The missing feature that will soon become important

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JayOTT

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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.
 
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.

Will backward compatibility of PS5 not in some way resolve this - for online saves I mean.
 
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Will backward compatibility of PS5 not in some way resolve this - for online saves I mean.
That depends on whether the servers for the PS4 game are kept alive or not. As history as shown us with GT5 and 6, they were taken offline relatively shortly after the release of their respective successors.

BTW, if I remember correctly someone found out that the online exclusivity were part of the FIA regulations - so once that ends the offline saves may be coming then. And to be honest, after the problems with hackers/modders that GT5 and 6 had I can kind of understand it
 
Very well written thread and it is my main reason why Sport is the only GT game series I have not purchased. If I want to rent a car I’ll go to Hertz. If offline saves are eventually allowed I would then reconsider at that time for car collecting, livery, tracks, and such. Certainly costs also will come way down in the near future as sales diminish and when the PS5 comes out along with GT7 someday.
 
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the next GT could arrive as early as this year
Ha ha ha. They haven't even published a release date yet...
First they'll publish a release date... then they'll miss that release date by 2 years. So... 2022 at the earliest for "GT7".
And that version of GT will have fewer features at release than any previous iteration of the franchise.
You heard it here first.
 
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.
Would it not be worth it for Sony to maintain a server for GT Sport funded by PS+ subscription?

And continue with the same deal as now, PS+ needed for online play but not necessary for offline. Extend the game life 3-5 years while people transition to the new game.

At the end, when there are no more updates save the data, livery, records on the Hard Drive.
 
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Very good questions. The main problem is that the game is constructed for online from A to Z. Even if you change between two liveries you have created by yourself (which is only possible when being online) it has to be saved online. And this is only a little example. The question is if it is possible at all to change the game to an offline game even if PD had the will to do so. When Ubisoft closes their servers for THE CREW 2 one day, than it's a total Game Over.
Personally i would be very sad if GT Sport will die when PD closes the servers perhaps at the end of march 2021. That's the dark side of the "New all online world".
 
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The main problem will be the real purchase of cars. In other games, players keep those cars due to hard drive saves. If GTS servers are shut down, lots of money is lost.
You wouldn't think that PD would release a patch when the servers finally shuts down to allow players to finally play offline? They're not that naive.
 
You wouldn't think that PD would release a patch when the servers finally shuts down to allow players to finally play offline? They're not that naive.
I don't know. It may not be about naivety. I paid for the Lewis Hamilton DLC. That is available to use when servers are in maintenance. However, we can't do the same for cars bought.
 
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.
I really think that the offline saves are a thing of a past now because of hacks.
 
I’m certain they’ll give you the ability to play and save offline. It would be a low blow for some people but if the next GT comes at PS5 launch, then I would play that instead of GTS. I’d rather have the updated next gen models.

Edit: typo
 
I still like playing GT1-4 from time to time, I've never played 5 or 6 though after their successors released. They don't have any appeal for that in my opinion. And GT Sport won't be any different
 
I agree, PD should put out a patch that enables the game to function offline once the servers move on to the next game. They didn't exactly have form in the past though. GT5's Online Car Dealership got shutdown. GT6's Course Maker feature also tanked with the servers. It doesn't exactly give me much hope with GTS given the online integration is vastly more complex and ingrained in the game itself. It's gonna be a huge undertaking on PD's part, and I'm not sure they're willing (or want to) because the incentive is to get people to move on to the next game as soon as possible (which will also move PS5 units off the shelf like no other game could).

IMO, the saddest part about GTS servers being shut down isn't losing the online races. It's all the hard work and tons of hours of creativity the community has made with photomode, scapes and livery editor. All gone in the blink of an eye :( My library is chock full of designs I've curated over 2 years and when the servers are gone I won't even be able to look at them anymore :(
 
The fact that the library is inaccessible without having a connection with the online services means it should (hopefully) be addressed before the game reaches end-of-life. All of your saved photos and replays are stored on the HDD, but you can't play them back let alone see which ones resides in your game data without having a connection to the online services. All of those memories and good experiences you have playing the game, those being your time spent taking photos or replays of online races or really fast time trial laps you've saved, would be locked away unless the game would allow for the library to be accessed offline.

I do hope that this will be addressed appropriately when the time comes, for the sake of preservation. Online services are only available for a limited time, but the game and all of the content that was produced for it shouldn't be, and should be preserved so that players can go back and enjoy the content, regardless of their reasoning behind doing so. I've saved so many replays of all the good races I've experience while playing that it'd be a real shame if I couldn't go back to watch them.
 
Hopefully they will at least allow us to port liveries from GTS to GT7 like FORZA 7 does. Or is Sony and PD not capable of that?

Only hurdle I see for my hopes is that, like FORZA, it seems the focus will shift to drawing new players which leaves the old die hards with big libraries in minority.
 
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Hopefully we will be given the option to transfer liveries and online data to the next game as whilst I wouldn't throw my rattle out of the pram if it didn't happen it would be sad to see all the past liveries go to waste.

I have external saves of all the pictures and my PS4 video of most of my online races so those memories we have some access to but I am sure
that PD will address the issue in due course.
 
Hopefully we will be given the option to transfer liveries and online data to the next game as whilst I wouldn't throw my rattle out of the pram if it didn't happen it would be sad to see all the past liveries go to waste.

I have external saves of all the pictures and my PS4 video of most of my online races so those memories we have some access to but I am sure
that PD will address the issue in due course.
It will be so sad if there was no option to transfer your liveries and online data to the next game.
 
I would assume that all cars in GT Sport will be in the next GT game. I'd also assume that the next GT game will have a livery editor. As little faith as I have in PD to ever do anything sensible or logical, deleting several years' worth of community content creation when it can still be used seems a bit foolish. I don't know the logistics of how the process would work, but I'd assume if the game uses the same assets them some of them would be able to be moved forward. I suppose it would depend on how drastic the graphical changes are for the next game.

At the very least, I'd hope they'd offer the chance to download saved photos and replays to the hard drive. I don't see why they couldn't, even if only for a limited time.
 
Let's not try to make this a wishlist thread for the new or returning features to come in the next game..
 
I can't really see PD making the option to save data to the users PS4 available at any point sadly. Why would they after keeping the option away from us for so long! They seem to struggle to get games out on time, so putting time aside to give that option, if it wasn't built in to be easily changed from the start is remote imho. And a way to ensure people move on to the new game is to make the previous one virtually unusable as quickly as possible, which without connection to servers, GT Sport is.

As someone who has had over 1+ years of their created content inaccessible from a corrupt online save, it is not a nice experience, and shows that online saves are are not foolproof. If I would have been able to have a copy of my data saved to my PS4 and also backed up somewhere else via USB, there would have been no problem. As it was, I had to start again. :( But with less enthusiasm, and playing it less often.
 
At the very least, I'd hope they'd offer the chance to download saved photos and replays to the hard drive. I don't see why they couldn't, even if only for a limited time.
Can't that be done with screenshots and through the capture gallery, or does it have limitations with resolution/quality or other such things?

I'd be amazed if they were truly arrogant enough to simply outright shut the game down with no off line option, that would be a huge act of ill will towards their customers.

Servers ond on line racing will have to go fairly quickly in order to encourage the playerbase migration and sales, but stripping away the game altogether from people who might not be able to upgrade for whatever reason?
 
I really think that the offline saves are a thing of a past now because of hacks.
So what? I mean as long as i don't bother others i can do as i please.

Offline saves mean nothing if they turn the servers off.

The real thrill is in racing against other players.
No for everyone GT Sport is a 🤬 show and you have to pay for as well no thanks im good 👍 . And besides you could race real people in GT5/6 and they didn't become unplayable bricks like GT Sport will .
 
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