Just as the world seems to be scaling back on microtransactions and randomized rewards, developer Polyphonal Digital has announced that in the new July update for Gran Turismo Sport, it's added microtransactions. This, despite what CEO and series producer, Kazunori Yamauchi promised in 2017, when he said they would never add such money-spinning elements to the game.
If a car costs less than two million in-game currency, any player can now buy them for real money, as per Kotaku. This provides the "opportunity" for those without the time to grind for cars to get them outright straight away, but for many, this is just a pay to win mechanic to milk money out of a game with a declining player base.
GT Sport is the first Gran Turismo game in four years and its sales weren't as strong as expected, despite the series' historic success. That may be why microtransactions have been added a year on from its release, but it hasn't gone down well with the player base. Many have argued that instead of providing a paywall to a fast unlock system, Polyphonal could simply have made the game less of a grind.
As Kotaku highlights though, what's of most concern here is that the developer's stance on microtransactions has changed. Instead of sticking to its original word and not adding the purchase options in, its switched it up and did an about face instead. That shows that just because a game doesn't launch with exploitative money making systems in place, it may add them later.
