'Gran Turismo 7' is back online following botched update

engadget.com:

Don't worry about making progress in Gran Turismo 7 this weekend — after more than a day, the lengthy maintenance downtime is over. The racing sim's vital online component is back online after Polyphony Digital resolved issues with the flawed 1.07 update by releasing 1.08 to gamers. As studio chief Kazunori Yamauchi explained, the earlier patch had a "rare" and previously undetected problem that prevented the game from starting properly for some PS4 and PS5 owners. The company decided to halt the 1.07 release to protect players' save data, Yamauchi said.

The 1.08 update also tackles complaints about Gran Turismo 7 microtransactions by adjusting event rewards. While Yamauchi wants in-game car prices to bear some correlation to their real-world counterparts, he also wants players to enjoy the title without microtransactions or grinding some events "over and over again." There will also be more content, events and features to "constructively resolve" gripes about real-money purchases, the executive said, although details aren't yet available.

The return will likely be appreciated by fans who've wanted to dive into Gran Turismo 7's main GT mode, which needs an internet connection whether or not you're playing with others. However, it also comes too late to avoid some damage to the game's reputation. Users have been review-bombing the game throughout the downtime, and it now sits at 3.3 on Metacritic. Like it or not, Polyphony and Sony may have to rebuild the trust of enthusiasts burned by the outage.