stuff. We're a weird lot, I'll be the first to admit.

@Resi32 Oh I know, I'm just using the reason that they gave for lowering the credits...which we can now see was a total BS one.

@lolwhatno oh, I see.
I dont believe the difficulty changes the times on the license tests, just the AI in races.
The test times were always a rock solid stumbling block for me, I have passed all the tests up to at least a silver on all, but getting all golds is beyond my hand eye abilities.

As for races and tournaments, I've gotten gold in all of those, some.did take a couple of attempts, especially the rain sections of races!

Been playing it & loving it since release aside from the server maintenance. I’ll be playing it tonight too & into the foreseeable future. I haven’t & won’t be spending money on MTX. Maybe I’m missing the point but I’m not hellbent on collecting every single car, I’ll grind credits & work towards the ones I want & just continue to enjoy what is a very, very good racing game.

Meanwhile I'm still working through the cafe books and not fretting over credits earned. I'm not excusing what PD have done with regards to the game's economy, I'm simply just enjoying the racing at the moment.

@Resi32 But where has this 'don't get it twisted, they lowered the credits to try and force players to buy them through micro transactions' viewpoint come from? Are you playing the game and have you found this to be true? Has anyone found a leaked email from Polyphony or Sony saying this is what they have done?

As I've said I'm playing it and have not found this to be true so far. Maybe other have, I don't know. Yes, MTX may well be in there to make more money and maybe also as a result of previous feedback from some who want progress quicker. Maybe a mixture of both.

I think some people need to remember that the folks behind GT do have a quirky take on some things, it's what's makes GT7 a bit different. Maybe this isn't some evil plot to milk us for every penny but just a manifestation of their vision for the game. Perhaps people like, I don't know, PushSquare, might dig into that a bit rather than just jump on the bandwagon...

@thefourfoldroot Leaving a PS5 and computer on all isn’t going to cost $160. If it did, people would never even able to afford electricity considering all the other things using power in someone’s house.

@ApostateMage I mean that's what the game is about isn't it? 😀

I finally opened my PSOne mini over the weekend and had a quick go on Ridge Racer Type 4. How far technology and gaming has come since then. Playing RRT4 and GT7 back to back made me realise how spoiled and entitled gamers are these days.

The reaction here to GT7 has been disappointing to say the least. And has been blown WAY out of proportion.

Some people have got themselves into such a rage over the inclusion of MTX that they refuse to acknowledge that the game is still great regardless. As if having MTX in GT7 is somehow a brand new invention.

I wonder if the people complaining that it takes too long to collect all the cars in GT7 are the same people who refuse to buy games like Ratchet & Clank because they aren’t long enough… 🙄

Really soured the hype for me. Was going to buy eventually, however won't touch this until they fix the game's image.

@naruball I'd imagine Kirby will be at #1 next week.

@SJBUK You're the only one telling the real story.. They just lowered the payouts for some of the fastest races and massively increased the payouts for other longer races. Most people don't even know they actually increased rewards on races and are just jumping on the bandwagon. It's only people who haven't even played the game or those that want to own everything instantly that are blowing this out of proportion.

It's basically the same thing as Assassin's Creed microtransactions where they're there for those that just want to bull rush the game, but if you play the game normally there's no shortage of resources. Plus most people would rather have in game currency used to buy all cars rather than most car games where new cars are 100% locked behind paid DLC.

@Juanalf oh noes. You figured me out. Gotta let Sony know now. Such a shame. They were paying me so well.

@Jaz007 Your post piqued my interest so I just had a look at the PS5 info on the Sony Active Power Consumption web page. Seems to indicate that standby with network (so downloading updates etc) states it's 2W. Which does mount up over time. Standby without network (so turn on with your TV) is 0.5W.

More than I thought in both cases so I'll probably be turning it off more than I have been!

I think this is overblown by those protesting.

It feels like they hate all microtransactions of any kind and feel GT7 is the hill to die on to demand change. I've said it before. I don't expect another GT for a decade, and I bought the game with that in mind. I'm in no rush. And don't believe I'll be spending the price to speed it up.

Funny how no one bothers to fight this hard against MTX with any other game, it's always excuses excuses excuses for those other games, but Sony has MTX in GT7 "Oh gosh well that's a no-no".
I'm all for the fight against MTX, I just wish you lot were this consistent with every game that has MTX, it's either "All MTX are bad" or none of it it is, stop picking-and-choosing to fit your own narrative, it's embarrassing.

@zupertramp 'I mean I wouldn't be surprised to learn they've been a bit desensitized to gamer complaining'
Agreed, I would imagine they have, especially because of the nature of and way some complaints are made. With GT It's been made clear that feedback has and will be taken into account. I think constructive feedback, made after observing the actual effect of any change, is more likely to sway decisions in this case.

@GoodGame and this is what I was afraid of, when MTs were introduced. You CAN do the mind numbing, tedious grind, OR you can buy some credits.

Sony need to go to the game release history book, look up the chapter on 'Battlefront 2', take a moment to learn from others previous mistakes, and then redo the whole pricing structure of the game.

i'm sorry but it feels like most people that complain about this game , are people who haven't even played it. having actually played the game its really not that difficult to earn money. and it feels like people are complaining they actually have to play the game instead of rush through it.

Really want this game but I can’t bring myself to spend £70 and be seen as condoning the tactics employed by Sony and PD on this one.

@PhhhCough "and this is what I was afraid of, when MTs were introduced. You CAN do the mind numbing, tedious grind, OR you can buy some credits."

Hasn't that always been the case with GT?

I mean, if you're not enjoying the game and find it mind numbing and tedious, you're probably playing the wrong game.

@Loftimus exactly !!

@PenguinL "The more they're accepted, the more likely Sony will be to expand them to other games. Whether they're optional is irrelevant if the game is designed to push you into buying them."
^^^This. And the "It's not a big deal, stop whining, you don't have to buy MTX" crowd doesn't help in getting this kind of stuff removed from games, and alleviates accountability from these game makers.

This is a question to everybody on here - including the Push Square editorial team :-
Have ANY of you played a Gran Turismo game before ?? The grind has always been.part of the game. I remember playing GT2 & 3 and doing the Sunday Cup again and again just so I could afford a better exhaust to win and then get more credits to buy a rally car ad nauseum
A lot of people on here, yes including you Push Square staff, don't get it, they just feign outrage over MTXs in a game they haven't played.
I got 240,00 credits in an hour last night on GT7 - its really not difficult!
The outrage isn't real

@Futureshark

Not to defend Sony’s decision here, but this isn’t anywhere close by to the scummery EA attempted with BF2.

In BF2 you had to spend real money on what was essentially a roulette wheel to hope and pray you got something good.

But still this move by Sony is trashy behavior.

@naruball Sounds like a problem with game design, if you ask me. That there's not enough varied content in your game that rewards you sufficiently that you need to run the same race(s) over, and over, and over again. But, go on continuing to NOT condemn game makers for pushing MTX by blaming gamers for "whining", and continue to cape/fanboy for Sony — they need your support, now more than ever ...

This is merely a taste of things to come. GT7 will likely be the roadmap Sony's going to follow for the other live services they want to saturate us with.

I smell an incoming nerf patch!

@eagletrippin so funny your post was followed up by an MTX defender.

Feel bad for GT fans that are disappointed by this whole thing.

@Jaz007
Just read it more thoroughly, and it does say you can “earn” £8 per hour with the perfect set up, and I guess having the PC running the script for an hour doesn’t cost that much, so I guess that answers that question (not sure what you meant by 160 but perhaps that’s in the video which I can’t watch while at work).

Seems like a wasteful and silly thing to do to avoid playing a game for fun, but it takes all sorts.

The long term health of the industry doesn’t look good to me. MTX is only getting worse. NFTs will be forced into games at some point.

This is unsustainable.

@thefourfoldroot you could also look at this method as a way to play the game just for fun. Y'know, let the computer grind for credits while I do the fun racing and buying awesome cars stuff that I bought the game for. I think that's the calculation anyone using this is making.

@eagletrippin ad hominem attack. How typical.

Let's be honest, someone would have done this anyway without all the drama from the last few days.

@naruball That doesn't make it not true.😋 I singled you out, but you are one of many here and on the web that makes MTX to not be such a bad thing by blaming gamers for whining. So, keep backing the game publishers👍

As I don’t have the game yet, could someone confirm that these super expensive cars are not needed for the single player portion of the game? I have no interest in any type of online play to win grind anyway.
My memory from ps1/ps2 days is that you needed to be in a certain class/power band etc, otherwise you couldn’t enter the races.

@Kidfunkadelic83 agreed, I am really enjoying the game and racing against my friends. The cycle of tuning your car to beat a friend, only yo find they found a better way to tune it is a lot of fun.

I have not felt the need to but credits but I have been farming some of the races.

@PhhhCough how is racing mind numbing? Its what you buy a racing game to do. Its not like an rpg were you go out of your way to farm repetitive enemies. This is racing and every race is different, even if it is on the same track.

Someone needs to tally up the total DLC Price for GT Sport with all those cars and then we need to ask how that model wasn't deemed 'enough' by Polyphony Digital and Sony?

Another dumb internet outrage. And of course this site again on the negative side of things. Typical.
I played all gran turismo games. This isn't any different in its progress than older installments.
Mtx don't intrude in the experience whatsoever but if you want to you can.
They changed some payouts, but by all means focus on the ones they lowered and not on the ones they increased.
The game is very good. If you are on the fence don't listen to the negative press on this site. Buy it, you won't be dissapointed.

The fact that people even feel the need to find ways to cheat the system of earning in-game currency to enjoy a £70 game shows there's something really wrong here. It's such a shame to see Sony edge in this direction.

@Loftimus i agree , if some one finds the game , " mind numbing", they wouldn't enjoy this type of racing sim in the first place , mt's or not. it feels like most people who are complaining wouldn't even play this game either way.

@eagletrippin from my experience gamers will repeatedly run the piece of content that gives the best rewards for the least effort when a grind is required, no matter how much variety there is. There was a clear imbalance in the credits being rewarded for the time taken in some events so this was adjusted, and data will have shown that these events were being spammed repeatedly. I'm genuinely curious if people would have been okay with the grind amd the changes that were made if there were no MTX in the game. The most expensive cars in GT games have always been long term goals and I've felt like I've been earning credits at a steady rate and never once felt like MTX have been imposed on me or thrown in my face.

Driveclub had a disastrous launch, Evo worked like dogs to patch, upgrade and add to it until it was an awesome game and Sony still closed them.

Whatever the final outcome, PD should be worried, and Kaz especially. GT7 is Kaz' baby and it seems he's thrown it out with the bathwater. IMO, PD needs a new leader.

Just have to say I am supremely happy I didn't shell out for the super expensive fancy pants special edition.

@thefourfoldroot From what I've seen so far (Completed the cafe part. About halfway through missions/license tests. Finished all championships) the super expensive cars aren't necessary. You should be OK for vehicle content.
As for the power/class stuff (referred to as PP in the game). You'll win many of the cars you need if you play through the cafe part first, and the cars are easily tunable to make them competitive for certain events where you don't have a car ready 'out of the box'.

I've had no probs thusfar. Got plenty of motors and just short of 3 million credits. I will say though that most of those credits were earned before the upgrade lowered the payouts. 👍

Maybe next time they can just add cheats for people that want to unlock cars faster instead of the option of paying for the privilege & make online seperate from the single player

@thefourfoldroot I've yet to play online so I'm only going on what I've read from people who do. The gist of it seems to be that, yes, you can gain an advantage with the more expensive cars. If you're good enough to drive them to their limits, that is. If not you'll still get beaten by skilled drivers with well tuned freebie cars.

@TheDarkSide
Ok, sounds fine then. People caring about the cars being too expensive are mainly those who want to dominate online? I’m not bothered about that really, will likely only play online for the trophy challenges (although you need a lot of credits to get some of these legendary Le Mans cars For a trophy I think).

@BoldAndBrash Jimbo Ryan?

MTX in ANY game is bad. It turns the developers focus from ‘how good a game can we make’ to ‘how much money can we make’. Makes sense from a publisher’s point of view, but sucks for gamers. Even if you never buy anything in-game, the mere presence of MTX has already changed the gameplay for the worse

@Would_you_kindly Sony and PD can’t do that because FIA will not allow them.

@MisterXpoSay that's like EA saying they couldn't make FIFA offline because FIFA wouldnt allow it

All the people defending this and saying microtransactions are not needed blah blah ...no Thier not at the moment but think of where this can lead in single player games ..... Ratchet and clank without clank unless u grind or pay for him , horizon game without mounts unless again you pay , and for those who say this will never happen ...it could very easily, every company ( not just Sony ) are in it to make money and if they get say with crap like this it WILL go further ,they are making a bundle off the ppl who want the cars fast to show off/ brag to Thier friends that they have them and money talks to these companies

@Martsmall what if, what if... if you don't want to buh mtx then don't. If you want to be outraged to justify to yourself that you should not buy a game to save money then don't. Let the option be there for people who want to use it. It doesn't take anything away from the game. It adds to it for the ones who like some extras.

I remember the days we were in awe of a jumping red and blue pixel with a hat. When did we became so negative?

@thefourfoldroot Yeah, it's absolutely fine offline (lower payouts not withstanding). I don't venture online myself, so my enjoyment of the game isn't affected by the need to top leaderboards..... Not that I ever could. I'm average at best.

BTW, are you the same 'thefourfoldroot' that was a Eurogamer regular a few years ago? Your username seems familiar.

The real question is why have you, PUSHSQUARE, not changed your score based on the actual game at release and post nerf. Both of which are different versions you were given access to pre release. You literally got played and stand by it. Why because just like with this trash release, it's all about money....

Take the lead, take a stand, relinquish the shackles, and speak truth. Don't just passively comment on the controversy you helped slap such high overall critical reviews on.

@TheDarkSide
Yes, same one. I got shadow banned for some reason, you know how the moderators are on there! I probably said something that wasn’t PC enough, likely on a censorship article lol 🤷‍♂️
I did try to go back with a different account assuming there may have been a mistake (a lot of people were banned in some kind of mass culling at the time) but I quickly got kicked again after barely posting, so I figure they monitor through an IP address or something.

Or maybe something I said in the forums that rubbed them up the wrong way; that place was a real cesspit when it was still going. They did right to remove it.

I remember you as a very chill and friendly guy (if you’re the one I’m thinking of)

Thanks for confirming that none of this impacts the single player game enjoyment anyway.

@thefourfoldroot Yeah, they've had a few mass culls since then, mate. I left of my own accord in protest at seeing one too many good guys being given the heave-ho. Not the EG it once was TBH.
And thank you. I am a chill guy I hope, especially since leaving EG. 😁

@TheDarkSide
Yeah, it’s a shame, was my go to site for a good few years, but the admin and mods were mighty strange by the “end” (to put it mildly). Far better atmosphere here.

Add me to the list of those dissapointed in the launch content. The game has a ton of cars that are all out of reach after beating the Cafe. The poor payouts mean that I could race for months just to afford one car from the Legends dealer. It really sucks because I'll turn it on and hit my daily miles, spend the ticket, and sit there on the map like....well....I guess I'll go play something else.