The July update for Playstation’s premier racing simulator GT Sport brings a new track, several new cars, helmet decals, 3 new events and more to the already packed racing experience. In a controversial move, the ability to purchase in-game vehicles with real-life money is also being added with the update. Check out the trailer for the new update.
Polyphony Digital, the esteemed developer behind the legendary Gran Turismo franchise, teased this month’s update early in July via Twitter. It turned out to be one of the more substantial additions to the unique entry. Gran Turismo Sport had a somewhat confusing launch, with fans not sure how the quasi-always-online game would play and pan out.
After more than half a dozen games into the franchise, the backlash must have been big enough for the developer to back-paddle with a December update last year, bringing back features more known from the singleplayer experiences of past games.
Discussions about the state of the franchise still persist however, since Gran Turismo is no longer the giant in sales as it used to be. That doesn’t mean the new games are failures however, with millions of active players each month, GT Sport continues to attract racing aficionados to the Playstation ecosystem.
Maybe it is this force of attraction which made Sony turn GT Sport into a more online focused experience. Gran Turismo games were for a long time an early example of Games-as-a-Service, a type of game with a very long life cycle, supported extensively with post-launch content.
The new update today, which brings GT Sport to version 1.23, proves this by adding a respectable amount of 8 new vehicles, a new multi-layout racing track with “Circuit de Sainte-Croix” and the option to customize helmets with decals. The game also receives 3 new events and a few new scapes for the gorgeous photo mode. All pretty good stuff.
What could end up being a controversial addition with today’s update is the ability to purchase cars with actual money from the Playstation Store. While obviously a time-saving feature for those who don’t want or can’t invest the necessary time to earn cars in the game, microtransactions are vastly loaded with negative connotations.
It’ll be interesting to see how the community reacts to this new update. Especially seeing how Gran Turismo’s direct competitor Forza almost concurrently decided to remove all microtransactions from their game. And it’s not like the legendary game director behind all Gran Turismo games Kazunori Yamauchi promised there wouldn’t be any microtransactions in GT Sport… oh wait, he did.
