Offline saves.
Whilst Gran Turismo Sport's servers remain up, the inability to save while offline has been a non-issue, and a subject of much groaning whenever someone decided to bash the game over it. But now with the rumours that the next GT could arrive as early as this year as a PS5 launch title, we must soon address what will become of GT Sport after the next game becomes the main online platform of the series. Both the GT5 and GT6 servers were shut down within six months of the following game being released, and there's no reason to believe that pattern will change.
The continued existence of older games is important for several reasons. Some gamers are on a budget, and cannot afford the latest games and/or consoles. Others might want to replay their older games for nostalgia reasons, or play a game they 'missed' when it was newer. The point is, whilst the servers are no longer around for GT5 and 6, they left behind perfectly functioning single player games, with the latter faring better due to not losing out of the 'quality of life' improvements offered by 5's online. Without offline saves, this will not be possible when the servers move on from Sport to Gran Turismo PS5, whenever that may come.
This isn't a plea to add offline saves to the game right now. Keeping everything online makes it easier to uphold the integrity of the FIA online championship, and it's better to be safe than sorry when policing potential hacks that would give players an unfair advantage. Rather, this is me reminding Polyphony Digital and everyone that this is something that will need to be addressed once the next game comes out and takes with it the e-sports aspect of GT, leaving little reason for this online-only safeguard to remain in Sport. I just hope that PD cares enough to implement offline saving when the time comes to do so, as regardless of your opinion on the quality of Sport's single player experience, said experience should be preserved rather than lost to time.
Whilst Gran Turismo Sport's servers remain up, the inability to save while offline has been a non-issue, and a subject of much groaning whenever someone decided to bash the game over it. But now with the rumours that the next GT could arrive as early as this year as a PS5 launch title, we must soon address what will become of GT Sport after the next game becomes the main online platform of the series. Both the GT5 and GT6 servers were shut down within six months of the following game being released, and there's no reason to believe that pattern will change.
The continued existence of older games is important for several reasons. Some gamers are on a budget, and cannot afford the latest games and/or consoles. Others might want to replay their older games for nostalgia reasons, or play a game they 'missed' when it was newer. The point is, whilst the servers are no longer around for GT5 and 6, they left behind perfectly functioning single player games, with the latter faring better due to not losing out of the 'quality of life' improvements offered by 5's online. Without offline saves, this will not be possible when the servers move on from Sport to Gran Turismo PS5, whenever that may come.
This isn't a plea to add offline saves to the game right now. Keeping everything online makes it easier to uphold the integrity of the FIA online championship, and it's better to be safe than sorry when policing potential hacks that would give players an unfair advantage. Rather, this is me reminding Polyphony Digital and everyone that this is something that will need to be addressed once the next game comes out and takes with it the e-sports aspect of GT, leaving little reason for this online-only safeguard to remain in Sport. I just hope that PD cares enough to implement offline saving when the time comes to do so, as regardless of your opinion on the quality of Sport's single player experience, said experience should be preserved rather than lost to time.