Polyphony gave us a huge amount of Gran Turismo 7 news in the GT7 State Of Play last week.
One thing that was lacking in it was much mention of multiplayer, and now we know why. Polyphony has announced that player Driver Ratings and Sportsmanship Ratings will carry over from GT Sport into GT7, making the new game effectively a full-priced campaign mode add-on for GT Sport.
And the community is not happy about it.
Arrive & grind
Part of the joy players get from a new game is the grind. Be that grinding your way up to Onyx on Halo Infinite or Master Rank in F1 2021, the satisfaction of working to git gud has always been a key reward for gamers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNwhpSsGsnM
For some, taking their elite ratings over from one game to the next will save them hours of trawling through races with less trustworthy drivers. But for most, it means there is no reset to start again. No chance to feel your own improvements by achieving high ratings faster than you did on GT Sport.
Different name, same experience
The transfer, which is automatic and non-optional, also implies something more worrying for GT fans. The Gran Turismo 7 online experience may just be exactly the same as the GT Sport one.
The Sport Mode penalty system and ratings have come in for a lot of player criticism in the 4+ years we've had GT Sport. The fact that the ratings are transfering in their entirety suggests that there will be no under-the-hood differences in GT7's online system. It will have the same penalties and same ratings system, otherwise the results of GT Sport would not mesh with fresh data from GT7.
It's not only the mega content creators like Super GT that are expressing their worries and frustrations about the decision.
If the online experience is exactly the same then it will be a disappointment for nearly everyone.
Polyphony's decision to transfer data and keep online the same may have been fuelled by the desire to maintain their esports scene, but it's coming at the detriment of the rest of their playerbase.
Just a single-player add-on
The result is that Gran Turismo 7 feels like a DLC pack for GT Sport. A full-priced DLC at that.
Sure, we're all excited to go through a true GT campaign for the first time in eight years, but once that is done the online world becomes the home for everyone. If it's no different then GT7 could quickly go the way of Forza Horizon 5, with players abandoning a game that feels like a re-skin of its predecessor rather than a fresh and new title.
Gamers are starting to get burned out on the same content and playstyle over and over. It's why players are fleeing from Warzone and FH5. We hope Gran Turismo doesn't end up on that list. But with only a few new cars & tracks compared to GT Sport the worry is starting to creep in just weeks away from release.