By Thomas Harrison-Lord and Ross McGregor
Following a severe downturn in player sentiment due to server maintenance issues and reduced in-game credit payouts in recent weeks, a roadmap for Gran Turismo 7 has been issued and it includes new events, greater rewards and the promise of new vehicles.
In addition, 1 million credits will be issued today (25th March 2022) and the ability to sell cars will also be arriving in the ‘near-term’. A Version 1.09 update has also hit.
New Missions arrive at the ‘beginning of April’
A clearer picture of how Gran Turismo 7 will evolve has been posted by Series Producer Kazunori Yamauchi on the PlayStation Blog, explaining that “as we develop as a live service” new features, events and cars will be added.
It seems soon rather than later, as at the ‘beginning of April’ a whole host of new events and credit payout changes will arrive.
As reported in March, new ‘Missions’ will arrive within Gran Turismo 7 after launch, with this April update seeing the first new batch. Amongst them will be eight new one-hour Endurance Race events. Due to their length, and presumed difficulty, these will feature ‘higher reward settings’.
At present, there are 48 Missions within six Missions groups. You thought you’d already got ‘All-Gold’, didn’t you…
Increased reward payouts
Alongside the new Missions, you will receive great payouts for completing online races and Circuit Experiences. World Circuits events ‘in the latter half’ will receive payout bumps of ‘approximately 100 per cent on average.’
At present, for completing a Circuit Experience, you received a measly 3,000 credits for completing each Sector and 15,000 credits for the 1 Lap Attack. How much the payouts will increase for these and the online races remain unclear at this stage.
Credit Cap and car availability tweaks
The current credit limit within Gran Turismo 7 is 20 million credits. Getting there is a challenge, but doubly frustrating when two 18m+ cars appear for a limited time within the Legend Cars pavilion.
Two changes will now hope to rectify this, as the number of cars available in both the Used Car Dealership and Legend Cars pavilion will increase and the credit cap will grow to 100 million credits.
At present, 15 cars are in the Used Car Dealership – excluding the augmented listing when playing through Café Menu Books – and five within Legend Cars each day.
New cars and tracks coming in April
Gran Turismo 7 is set to receive new track layouts, cars and other fixes by the end of April. Now, specifically saying ‘track layouts’ doesn’t necessarily mean all-new circuits but could mean additional course layouts to existing tracks.
If we look at Autodrome Lago Maggiore from GT Sport, for example, we see it has gained an additional four variations in Gran Turismo 7: East End, East End Reverse, West End and West End Reverse. The same can be said of Alsace and its Test Course and Test Course reverse layouts.
So, although Gran Turismo 7 players will be clamouring for more real-world tracks, or Apricot Hill, it’s most likely that we’ll see some of the existing circuits reworked.
What about new cars then? Well, if GT Sport’s tenure is anything to go by, keep an eye on Kazunori Yamauchi’s Twitter feed. The game’s visionary creator regularly tweeted silhouetted teaser images of upcoming cars, allowing GT fans to speculate on their next four-wheel runabout.
It was an effective way to build hype and suspense, especially for car geeks, so it would make sense to see this method of content unveiling return. Fans will especially be looking forward to seeing more 2021/2022 models, as some felt the game lacks some of the most up to date vehicles.
24 Hour endurance races will return
Due to the impressive time of day and changeable weather condition options with Gran Turismo 7 – genre-leading, no less – it was a bit of a shame that outside of Lobbies, there aren’t many longer races to sink your teeth into.
That is set to change, not in April, but at some point post-launch, and even including 24-hour races.
These were a staple of older Gran Turismo games. You either loved them or never went anywhere near them. Let’s hope there’s an option to save your progress mid-race…
Further changes in the near-future
As we’ve discussed in a separate article, in the ‘near future’, the ability to sell cars – notable only by its absence so far – will arrive for Gran Turismo 7 soon.
Alongside this, additional World Circuits events will also arrive, bolstering the number of races you’re able to progress through. The payout value of limited-time rewards will rise too, alongside leaderboard enabled online Time Trials, presumably within the Sport Mode pavilion.
Every change coming to Gran Turismo 7 in April
- Increase rewards in the events in the latter half of the World Circuits by approximately 100% on average.
- Addition of high rewards for clearing the Circuit Experience in all Gold/All Bronze results.
- Increase of rewards in Online Races.
- Include a total of eight new one-hour Endurance Race events to Missions. These will also have higher reward settings.
- Increase the upper limit of non-paid credits in player wallets from 20M Cr. to 100M Cr.
- Increase the quantity of Used and Legend cars on offer at any given time.
- New cars
- New course layouts
Every change coming to Gran Turismo 7 in the ‘near future’
- Increase the payout value of limited time rewards as we develop as a live service.
- Further World Circuit event additions.
- Addition of Endurance Races to Missions including 24-hour races.
- Addition of Online Time Trials and awarding of rewards according to the player’s difference with the top ranked time.
- Make it so cars can be sold.
Gran Turismo 7 Version 1.09 update changelog
Version 1.09 PlayStation 4 – 225MB
Version 1.09 PlayStation 5 – 347.5MB
Daytona International Speedway
- Fixed an issue wherein swerving suddenly on entry to the pit road on Tri-Oval and Road Course would cause the pit stop sequence to be skipped and the car to move straight to the exit.
Sport & Lobby
- Fixed a very rare issue wherein an application error would occur in an online race or Lobby upon entry to the race event.
My Page
- Fixed an issue wherein the values for ‘Clean Races,’ ‘Fastest Laps,’ ‘Pole Positions’ and ‘Victories’ statistics shown under the ‘Sport’ category in the Profile section would not display correctly;
- Fixed an issue wherein the value for the ‘Races’ statistic shown under the ‘Sport’ category in the Profile section was displayed as double the correct amount.
Others
- Fixed a rare issue wherein the game progression would reset if the game was started with an unstable network connection.
Free Credits
- All players who purchased Gran Turismo 7 digitally or physically before 25th March 2022 will receive 1 million in-game credits, located as a Gift within your Garage, and redeemable before 25th April 2022