Gran Turismo 7’s campaign is always-online, and fans are not thrilled
Studio president says it’s to prevent cheating and save file manipulation
www.polygon.com
Gran Turismo 7 has an always-online campaign mode. While these requirements are increasingly par for the course, particularly in sports and racing games with big career modes, that doesn’t mean the series’ community is particularly happy about it.
The requirement was subtly mentioned in a PlayStation Blog post a day after Sept. 8’s PlayStation Showcase 2021, where the driving simulator’s launch date was finally revealed. The blog post from Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi references the return of the Gran Turismo Campaign mode — this is the first numbered GT since 2013 — but asterisked that remark with a fine-print mention that “these features require internet connection.”
In an interview published Thursday, Eurogamer wanted to clarify immediately what the single-player campaign’s requirements were. Yamauchi told Eurogamer that the GT Campaign does require an online connection to play, in order “to prevent cheating overall from people trying to modify the save data.”
“The only part of the game that doesn’t require an online connection is the arcade mode, because that has no effect on the save data,” Yamauchi added. “But anything that has to do with the save data requires a connection. For example, things like the livery data as well — that’s something that is downloaded from the online server.”
Players in the series’ subreddit, and on a ResetEra thread, aren’t convinced of the online requirement’s necessity. “There’s got to be a way to keep online integrity without fucking over your paying customers once the servers go offline,” said one.
“Forza is able to segregate the online and campaign,” they added, referencing Forza Horizon 5, which launches in November for Xbox One and Xbox Series X. “Why can’t GT?”
