Gran Turismo 7 Review Bombed After A Huge Launch Problem
Gran Turismo 7 and developer Polyphony Digital are now in trouble with fans after a massive issue causes a review bombing.
Gran Turismo 7 is in a lot of trouble. While the life-like racing game is always one of the highest-reviewed ventures in that genre, there always seems to be some sort of online issue every time a new edition drops. This time the game developer, Polyphony, did not alert players of some extended and unexpected maintenance, leaving the servers down for more than 24 hours. Because the game functions better as a multiplayer offering, fans were locked almost completely out of the game. While Polyphony apologized for the maintenance, it led many fans to review bomb the game on Metacritic.
The critic rating for the game certainly holds a high score (87 out of 100 as of now), with the game getting near perfect reviews from a ton of game new publications, it has an awful 2.2 from the fan experience aspect of the Metacritic website. That is just downright terrible. Much of the comments from users are zeroes, with the complaints surrounding the terrible way in which Gran Turismo 7 is structured. Instead of being able to play a single-player mode, the servers are essentially limiting anyone from enjoying an experience where they don’t need to be in an online server. This is not a good look for Sony or Polyphony. User complaints are also stating that microtransactions in the game are the reason why there is a lack of a single-player presence and why the servers were down for over 24 hours.
One sure way to make gamers flock to another game or ask for a refund is to bombard them with mindless microtransactions. The issue surrounding Gran Turismo 7 is that players were already angered by the fact that in-game credits are so meager, it would take a ton of grinding out of races to even afford some of the best cars. You couple those high credit demands with microtransactions and a 24-hour server hold, then you basically get a giant cocktail of 2.2 ratings. Fans of the game are now wanting refunds after they claim there are far too many issues with the online capabilities without more of an ability to be able to play in single-player mode.
President and CEO of Polyphony Digital, Kazunori Yamauchi, made a statement in regards to why the servers had to be taken down. According to Yamauchi, “Immediately before the release of the 1.07 update, we discovered an issue where the game would not start properly in some cases on product versions for the PS4 and PS5.” Apparently, there had been even more launch issues for the Playstation consoles, not allowing players to load the game at all. Instead of dealing with that firestorm, they decided to shut down the servers to address both the 1.07 and 1.08 updates. Unfortunately, that led to even more angered customers, who have since let their opinions be known about Gran Turismo 7 and its online server maintenance issues.
While the servers for Gran Turismo 7 are now operational, the damage to the game’s reputation has already been done. The Metacritic score paints a clear picture that players are clearly upset with the functionality of the game’s servers and the high-priced cars that can only be purchased with microtransactions. It may take some time for Polyphony to figure out a middle ground to ensure their players keep playing.
