Gran Turismo 7 players are not happy with the racing series’ latest release, and they are making their voices heard. In response to a maintenance outage lasting almost two days, as well as complaints about aggressive microtransactions, players have review bombed Gran Turismo 7 on Metacritic, pushing its user score to a dismal 1.8 at the time of writing.
When reported by Kotaku, the game’s user score was sitting at 2.8, and has only been pushed lower since then. Reviewers cite complaints such as not being able to resell cars on the marketplace, developer Polyphony Digital cutting the amount of in-game currency earned by racing, long maintenance periods, the game’s always-online playstyle, and more.
While many of the negative reviews were posted during the game’s extended downtime, which Polyphony Digital attributed to a “rare” startup issue on the PS4 and PS5, negative reviews have continued since the game’s servers were brought back online.
One of the biggest complaints involves the price of the game’s top-tier premium vehicles, which rotate through the game’s digital storefronts in a way that players say encourage spending on microtransactions. Developer Polyphony Digital has even seemingly made it more difficult to earn these vehicles through regular play, slashing the earnings players get from winning on certain tracks.
Series founder Kazunori Yamauchi defended the in-game vehicle pricing in a statement released after the game returned from its extended maintenance period. “I would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions,” Yamauchi wrote. “At the same time the pricing of cars is an important element that conveys their value and rarity, so I do think it’s important for it to be linked with the real world prices.”
While the developer has promised that future events and upcoming content will “will constructively resolve” the issue, players are still vocally unhappy with how the game functions as of the latest patch.
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