PSA: Gran Turismo 7 is still unplayable due to ‘extended’ server maintenance

Rejoice – Gran Turismo 7’s servers are back up following a Version 1.08 update.

The pattern goes like this: The Gran Turismo website republishes a server maintenance notice with a date and times the game will be offline, usually one day ahead of time. Then, when the moment arrives, you can’t play Gran Turismo 7 for a couple of hours, which is usually really early in the European morning and late in the US evening.

A new patch is deployed, content is either added or fixed, the game comes back online and we continue playing.

Today, this didn’t quite work out.

The servers duly went offline on the 17th March 2022 between 6 am and 8 am UTC and have stayed offline every since. At the time of writing, that’s over 12 hours, and due to the online nature of Gran Turismo 7, it means that only very basic parts of the game are playable.

The Version 1.07 patch has been issued, and downloaded by many, promising to fix incorrect tyres fitted to cars in certain challenges and remove the quick-cash rally workaround.

I thought Music Rally was a superfluous oddity – now it turns out it’s essential, as you can still play that for now. You can also visit the World Circuits section of the World Map and run some single-player races against the AI from a set list of vehicles and at venues, you have unlocked.

But that’s it.

Gran Turismo fans are sat around, twiddling thumbs, longing for the days of the offline Arcade Mode in previous Polyphony Digital developed racing games.

Bummer.

The official statement reads: “We are extending today’s scheduled maintenance for the Gran Turismo 7 servers. We ask for your patience while we work to complete the maintenance.”

This was then updated with: “Due to an issue found with Update 1.07, we are extending the current server maintenance period. We will confirm the completion time as soon as possible.”

With a bit of luck, the appeal for this article is ephemeral, and it’s all sorted soon.

As to what the issue is, perhaps we’ll never know. But, what I do know is I’m playing Monster Energy Supercross 5 instead today. It’s actually pretty good.

If the game’s servers come online while we are sleeping, happy days!