Following microtransaction criticism, Gran Turismo 7’s latest patch makes it harder to earn cars

A new patch for Gran Turismo 7 has reduced the amount of in-game currency many races reward, thereby making it harder to unlock new cars, even after widespread criticism of the game’s microtransations.

The racer’s latest patch (version 1.07) has reduced the payout of several races, while fixing two late-game races that were being used to farm credits due to a bug.

At launch, VGC reported that some of Gran Turismo 7’s cars cost as much as eight times what they did on Gran Turismo Sport, if purchased using real money.

While many racing games feature microtransactions, some of the more high-end cars in GT7 are so expensive that they require a significant amount of gameplay to obtain enough credits to buy them via normal means (with some cars potentially taking dozens of hours of racing).

Other cars (most notably high value ‘legendary’ cars) also rotate in and out of the various shops in the game, a tactic that could be perceived as the ‘FOMO’ effect – encouraging players to top up their in-game currency with real money so they’re able to afford a certain car before it’s gone.

On top of this, unlike in previous games in the series, players are unable to sell their cars to earn credits. Once a player has finished the game’s campaign, the main goal is to collect the Legend Cars, the most expensive cars in the game. Simply playing the game’s races over and over is the only in-game option to earn these cars.

As a result of this, some members of the community came up with a list of tracks that could be exploited for easy credits. This list appears to be the main target of the game’s latest patch.

The patch, which reduces the number of credits earned from specific races that players had been using to alleviate the grind towards these high-end cars, is being received poorly, especially as Gran Turismo 7 is a $70 / £70 game.

According to Discord user ddm, the following races have had their payout changed (new payout in bold):

• World Touring Car 800: 24 heures du Mans Racing Circuit: 5,000 Cr – 70,000 Cr
• World Touring Car 800: Monza Circuit: 5,000 Cr – 70,000 Cr
• World Rally Challenge: Alsace Village: 50,000 Cr – 30,000 Cr
• Dirt Champions: Fisherman’s Ranch: 65,000 Cr – 30,000 Cr
• Dirt Champions: Sardegna Windmills: 65,000 Cr – 40,000 Cr
• Dirt Champions: Colorado Springs Lake: 65,000 Cr – 40,000 Cr
• GT Cup Gr. 4: HIgh-Speed Ring: 65,000 Cr – 35,000 Cr
• GT Cup Gr. 4: Brands Hatch GP Circuit: 65,000 Cr – 45,000 Cr
• GT Cup Gr. 3:  Spa Francorchamps: 75,000 Cr – 50,000 Cr
• GT Cup Gr. 3: Suzuka Circuit: 75,000 Cr – 50,000 Cr
• GT Cup Gr. 3: Autodrome Lago Maggiore: 75,000 Cr – 50,000 Cr
• Clubman Cup Plus: High Speed Ring: 35,000 Cr – 25,000 Cr
• Clubman Cup Plus: Tsukuba Circuit: 35,000 Cr – 25,000 Cr
• Clubman Cup Plus: Goodwood: 35,000 Cr – 12,000 Cr
• American Clubman Cup 700: Special Stage Route X: 30,000 Cr – 15,000 Cr
• American FR Challenge 550:  Blue Moon Bay Speedway : 15,000 Cr – 10,000 Cr
• American FR Challenge 550:  Weathertech Raceway  Laguna Seca: 15,000 Cr – 10,000 Cr
• American FR Challenge 550: Willow Springs Raceway: 15,000 Cr – 10,000 Cr

Gran Turismo 7 allows players to spend real money to buy credits in order to purchase in-game cars.

Further reading

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Gran Turismo 7’s microtransactions are live, and GT Sports’ $5 cars now cost $40

Players can buy in-game credits in packs of up to $20 each

There are four packs of credits available on the PlayStation Store, costing the following amounts each:

• 100,000 credits – $2.49 / £1.99
• 250,000 credits – $4.99 / £3.99
• 750,000 credits – $9.99 / £7.99
• 2,000,000 credits – $19.99 / £15.99

Cars in the game range from tens or hundreds of thousands of credits for lower-spec vehicles to many millions of credits for the most high-performance ones.

Gran Turismo Sport let players buy individual cars as microtransactions, with the vast majority of cars costing between $0.99 and $4.99 each. This is no longer the case in Gran Turismo 7.

Now a Porsche 919 Hybrid 16, which can be bought for $2.99 in Gran Turismo Sport, can only be bought for 3,000,000 credits, which would require the player to spend at least $40.

There are numerous other examples, including:

• Aston Martin Vulcan ’16 ($4.99 in GT Sport) – 3,300,000 credits in GT 7 ($40)
• McLaren P1 GTR ’16 ($4.99 in GT Sport) – 3,600,000 credits in GT 7 ($40)
• Audi R18 TDI ’11 ($2.99 in GT Sport) – 3,000,000 credits in GT 7 ($40)