Update: Gran Turismo 7 Is Back Online, Polyphony Digital Apologizes And Addresses Microtransactions

gameinformer.com:

Update, 2:30 p.m., 3/18/22:

Gran Turismo 7 is back online after essentially being left unplayable for more than 24 hours following an earlier update. 

In a new blog post, GT7 producer Kazunori Yamauchi explains why a maintenance period that was expected to last a couple of hours lasted longer than a day. He said that right before the release of the 1.07 update, which is the one that left GT7 largely unplayable, Polyphony Digital “discovered an issue where the game would not start properly in some cases on product versions for the PS4 and PS5.” 

“This was a rare issue that was not seen during tests on the development hardware or the QA sessions prior to the release, but in order to prioritize the safety of the save data of the users, we decided to interrupt the release of the 1.07 update, and to make a 1.08 correctional update. That is the reason for the delay. My sincere apologies for the late report to everyone.” 

Yamauchi then addresses microtransactions in GT7. In update 1.07, the number of in-game credits earned for completing some tracks and races in the game was decreased, meaning it would be tougher to purchase cars. Some felt that this was to further push the microtransactions in the game, but Yamauchi says the team wants “users to enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions.” 

“At the same time, the pricing of cars is an important element that conveys their value and rarity, so I do think it’s important for it to be linked with the real world prices,” he continues. “I want to make GT7 a game in which you can enjoy a variety of cars lots of different ways, and if possible would like to try to avoid a situation where a player must mechanically keep replaying certain events over and over again