It's been a rough time for racing fans lately.
There are plenty of negative takes on EA's purchase of Codemasters flying around the internet, and just this week Sony announced that Gran Turismo 7 won't be coming until at least 2022.
However, there are always positives in any situation. And there is one clear silverlining for GT fans.
Support for Gran Turismo Sport
This week saw update 1.63 drop into Gran Turismo Sport. It has made some changes to the much-maligned penalty system at long last, which should improve the quality of online races for everyone.
Along with that it also made some changes to Sport Mode and a huge raft of Balance of Performance tweaks.
This continued support from Polyphony is much appreciated by the GT community, and will hopefully continue far into 2021 now that the new game is postponed.
Fresh content
While new cars are drip-fed into the game from time to time, it has been over a year since a new track, Laguna Seca, was dropped into GT Sport.
While there are 31 tracks in the game, the number of ovals and off-road circuits trim that number considerably. Meanwhile racing mainstays like Silverstone and Imola, as well as Gran Turismo classics like Trial Mountain, are missing.
It may be wishful thinking that Polyphony will take this extended gap between games to add more locations to GT Sport, but it would certainly be welcome.
GT Sport arrived in October 2017, and with an extended lifetime extra support is definitely needed to prevent the community from dropping off before GT7 lands.
Will it actually happen?
Polyphony has provided solid support for GT Sport in its lifespan, but there is little doubt their attention will be on getting Gran Turismo 7 over the line, and possibly even with full VR support for Sony's next-gen headset.
That's a lot of work, but it would be a disservice to the GT community for Polyphony to forget about GT Sport and not keep it rolling through 2021 and into next year.
With the FIA Gran Turismo Championships continuing the game ought to see online stability continue to improve, but content for the public should also be part of Polyphony's mission this year.