Microtransactions and the need to be always online has caused Gran Turismo 7’s user score to slip to just 2.0 out of 10.
There’s often a disconnect between the official Metascore from critics and the Metacritic user score, which doesn’t even use the same scale. Elden Ring, for example, has a score of 96 out of 100 on PlayStation 5, which is one of the highest ever, while its user score is a relatively low 7.9 out of 10.
That’s nothing compared to Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 5 though, which has a Metascore of 87 and a user score, at time of writing, of just 2.0. (The PlayStation 4 version doesn’t have a Metascore, because there aren’t enough reviews, but its user score is 3.0.)
The PlayStation 5 score is Sony’s lowest ever on Metacritic (‘beating’ the 2.9 of World Of Warriors) and, considering what people are complaining about, it seems completely reasonable.
People often review bomb Metacritic and Steam for the pettiest of reasons but in the case of Gran Tursimo 7 their anger is entirely justified, and started when the game went down for scheduled maintenance last week – which was only meant to last a few hours but went on for more than 30.
That doesn’t necessarily sound that bad, except during that time almost the entire game was rendered unplayable, including the single-player.
Sony had always said that the game would be online-only but while that doesn’t have quite the stigma it once did, the problems with last week’s update made it clear just what kind of disruption that can cause. And then people found out what the update actually does…
Gran Turismo 7 had already been heavily criticised for its microtransactions, which charge up to £160 for a single car, but with the update Sony made the most expensive cars even harder to acquire using earned in-game currency – with director Kazunori Yamauchi giving a tone deaf explanation for why, that only angered fans even more.
‘Say hello to another game that ruined its economy just after the launch/review window for the sake of microtransactions,’ begins one user review from UthersonL.
‘Sad that Polyphony Digital has gone the way of Rockstar and EA. They force online-only connection, even for single-player in order to keep tabs on their most prized aspect of the game: credits and microtransactions,’ writes Lischynski.
‘Absolutely appalling, disgusting behaviour by Polyphony and Sony. I never write reviews, but I felt compelled to warn people of the disgusting attempts to squeeze as much money as possible out of a loyal fanbase,’ adds buffalo-hump.
Metacritic does sometimes intercede during a review bombing, if it’s perceived to be for an unfair reason, but in this case that seems unlikely, and the user score is unlikely ever to recover.
Given Gran Turismo 7 was already one of the slowest selling entries in the usually blockbuster franchise the fan response is likely to have a significant influence on not just Gran Turismo but Sony’s general policy to always-online and microtransactions.
And if it doesn’t, they’ve only got themselves to blame.
Gran Turismo 7 is available now for PlayStation 4 for £59.99 and on PlayStation 5 for £69.99.
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