Gran Turismo 7 (commonly abbreviated as GT7) is a racing video game developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is the eighth mainline release, the fourteenth game overall in the Gran Turismo series, the second game to be released on the PlayStation 4, and the first on the PlayStation 5.[1] The game was released on the 4th of March, 2022, on both consoles.
The game utilizes various features of the PlayStation 5, including ray-tracing, 3D audio, fast loading times from the console's SSD, and haptic feedback. Support for PlayStation VR2 was added in February 2023, with more features such as being able to play the whole campaign in VR mode, rather than the dedicated VR mode like in Gran Turismo Sport.
Development
Initial hints
In an interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu (and translated by Polygon.com) in September 2013, series creator Kazunori Yamauchi mentioned that GT7 would be coming to the PlayStation 4 console "in a year or two". He also mentioned that it will be based on the same physics engine that Gran Turismo 6 uses.[2]
In an interview with GamesTM magazine in October of the same year, Yamauchi semi-confirmed a release for Gran Turismo 7 "sometime in 2015 or 2016". He also spoke about how much more powerful the game will be on the PS4 and how much easier it is to develop on the new console versus the previous release, Gran Turismo 6, on the PlayStation 3.[3] The target release year was not met, however.
In 2016, a mention of GT7 was spotted in Nissan Motor Philippines' website for the 2016 GT Academy Philippines competition held between July 1 to August 31, 2016. Due to the timing, it is very likely the live event pods were actually using a pre-release version of GT Sport.[4] (Coincidentally, GT Sport is internally codenamed as "GT7SP").
In a 2018 interview with Japanese game news site Game Watch, Kazunori Yamauchi stated that since the release of Gran Turismo Sport, Polyphony Digital have begun working on the next Gran Turismo game.[5][6] This may suggest that GT7 did indeed start development on the PlayStation 4 (there are rumors that developers began receiving the then-upcoming PlayStation 5 developer kits as early as March 2017, but the developer kits were not reported to the public press until late 2019).
Announcement & Release Period
On June 11, 2020, on the day of the PlayStation 5 announcement stream, a trailer was released announcing GT7, signifying that GT7 will return to the series' roots. This has been the only mention of GT7 since the interview with Kazunori Yamauchi in 2013.
It was confirmed by PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan that GT7 would be delayed until 2022, citing development issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the confirmation, there were no news of the game for a while until Genesis announced their cars for the Manufacturer Series at the 2021 Monterey Car Week, although Sony was not involved in that announcement .[7]
On June 2, 2021, a blog post was released which hinted that it may also arrive on the PlayStation 4.[8] This was later confirmed during the 2021 PlayStation Showcase stream. The following months saw the announcement of Brembo becoming a technical partner alongside Michelin, the Behind the Scenes video series on Gran Turismo's official YouTube channel, gameplay videos of both Deep Forest and Daytona, the unveiling of the Porsche Vision GT, and culminating on the State of Play showcase being held on February 2nd, 2022.
Features
- There are three dealerships in the game:
- Brand Central, for 21st century (2001 and newer) cars. These cars can be purchased at any time, although some cars may require an invitation.
- Used Car Dealership (operated by Auto Plus), for road and "professionally tuned" cars from almost every model year. Many cars are available at a time, although some cars must be purchased in time before the stock runs out (a new mechanic for used car dealerships).
- Legend Car Dealership (sponsored by Hagerty), for legendary road cars and race cars of years past. Up to ten cars (more if counting the 'Special Picks' selections) are available at a time.
- GT Café serves as the game's career, where the player must complete quests given by Luca, mostly completing car collections and winning championships.
- World Circuits serves as the hub to career races in the game. Many of the races also feature Gran Turismo World Series drivers as AI opponents.
- License Tests returning from GT6, where the player must complete several challenges in order to gain admission to certain races. There are five levels with two difficulty variants (as of v1.40) (National B and A, International B and A, and Super); however, only the National licenses are required for progression.
- Mission Challenges also return, with various missions to complete involving various racing disciplines, including drag racing.
- Sport Mode also return with Daily Races and annual online esports events, although made less of a focal point compared to Sport's.
Car List
- Main article: Gran Turismo 7/Car List
Building from Sport's car list as its foundation, there are currently 536 cars (533 regular cars, 3 special editions) in the game as of version 1.59 with more added on monthly content updates.
The game originally started with 425 regular cars, with 105 added through in-game updates, as well as two more special edition vehicles.
Track List
- Main article: Gran Turismo 7/Track List
The tracks featured in GT7 include every track from GT Sport, with the returns of Daytona, High Speed Ring, Trial Mountain, and Deep Forest, as well as new layouts for Alsace and Maggiore at launch.
Tracks that were added post-launch include IMSA circuits, such as Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta, as well as the return of Grand Valley under the new name of Grand Valley Highway 1, and a new snow circuit: Lake Louise. In version 1.49, Eiger Nordwand makes its return to the game, albeit in only the short road layouts. There are currently 39 environments and 118 layouts featured in the game.
Updates
- Main article: Gran Turismo 7/Updates
So far, there have been twenty-nine content updates for Gran Turismo 7, released almost monthly since April 2022, with some quality-of-life updates in-between.
Trailers
Gran Turismo 7 Announcement Trailer
Gran Turismo 7 Release Date Trailer-2
Trivia
- This is the first game in the franchise to be released on two platforms, namely, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
- The game also marks the first time where Polyphony Digital has partnered with IMSA, hence, the addition of tracks such as Watkins Glen and Road Atlanta.
- This is the second mainline game in the series to share the same menu sound effects as its predecessor, the first being Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, which shares the sound effects of Gran Turismo 2.
- Various race cars have their names simplified (e.g. Toyota Castrol TOM'S SUPRA '97 became the "Toyota Supra GT500 '97"), likely owing to livery support for the cars, and that some cars may have other livery variants integrated in their color selection (mostly apparent with Gr.3 cars).
- The "Simulation Mode" menu is inspired by that of Gran Turismo 4, featuring a map with many icons relating to various features of the game.
- By the 2021 PSX trailer, the menus were updated to appear 3D and life-like (now in the form of an island instead of a generic, darkened silhouette of a city), and that it can also transition from day to night.
- The island is officially called the "Gran Turismo Resort" in-game.
- The game's dynamic time of day and weather features realistic skies depending on the location of the tracks, as well as constellations at night.
- The in-game HUD is the same to the one in Sport, but with a few minor differences.
- The Porsche Vision Gran Turismo (blue) and the Mazda RX-Vision GT3 Concept (red) appear on the game's cover art.
- It references the older Gran Turismo covers that were colored in blue and red.
- It is also the first game in the series whose cover features a Vision Gran Turismo vehicle and with multiple unique cars on the cover; in this case, two different cars (for reference, Gran Turismo Concept in its Tokyo-Seoul version had three identical Hyundai Tuscani '01 models on the cover).
- Just like in Gran Turismo Sport, GT7 will require a constant online connection for a majority of the game's features, let alone, saving game progress, and that players will only be able to use a stripped-down form of Arcade Mode when offline.
- GT7 is the first game to include official drag races in some form, as Mission Races. Drag races finally made their debut in the franchise, after originally being cut from Gran Turismo 2.
- The game is withdrawn from sale in Russia (both physically and digitally; the distribution of PlayStation-related hardware and software has been suspended there, and their PS Store is also temporarily closed) following their invasion of Ukraine.
- Prices of cars in the game (primarily in Legend Cars) reflect their real-world inflated prices (owing to a supply and demand law like in real life), or price sold at auctions.
- For example, the McLaren F1 '94 can cost up to Cr. 20,000,000; with microtransactions, this could cost up to $200 (not including tax); roughly the price of three full-priced games.
- This aspect, coupled with reduced payouts for certain World Circuits events in version 1.07, caused controversy amongst the community, culminating in the game being review-bombed on Metacritic shortly after the game's release.
- It should be noted that despite the fact that certain cars' real world values could exceed over $20 million in real life, Cr. 20,000,000 is apparently the ceiling price (highest limit) of cars sold in the game. However, New Body tuning option for these cars can exceed Cr. 20,000,000, as the tuning options costs 1.2 times the price of the original car.
- For example, the McLaren F1 '94 can cost up to Cr. 20,000,000; with microtransactions, this could cost up to $200 (not including tax); roughly the price of three full-priced games.
References
- ↑ Gran Turismo 7 Revealed for PlayStation 5. GTPlanet.net. Published 2020-06-11. Accessed 2020-06-11.
- ↑ Gran Turismo 6 producer talks physics engines, smartphone linkups, and the presumed GT7. Polygon. Published 2013-09-11. Accessed 2013-09-12.
- ↑ PS4 to Make “Incredible Difference” for Gran Turismo 7, says Kazunori Yamauchi. GTPlanet. Published 2014-10-13. Accessed 2014-10-13.
- ↑ GT Academy 2016 Philippines website
- ↑ 2018 Game Watch Kazunori Yamauchi interview (Japanese)
- ↑ Kazunori Yamauchi Hints at Next Gran Turismo at Taipei Game Show - GTPlanet
- ↑ Genesis Reveals Vision Gran Turismo Concept and GT Championship Racers - GTPlanet
- ↑ Hermen Hulst Q&A: What’s Next for PlayStation Studios - PlayStation.Blog. Published 2021-06-02.
External links
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