Kazunori Yamauchi Responds to Gran Turismo 7 Fan Outrage

[McLaren]

Review bombing is not gonna do anything.

Depending on the details, it can at the least tell a studio the fan base is not happy.

It's not like Naughty Dog patched Abby out of The Last of Us 2 after launch after she did what she did.

Review bombing a game because you're not happy with a story-based decision (or culture war for some) is much different than what happened to GT7. Naughty Dog can't patch out a character or story.

We on the internet like to think we're important, but the hard truth is that no, we aren't. The stats are. Sony is only gonna do something if the number of active players plummets and if people don't buy enough MTX.

Hearing a player base lodge complaints and then basically going, "Wait til' they actually do something" is a ballsy move. The fan base is clearly upset at a significant margin, Sony/PD might be wise to actually get ahead of it as soon as possible instead of waiting for everyone to stop playing & making it that much harder to convince people to return.

In fact, the reason why Ubisoft still pushes MTX after all these years is because, according to themselves, lots of people buy them.

Maybe because they found some balance with their game design where it works for them without seriously affecting the game itself.

 

[MrNukki]

If mtx sales plummet they will nerf some more and sheeple will still be happy, because you are impatient, apparently
They did it once, they can do it again and call it balancing

Never underestimate whales.

 

[Pizzicato1985]

Never in my life have I completed anything 100%, that's just waste of time, unless when you actually finish the game normally and it gives you platinum, which is impossible anymore

For real. Even Bloodborne, probably my favorite game ever made that I put over 1000hrs into, I was still at like 94%. Don't know what I needed for a "platinum" and didn't care to find out as I had done everything in the game multiple times. Never understood the trophy-hunting thing. Might actually do it if PS gave you a free game every 10 plats or something, but for nothing?! Hell no

 

[Gt79]

Depending on the details, it can at the least tell a studio the fan base is not happy.

Review bombing a game because you're not happy with a story-based decision (or culture war for some) is much different than what happened to GT7. Naughty Dog can't patch out a character or story.

Hearing a player base lodge complaints and then basically going, "Wait til' they actually do something" is a ballsy move. The fan base is clearly upset at a significant margin, Sony/PD might be wise to actually get ahead of it as soon as possible instead of waiting for everyone to stop playing & making it that much harder to convince people to return.

Maybe because they found some balance with their game design where it works for them without seriously affecting the game itself.

As much as I can't stand ubisoft, they never actually pulled anything like pd ever and they did some horrible things, like covered rape etc

 

[now_then_fella]

It's a £70 game. It should not have microtransactions full stop for a start. Then the actual game's economy and digital scarcity pushes the player towards these microtransactions which is even worse. Anyone who says this is not a problem has their head in the sand quite frankly it's not friendly to the long term fans of the game and it's not friendly to new players either. It's greed plain and simple. I have never seen another racing game that seems so intent on locking content and cars away from people as this game.

Sure we don't want progress to happen to fast but this is farcical. Boycotting does not work but negative energy on twitter and metacritic does so I hope people keep on with that as it may make a difference. No point in comparting Last of Us 2 with this either that was downvoted for (in my opinion) silly reasons whereas this should be downvoted and review bombed to kingdom come quite frankly. I wish I had not bought the game and as we know sony don't really do refunds so I am stuck with it.

 

[HyperSpeeder]

If mtx sales plummet they will nerf some more and sheeple will still be happy, because you are impatient, apparently
They did it once, they can do it again and call it balancing

They might try lowering the price, but they sure ain't gonna risk losing players.

People really need to realize that having more people PLAY the game is more important to them than people BUY the microtransactions. Especially when the more people playing, the more chance there's someone willing to buy credits for cash.

The idea is that playtime keeps the game active, which keeps it interesting for other to join in. Nobody's gonna buy/sub to a dead game.

EA literally killed NFS Heat on the spot once they realized they didn't get what they wanted. They just released a very expensive car as DLC to make a quick buck and called it a day. They simply didn't have enough players to justify keeping the game alive.

Even games without MTX nerf progress, albeit for different reasons. Forza is the biggest culprit as Microsoft needs people renewing that Game Pass sub every month. Sure you don't have MTX, but you do have slow credit income and absurd Auction House prices should you miss out on that elusive AE86 in the week you couldn't play. You think 20 million in GT7 is difficult, well try doing it in FH5 just with races and no flipping in the AH.

tl;dr Too hard a nerf and they risk losing everyone. Remember GT7 probably has a roadmap of releases spanning multiple years, including the possibility of a PC release (as per Nvidia leak). And they definitely won't wanna tank that, especially when there's many more whales waiting to be snatched on PC.

 

[icenl]

Doesn’t do the content… says the content is rubbish… umm ok then

I completed the menu books, golded all licenses and missions. So is it ok to complain now?

I Bought the game on 4th march, did gold the licenses on and most menu books on 5th march then golded the missions and didn't finish the last menu books until i got enough credits to buy the cars in the ucd (Before they start to rotate). I finished the last book on 19th march, During the books you get good rewards and a good car count but the end game is just empty and not feeling rewarding.

They have so many options to make so many more events and missions we could be playing different races everyday. If they cant do it themselves they just have to up the credits in the custom races a bit and make them sharable. Imagine the possibilities, if someone could recreate a full grid of cars from a real race series. Think of doing a race with f1 liveried cars on monza, the options are endless. You could do that right now as well but you need to have enough credits to buy the cars to be able to get a full grid.

 

[AutumnalGlow]

Also on the topic of completing all of the missions before I can say there's a lack of content, no, some of them just suck. Those "races" where you wait a whole minute for all the other cars to start? Why? If I make one mistake and can't get the gold, I need to restart and wait for them to start moving again. There's no excuse for that when they've quite clearly figured out how to do rolling starts with large gaps.

 

[samppa_944]

I just end up pressing the ignore button whenever I see comments like this. And in the past 24h I've done it quite a lot.

You guys don't understand the concept of balance.
Period.

P.S. You wrote these two sentences in the same comment
"People are ******* impatient!"
"stop complaining"

See what you did there?

Yes, it is not balanced.

Still, you all could for the same time you spend on these forums be driving in the game and earn some credits. (I myself on a break now, earned 3M today).

We all can choose, how we spend our time. That being said, I hope they increase the game rewards slightly upwards, sooner rather than later. We need plenty of races increasing rewards for sure.

No disrespect intended 🤝

 

[hardvibes]

Also on the topic of completing all of the missions before I can say there's a lack of content, no, some of them just suck. Those "races" where you wait a whole minute for all the other cars to start? Why? If I make one mistake and can't get the gold, I need to restart and wait for them to start moving again. There's no excuse for that when they've quite clearly figured out how to do rolling starts with large gaps.

Ah...yeah. That Mazda 787B challenge, plus another one.
Waiting 1 minute on the grid. The pure definition of fun, according to Kaz.

 

[Gt79]

I completed the menu books, golded all licenses and missions. So is it ok to complain now?

I Bought the game on 4th march, did gold the licenses on and most menu books on 5th march then golded the missions and didn't finish the last menu books until i got enough credits to buy the cars in the ucd (Before they start to rotate). I finished the last book on 19th march, During the books you get good rewards and a good car count but the end game is just empty and not feeling rewarding.

They have so many options to make so many more events and missions we could be playing different races everyday. If they cant do it themselves they just have to up the credits in the custom races a bit and make them sharable. Imagine the possibilities, if someone could recreate a full grid of cars from a real race series. Think of doing a race with f1 liveried cars on monza, the options are endless. You could do that right now as well but you need to have enough credits to buy the cars to be able to get a full grid.

But did you gold circuit experience?
According to some individual here you didn't finish whole content
Now come back when you done mate

 

[KJF]

Doesn’t do the content… says the content is rubbish… umm ok then

Again, this is like talking to someone created in a lab.

If you cannot understand how I can know something isn't of interest to me without completing every aspect of it then I'm really not sure what to say. It's a very basic concept.

The missions are short, bonus objectives to complete and/or master. Am I wrong?

 

[McLaren]

Even games without MTX nerf progress, albeit for different reasons. Forza is the biggest culprit as Microsoft needs people renewing that Game Pass sub every month. Sure you don't have MTX, but you do have slow credit income and absurd Auction House prices should you miss out on that elusive AE86 in the week you couldn't play. You think 20 million in GT7 is difficult, well try doing it in FH5 just with races and no flipping in the AH.

Woah, woah, woah, woah.

For the last couple days, any time I've seen Forza brought up, it's people trying to bag on it for throwing credits out at players and giving cars to people willy nilly. Now, you want to bring forth the credit income is slow & bring up auction house prices that are set by the community? 20 million credits in Forza is an immensely easy task compared to GT7, made even easier by the community-made races.

The plot has been beaten, shot, killed, & buried at sea now.

 

[Dave A]

Is it worth reminding people that Gran Turismo 7, which has fewer races than all but 1 main Gran Turismo title, and takes the longest to save up credits to buy the more expensive cars, was touted by Kazunori as the most complete Gran Turismo to date.

People can argue about if the game is fun, has enough content for them, is too grindy or not, to their hearts content. But the fact is, it takes longer to earn Cr than past GT games, including those which were already criticised as too grindy, and it has fewer races than any of Gran Turismo 2 though to 6 (excluding non-numbered titles which were not full games like GT Concept, GT4 Prologue etc.) You cannot dispute that.

So rather than either side criticising the individual for their perspective, or raising inane points like "you can't complain if you haven't completed everything", shouldn't the actual content and means with which to progress and earn Cr and but new cars be discussed openly.

 

[Gt79]

Again, this is like talking to someone created in a lab.

If you cannot understand how I can know something isn't of interest to me without completing every aspect of it then I'm really not sure what to say. It's a very basic concept.

The missions are short, bonus objectives to complete and/or master. Am I wrong?

Now now now
Circuit experience, gold, don't forget 🙄

 

[AutumnalGlow]

You think 20 million in GT7 is difficult, well try doing it in FH5 just with races and no flipping in the AH.

Just takes a bit of luck on the wheelspins, really. It's unfortunate that they're the main source of income in FH5, but it's still far faster than GT7 because of them.

 

[HyperSpeeder]

Depending on the details, it can at the least tell a studio the fan base is not happy.

Review bombing a game because you're not happy with a story-based decision (or culture war for some) is much different than what happened to GT7. Naughty Dog can't patch out a character or story.

Hearing a player base lodge complaints and then basically going, "Wait til' they actually do something" is a ballsy move. The fan base is clearly upset at a significant margin, Sony/PD might be wise to actually get ahead of it as soon as possible instead of waiting for everyone to stop playing & making it that much harder to convince people to return.

Maybe because they found some balance with their game design where it works for them without seriously affecting the game itself.

GT7 is a special case. It is a console exclusive. Amongst the unhappy fans, there will certainly be fanboys of the rival console taking advantage of it. Not only that, but on Metacritic, unlike Steam, you don't need to own the game to post a review.

Regarding Ubisoft, the balance they found is enough people willing to buy the MTX. Because I remember building full sets of armor in Odyssey just with Orichalcum was stupid hard. And, although I haven't played Valhalla yet, I know opals income was slowed down at release.

Heck, Ubisoft actually did the same PD did in GT7 with the microtransactions after release (they added the store after the reviews) and Valhalla is still one of their best selling games simply because most people don't care about the ultra rare armor pieces and just want to cosplay as Ragnar/Lagertha.

Which is my point. The slowed progression is bad not because of the Hagerty cars, but because a nitrous kit in this game costs 100,000 credits and machining an engine (bore, crankshaft etc.) forces me to buy a new one (which I like, just not in a game where credits are scarce).

The Hagerty cars are appealing to automotive aficionados, not to the random casual who's satisfied with the silver Supra they win for free in the Café.

Just takes a bit of luck on the wheelspins, really. It's unfortunate that they're the main source of income in FH5, but it's still far faster than GT7 because of them.

Dude, that's the EXACT problem with both games!

Heck, in FH5 it's even worse since you can win clothing items. The only better feature in that game is the ability to sell the duplicates, which existed in FH3, was removed in FH4 and they only readded it like 1 year after release.

Yet Forza Horizon is a huge success and they're not gonna change anything. Which is my point.

 

[KJF]

Now now now
Circuit experience, gold, don't forget 🙄

I believe this is where I have to master individual portions of a track before completing a full lap, trying to attain gold on each section?

I have only completed the one in the menus though so maybe I am wrong, I'd better gold all 30+ of the rest just incase I'm missing something!

 

[Fourteen]

If people insist on airing their views that they can't see the problem with the road PD are taking the game down, then you ARE the problem.

Regardless of whether an individual is enjoying the game or not, is it so difficult to understand that all you are doing is hastening the demise of everyone's favourite racer? At what point do you question this blatant money grab? The next game? The one after?

A path has been set that absolutely no one should be happy about. Whether you have a higher tolerance for it, or not, is irrelevant. There is nothing redeeming about what PD have done.

If you are happy, that's fine. If you think it's just the way things are, so be it.

But don't ever expect your apathy to ever force anything to change for the better. That happens because other people have higher standards.

Some of you are the marketing guys dreams.

 

[McLaren]

GT7 is a special case. It is a console exclusive. Amongst the unhappy fans, there will certainly be fanboys of the rival console taking advantage of it. Not only that, but on Metacritic, unlike Steam, you don't need to own the game to post a review.

Yes, much different than fanboys here defending PD's pointless nerf at every turn. Doesn't change the fact that outside that small margin "rival fanboys", the player base is still noticeably unhappy.

Regarding Ubisoft, the balance they found is enough people willing to buy the MTX. Because I remember building full sets of armor in Odyssey just with Orichalcum was stupid hard. And, although I haven't played Valhalla yet, I know opals income was slowed down at release.

Heck, Ubisoft actually did the same PD did in GT7 with the microtransactions after release (they added the store after the reviews) and Valhalla is still one of their best selling games simply because most people don't care about the ultra rare armor pieces and just want to cosplay as Ragnar/Lagertha.

It might be one of their best selling games because the story arc & the progression is fun and rewarding, and doesn't rely on a grind, regardless of MXTs.

Which is my point. The slowed progression is bad not because of the Hagerty cars, but because a nitrous kit in this game costs 100,000 credits and machining an engine (bore, crankshaft etc.) forces me to buy a new one (which I like, just not in a game where credits are scarce).

Congratulations, you've once again come around to the part where you realize the in-game economy is unbalanced.

 

[ruggermole]

It'd be interesting to see PD's internal numbers but it'd be hard to imagine that getting out in front of the criticism and altering things would be a bad move. Ultimately, their future revenues depend on in-game transactions, in-game advertising, future purchases of this game, and future purchases of future editions (if they plan on doing one). All of these at least somewhat depend on keeping as many players as possible. PD seems to have had the goal maximizing in-game transactions while not caring so much about the other three. Maybe their optimization equation has shown that in-game advertising is going to be lower than GTSport and that they won't get many purchases after launch. Hopefully they see that people are upset and decide to change the math.

 

[Gt79]

I believe this is where I have to master individual portions of a track before completing a full lap, trying to attain gold on each section?

I have only completed the one in the menus though so maybe I am wrong, I'd better gold all 30+ of the rest just incase I'm missing something!

Attaboy
ALEXWILMOT will finally let you in one of his special clubs

 

[mika haka]

Surprise surprise kazanouri releases a statement full of lies. Why is anyone surprised considering he has been lying about features since gt5.

Its what he does and how this game has been heading for years. It will only get worse in my opinion.

To release a single player game behind drm should have set alrams ringing.

Glad ive not picked it up as it doesnt sound like the old gt games but hopefully we get a complete edition in a years time with these issues gone.

 

[now_then_fella]

Also I think it's time to recognise that Kaz himself is actually a fairly middling developer who is living off past glories. Pretty much everything in this game (AI, career construction, hud options, starting at the back etc) is either incredibly old fashioned or has been done better in other games. It's like a time machine but in a bad way. I feel like an idiot as I fell for the reviews and the nostalgia and bought the game . I really wish I had waited now and picked it up down the line for cheaper or not even bothered at all. I think Gran Turismo may have an issue where it wouldn't exist without Kaz but at the same time it would be better without him attached to it so it could actually move with the times. The only modern aspects in GT 7 so far are the graphics and the micro transactions.

 

[Miroku]

Why doesn't he talk about the future of GT Sport and what happens to it once the server is shut down. They better do an update to allow for offline play/saving!

 

[Silver Arrows]

Forza is the biggest culprit as Microsoft needs people renewing that Game Pass sub every month.

I knew this was going to come out, lmao. Your white whale...too bad it isn't true. and it has never been the depraved conspiracy you think it actually is. Nor does it take away from what Polyphony are doing right now that you are trying so goddamn hard to avoid and spin onto others.

Sure you don't have MTX, but you do have slow credit income and absurd Auction House prices should you miss out on that elusive AE86 in the week you couldn't play. You think 20 million in GT7 is difficult, well try doing it in FH5 just with races and no flipping in the AH.

Sure is better then GT7's in game economy! but then again, as per usual, Forza is the devil to you and you'll take any opportunity to demonize it. Even though, as per usual, you are wrong.

Not even close, if anything FH5 is significantly less grindy than FH4 was, they went in the opposite direction. And both FH4 and 5 throw cars and money at you significantly quicker than GT7 does, hell buy one of the properties in FH5 and it gifts you a Super Wheelspin a day.

The difference is also in your own words, 'play', 'progression', FH5 gives you an absurd amount of stuff to do and throws cars and cash at you while you are doing it. It's the literal opposite of having to find a singular event that pays the most and repeating it ad-nauseum for hours and hours.

Funny how you never responded to this even though it categorically denied the point you were trying to make then, and now. But as per usual, I know your game with you.

Heck, in FH5 it's even worse since you can win clothing items. The only better feature in that game is the ability to sell the duplicates, which existed in FH3, was removed in FH4 and they only readded it like 1 year after release.

Yet Forza Horizon is a huge success and they're not gonna change anything. Which is my point.

Who the **** cares about clothing items? You win so much money over playing the game, and wheelspins, that getting them in a wheelspin is a minor annoyance at best. But as usual, that's the devil in red to you. And not the fact that in GT Sport and 7, roulette spins are more or less pre-determined and often times land on garbage you don't want, and can't ultimately sell?

Also lmao at that point. FH doesn't need to change anything because it is successful, and even if it does, T10/PG has shown more balls in that regard of not getting their fan base ******** mad and telling them to go pound sand, then Polyphony trying to obfuscate and eventually going through with the bad things anyway. But Forza bad, am I right?

 

[AutumnalGlow]

And not the fact that in GT Sport and 7, roulette spins are more or less pre-determined and often times land on garbage you don't want, and can't ultimately sell?

To be fair, I'm pretty sure they're pre-determined in Forza too. At least in my limited experience of repeating wheelspins because it crashed or I closed it before claiming the reward.

 

[Silver Arrows]

To be fair, I'm pretty sure they're pre-determined in Forza too. At least in my limited experience of repeating wheelspins because it crashed or I closed it before claiming the reward.

The issue is that the only thing you're going to be getting in wheelspins is cars, credits or clothing items, and the odds of getting say, big money or a Legendary car aren't so wholly stacked against you visually that you basically learn to not bother with them.

 

[McLaren]

To be fair, I'm pretty sure they're pre-determined in Forza too. At least in my limited experience of repeating wheelspins because it crashed or I closed it before claiming the reward.

I would guess they're set up a bit to try and at least, avoid the best prize in the spin (like the Huracan FE). Most of the other prizes are still satisfactory.

 

[BackwardsMan]

I couldn't care less really about the nerfing of credits because I never farmed Fisherman's Ranch in the first place, nor do I even have the 'Win 10 Dirt Events' trophy.
For me, I do the European Championship (150K credits every 20mins.. not inc Clean Race bonus) and the World Championship (450K credits every hour.. not inc Clean Race bonus). Managed to get the 3mil Porsche GT1 (inc. ALL of the best upgrades) and the 1.5mil Ferrari F40 (inc. ALL of the best upgrades) in a matter of a few of days.... and that's without playing hardcore and working a 9-5 job.