Gran Turismo Sport, controversially, tied save files to a server – raising understandable preservation concerns, in addition to an abundance of other issues. However, as Polyphony Digital has terminated the title’s online services, it’s released one final patch which will allow existing owners to save their progress offline, effectively ensuring the title can continue to be enjoyed despite the server switch-off.
Obviously, the termination of the release’s online services means features like Open Lobby and Sport Mode will henceforth be inaccessible, but all of the offline content will remain – and your progress in them.
“We would like to thank the many users of the Gran Turismo Sport online service since its first launch in 2017,” Polyphony Digital said. “From here on, we will continue to further improve the online services for the currently available title Gran Turismo 7.”
While this is a positive step from a preservation perspective, it should be noted that select Trophies will no longer be unlockable, and all DLC was removed from the PS Store late last year. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal situation, but it’s good that Polyphony Digital has patched the racer to allow offline saves – this at the very least preserves some parts of the experience for those who wish to continue enjoying it.
[source gran-turismo.com]
Comments 20
A feature that should've been in the game since day 1.
Good for players who still playing this game but should have been there day one
I hope ubisoft take note.
One little patch to preserve the game. Look how easy that was.
This at least leaves hope in the future for the eventual sunsetting of GT7
This should be the case for all online games when they get turned off but at least this makes me more confident that GT7 and its amazing VR mode will be preserved
This was always going to happen. Online saves are to eliminate cheating. There's a reason for everything.
Agreed it should have been there day 1 but I’m glad they finally added it. I picked up a copy of this game on clearance a few years ago and never got around to it, so now I can play through the campaign and it won’t just be a glorified demo disc.
I know GT7 is better but I’d rather play this first. Good stuff!
@tinCAT-zero I think you meant 'eliminate', not 'illuminate' but I agree there are valid reasons to make saves online, even if it's unpopular. On top of cheating it also prevents people save hacking to unlock cars and breaking the in-game economy.
Most games never add this so while I agree I would have rather had this much earlier I am thankful they added it at all, most don't and let their game discs become tea coasters.
@themightyant
Don't know how I did that 😊, it's fixed now.
Man reading about stuff like this makes me think of the past few years and man things have sucked outside of gaming ugh 😑
@tinCAT-zero Easy to happen especially with auto-correct! Could have said something a lot worse. lol
That's a good thing to do but you can still play the game online on a private server if someone in the GT Sport community wouldn't mind making one.
Well I finish GT Sport at over 1,000 hours played with 1022 Daily Race wins out of 1954
1323 Pole Positions and 977 fastest laps
Can't believe people actually believed everything would be shut off including save functionality. A game without a save functionality is basically not a game. @PixelDragon you were one of those people, remember our back and forth hahaha. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/09/chequered-flag-for-gran-turismo-sport-as-online-services-shut-down-in-january-2024#:~:text=Chequered%20Flag%20for%20Gran%20Turismo,in%20January%202024%20%7C%20Push%20Square
@Gigawatt-Kapow Absolutely. The Crew deserves this.
That should be on any game day one...
If it's not clear, the campaign mode, known as GT League should still be accessible. Not sure if it's possible to recover the online saves now the servers are officially shut down though, so it may mean a brand new restart to the campaign.
As someone who was there out of curiosity when it happened the livery editor being available in 1.68 offline was funny but 1.69 with a 172MB patch it's not.
Livery sharing/Sport Mode sportsmanship videos trophies (2 trophies) aren't accessible so don't go for the platinum if you didn't get them already. The Sportsmanship videos I never knew about as I never used Sport mode, no time trial which doesn't require PS+ or knowing anything about those dropdown menu options, but just by the trophies found out (and recorded them with the PS4 recorder encase I care to watch them) and as I didn't use the livery editor till this January then yeah I got that trophy but because I started liking and adding to library and sharing my 2 car liveries due to working it out myself in the menus and getting the trophy. I never used those features prior as had no need to and wasn't sure what was PS+ required or not. They aren't but both un-completeable now due to being removed with this 1.69 patch.
If the VR tour wasn't I'd have gone hmm false advertising on the banner on the box but as it was an offline mode like the rest of arcade not surprised. The fact the whole game's singleplayer is playable is great. The unlocking I wasn't sure as later license tests or later driving missions require a level cap so you couldn't access them in offline mode in the past prior to this patch. Weird right. PSN down due to firmware or offline mode made GT Sport progression wise stupid but this patch fixes those issues after 7 years. GT Sport really was a fair test but also a joke when it came to the serverside stuff. Now people getting the game cheap (instead of just playing and no saving so no progression at all to be made, no brand central cars) can actually play the game offline properly. XD Stupid I should even have to say that 7 years later due to bad programming and serverside restrictions from a AAA company.
So I praise them for fixing it and making it fully playable 7 years later and other games with online requirements should do the same of this offline playability but I also want to tell them their programming sucks.
From bad AI scaling in career events still to serverside nonsense that shouldn't have been in place for 7 years because they didn't notice while I did tests so easy to spot in QA testing for offline states the idiot programmers.
I hate I had to delete as much as the whole game off my base PS4 hard drive aka about 100GB just because it had to do a 172MB patch. WTF Sony/Polyphony make better patching and hard drive detection systems. What a joke.
So I just did the update to my external hard drive that had plenty of free space instead and the copying took a bit to apply 172MB to 100.6 or .7 once updated on an external due to compression but on a base PS4 hard drive it's 106GB (1.68 I have images showing base hard drive and external I didn't bother to transfer the 107GB again and waste 20+ minutes transferring it, on PS5 sure but on PS4 no way already too much time to see a 106GB to whatever number change XD not that desperate) probably 107GB, so quite the difference there.
Online saves were accessible in offline mode (PSN not accessible due to a firmware update or a PS4 in offline mode). I know because I checked months even a year for this not just when 1.68 and 1.69 happened. So whatever your last online save was would be fine well whatever locally you had at least and it would check with the server still and compare on that end I think.
Also trophies for the livery editor and the sport mode 2 sportsmanship videos are now un-achieveable too I don't think Polyphony thought about that so the game can't be platinumed if you didn't do those.
I didn't even know how to do the livery sharing one till like the day of it. I just liked a bunch of posts and shared 2 of my car livery designs. I only did those for the achievements and that's it and I can't access achievements anymore the whole profile menu is dead.
I did the 2 sportsmanship video at random when browsing trophies and watched them/recorded them with the PS4 recording feature. I didn't use Sport mode the entire time not even time trial that wasn't PS+ required. So I'd have never known otherwise.
There is no real benefit to having a 1.68 file anyway. 1.69 is better due to manual saving and playing the game properly now for the campaign, 1.68 offline with the livery editor unpatched is the only real reason the rest online wasn't accessible anyway I know because like I said it's like the firmware PSN services are down situation. I do think they should have left the livery editor. Just cut the discover and uploading/sharing part but nope unless you used it prior/downloaded any to add to your library you can't change the colour or designs of the car at all just stock colours from the brand central versions of the games.
Manual saving is great but why this server nonsense and encryption for save file editing and cheating when they have to patch the game regardless it just shows their stupidity. If they already patch exploits then the servers are useless or Polyphony suck at making games on that side of things. XD So the servers are worthless. The PSP/PS3 save file deletion methods were better at this and they went unnoticed or undertalked about till I added them to the wiki (not that people have read them probably but I like to add details like this as they are important details about the games on a tech side no one else has added to the wikis or tested).
I already have issues with the AI being unfair in many campaign events they just run away easily in the F1 style events let alone any endurance ones I can tune the car all day it doesn't matter but other events no problem. It's backwards.
I grinded credits because I didn't know if brand central would be up. It's a good thing it was in this patch but I thought this way because for progression sure it makes sense right you can't without a dealership.
But with the firmware update of my PS4, and the PSN server side you can't access it. Yes so when the server requirement was there if you had PSN access blocked or PS Store and so on because the firmware update blocks it as Sony intends and always has you couldn't access brand central as it like Sport and Lobby modes were blocked access. Tell me how weird that is.
That's why I grinded credits for whatever cars I needed to 'access' the events in the campaign is I didn't know if they'd patch brand central or not.
I don't feel stupid for doing it if I had no idea what they would patch and I got a lot out of the game for that month but still.
The thing I ask is oh the servers are down and thankfully offline in a well handled way then Battleorn's death of a singleplayer experience or other online required games but we needed servers up, PS3/PSP memory card or hard drive/profile restrictions for save file editing or cheating for single player?
Like yes people find exploits or cheats but like come on just patch them not server side nonsense that clearly shows it doesn't work.
Yes in the PS2 days people upload their save files to places (and they didn't encrypt it that much then) but PS3/PSP you have a different console, maybe different user (only tried local accounts no PSN at all yet) memory card (PSP) or hard drive (not tested but I assume so) and your back to restarting the whole game and can't load the save. Like WTF.
I do this research and go 'seriously Sony and Polyphony' but GT Sport is offline in a good way thankfully due to this patch in a way I am glad they handled it then making it a arcade only product and the other events you'd be able to play about half the side content or the campaign maybe but with no saving so it'd be like having a console on all the time without a memory card or just restrictive without any cars but the arcade modes and whatever is assigned in licenses/driving missions/experience modes not the garage car events for some of those driving missions, so why is GT7 even more restrictive? It's just laughable.
The fact the game I tested in firmware PSN offline mode way before this I was like 'oh the brand central is offline that sucks for progression' yet with this 1.69 patch the brand central is accessible because without it you can't play the campaign, there is no gift cars, no achievements, and many unlocks of things you'd have to
I guess they'll do this for GT7.
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