I am addressing you as a loyal player who has literally grown old with your PlayStation brand, having experienced every single generation from the PS1 to the current two PS5 consoles we actively use at home in our living room. My daughters recently counted our family collection: we own 146 physical games, 14 original demo discs from the PS1/PS2 era, and every year, without hesitation, we pay for two annual PlayStation Plus Essential subscriptions just to race online.
Outside of virtual tracks, I dedicate my time to history. I cooperate with a local museum and, as a metal detectorist, I have achieved a lifetime discovery—an untouched grave from 3,000–4,000 BC containing Bronze Age bracelets and needles. Because I respect the rules, I do not ruin history by hastily pulling artifacts out of the ground. I immediately called archeologists to professionally excavate the site, as bronze held an incalculable value to the Celts back then, even greater than gold. Thanks to this honest approach, I now cooperate with the museum on exclusive surveys where ordinary people are never allowed.
I expected the same from your game, Gran Turismo 7. I personally attended your official event in Prague with my wife. I still keep the tickets, the commemorative wristbands from the entrance, and in a place of honor at home hangs a photograph where I am standing directly with you, Mr. Yamauchi. However, given my recent experiences with your game, I must say with sadness in my heart: Today, the layout of my display case would definitely look different, and I would never take a photo with a person who allowed such a pathetic downfall of his own game for a second time in my life.
I consider your company's behavior to be a massive deception of honest players for the following reasons:
1. Zero communication during network collapses: The fact that your PlayStation Network servers are down is something we, as paying customers, find out with a 5 to 6-hour delay, and even then from unofficial community forums, not from you. Basic human decency means letting people know immediately that you have a technical problem.
2. Degradation of expensive licensed hardware and fake demonstrations: I purchased a top-of-the-line, officially licensed Thrustmaster T-GT II wheel for a significant amount of money. How is it possible that in the official video demonstrations, which the game forces me to watch before starting licenses, the test driver's steering radius and Force Feedback work perfectly, but as soon as I jump into that exact same license, the wheel has absolutely zero Force Feedback and the steering angle stretches to a bus-like 1080° in every single corner and in every single license? Your network code ruthlessly overrides our hardware, and there is not a single mention of these hidden modifications in any menu. You sell licensed accessories that your own updates subsequently render useless.
3. A mockery of racing etiquette and a dismal penalty system: You preach about etiquette, but the online lobbies in GT7 are full of over-aggressive drivers who intentionally ram honest racers driving without assists off the track and into the barriers. I am not a saint, and I openly admit that I started retaliating in online races. But I did it out of pure, helpless frustration because your dismal system does absolutely nothing about these近 aggressors and fails to protect honest drivers! When a player wins a race, receives a "Clean Race Bonus" from the game, and your broken network code still lowers their Driver Rating in the background, it is an absolute mockery and completely demoralizing.
In my PlayStation profile, I proudly hold the emblem from my lifetime online race, which I won with the legendary 1964 Honda F1 car—which happens to be my exact year of birth. It was a moment I was incredibly proud of. I saved the replay where it is clearly visible how your system back then correctly turned the aggressors into ghosts and protected the clean driver. My daughters used to lovingly tease me that Dad bought tickets to Prague and then showed everyone how to win. Today, you are ruining this memory with a broken physics synchronization and faulty code, which completely kills the experience on the track.
Perhaps in your studios, you think that as an older driver, I am irrelevant to your business. But realize one crucial thing: Who buys your expensive PS5 consoles, games, and premium accessories? Is it the children, or is it us, the hard-working parents who actually pump the real money into your ecosystem? Mr. Yamauchi should occasionally look down into the stands during his world travels to see how many children are actually there, and how many of us, who are returning to that childhood through your game due to our age. I am no moralist, and I know I will never be a world champion again. But I speak not only for myself, but for all those 2 million monthly players who turn on Gran Turismo 7 at least for a moment. Why are you ruining their gaming experience like this?
I demand an immediate fix to the network physics synchronization, a correction of the profiles for licensed Thrustmaster wheels, and a complete overhaul of the dismal penalty system.
Sincerely,
An honest simracer from the Czech Republic (A l
oyal customer since 1995)
