In contrast to Gran Turismo Sport's focus on online multiplayer racing, Gran Turismo 7 brings back the traditional single-player Campaign Mode. Presented on a new 3D World Map, GT7’s comprehensive Campaign sees the return of fan-favourite locations like the Used Car Dealership and the Tuning Shop.
Revealed during Sony’s State of Play, at the centre of the map is the Gran Turismo Café, a brand-new location designed to guide new players on their Gran Turismo 7 journey. It’s also a celebration of car culture.
What is the GT Café?
25 years ago, the original Gran Turismo turned a generation of PlayStation gamers into passionate petrolheads. Now, Kazunori Yamauchi, the creator of Gran Turismo, wants GT7 to make people fall in love with cars all over again.
"Today you won't find as many people talking about car culture anymore,” he said during a preview event reported by Gamespot. “Less people are talking about the beauty of cars, or focused on the fun of driving." This is where the new GT Café comes in.
Serving as a central hub, the GT Café gives the player car collection “menus” to complete. There are 39 menus in total, each with cars to collect, unique events, and rewards to unlock. For example, the Porsche 911 menu shown in State of Play includes three 911 sports cars across multiple eras.
You complete each menu by winning races and championships, unlocking cars, tracks, and credits as rewards while learning about the history of car culture. Completing the Porsche 911 menu unlocks a 930, 964, and 993-generation Porsche 911 for your collection.
Meet the designers
Kazunori’s passion for cars is abundantly clear in the GT games. GT Sport introduced a Museum mode allowing players to learn about the history of the automotive industry. This mode returns in GT7, this time with a dedicated museum for every car manufacturer in the game. But GT7 goes even deeper.
In the GT Café, designers and engineers that worked on cars make an appearance, providing an insight into a car’s design history. Designer Tom Matano, for example, talks about how he penned the design for the Mazda MX-5 Miata in North America. Freeman Thomas also makes an appearance to talk about the design inspiration behind the iconic Audi TT.
“The cafe's a place where you may meet some of the designers or the engineers that were actually involved, or actually created these cars that you've collected,” Kazunori explained. “So, what that is, it's a part of the car, or the culture revolving around the cars.”
“And of course, we had the museum first appearing in Gran Turismo Sport. But this takes one step further, where you get to know the people that are involved in creating these cars."
Completing all 30 menus in the GT Café unlocks the game’s official ending. But there’s so much to see and do in GT7 beyond the GT Café, from driving missions and license tests to tuning and taking photos in Scapes.
“Gran Turismo 7 has no clear ending,” Kazunori told GTPlanet. “I believe GT7 is the type of game where you will get a lot of mileage and discover a new way to play it, even a year down the line.”