Gran Turismo 7 fan creates credit-farming exploit
Following update which increased currency grind.
A Gran Turismo 7 fan has published a script-based exploit which can be used to grind currency, following controversial changes to the economy in PlayStation's racing game introduced via a patch last week.
The exploit uses the PS Remote Play app for your PC and a simple script to control the game without you having to play yourself.
Published by PSNProfiles user Septomor, the script is likely not something most users will attempt. Still, it highlights the lengths fans are going to counteract last week's unpopular patch.
"This is a method to 100 percent AFK farm credits," creator Septomor wrote on the PSNProfiles forum (thanks, VGC). "I know with nerfs people are not happy and are probably turned off by the enormous grind, or at least I am. So here are some scripts, created to adjust for those nerfs. Windows only for the time being."
Another fan, iLLmatic, published the below video which provides a simple guide to getting it working. The video claims this method earns around 550k credits per hour.
How does that compare to real-world money? Well, if you did pay into the game's controversial microtransaction system, 250k credits costs £4, while a larger lump of 750k credits costs £8.
The script brings back memories of the Gran Turismo series' old B-Spec Mode, which let an AI control vehicles based upon your instructions.
Eurogamer criticised Gran Turismo 7's microtransaction system upon the game's launch at the beginning of the month, when editor-in-chief Martin Robinson branded the whole thing as "grim".
"It's a particularly grim addition given that once you've rolled credits in Gran Turismo 7 the onus is on grinding out credits in races and events in order to purchase some of the more desirable cars," Martin wrote. Alternatively, those real-world money options offer a far faster shorcut.
Then came last week - when the game emerged from a heavily-criticised 24-hour period of downtime with nerfs to the credit payouts in certain events that had become favourite grinding spots for players.
Responding to the changes and the growing fan fury, Gran Turismo boss Kazunori Yamauchi defended the tweaks - in essence saying that some cars should be hard to get, and there would be new activities to earn credits in the future.
"In GT7 I would like to have users enjoy lots of cars and races even without microtransactions," Yamauchi wrote. "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. 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.
"We will in time let you know the update plans for additional content, additional race events and additional features that will constructively resolve this. It pains me that I can't explain the details regarding this at this moment, but we plan on continuing to revise GT7 so that as many players as possible can enjoy the game. We would really appreciate it if everyone could watch over the growth of Gran Turismo 7 from a somewhat longer term point of view."
In response, GT7 has now been hit with a wave of negative feedback on Metacritic - making it the lowest user-rated PlayStation game ever.