Gran Turismo Sport Adds Microtransactions

New Game Today:

In the July update for Gran Turismo Sport, several new cars are added, as well as the ability to buy cars for real money from the in-game or PlayStation Network stores.

Starting with this update, any car that costs less 2,000,000 in virtual currency can be purchased outright. You can check out a video detailing the update below.

The public reason for this is that it helps players without the time to grind for new cars an option to just buy them without needing to race for them. Previous Gran Turismo games have had microtransactions, as well, a criticism that Polyphony Digital head Kazunori Yamauchi said GT Sport had taken into account and eliminated.

Gran Turismo Sport is the only Gran Turismo game available on the PlayStation 4, but it has sold a little less than Gran Turismo PSP as of earlier this year.

The update is live now in Asia and North America, but the rest of the world will receive it on August 2.

 

I don't really like the idea of monetization models changing a year into a game's life to add microtransactions. If they really were concerned about players being able to get the cars with less work, they would have made them cost less in-game or upped the amount of virtual currency you get. This feels like it's taking advantage of people in a way that seems both ineffectual and unnecessary.

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