Credits serve as the sole currency in Sony’s recently released driving simulator,Gran Turismo 7,and can be used in a variety of ways. Players will earn Credits for completing races and other driving-related tasks, in order to do things likebuying new cars inGran Turismo 7.However, as in many other modern video games, it is also possible to buy the virtual currency using real-world cash through the PlayStation Store.
The excessive nature ofGran Turismo 7’s microtransactions has already been criticized by many in the community, and for very good reason. At the current prices, US players would need to spend at least $340 in order to purchasethe ten most expensive cars inGran Turismo 7, which is around the same price as an Xbox Series S and a copy ofForza Horizon 4. It’s now emerged, however, thatGran Turismo 7’s microtransactions are actually considerably cheaper in Japan than they are in the US.
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By going to the PlayStation Store, Japanese players can purchase 200 million Credits for ¥2,200, which, at the time of writing, works out at $18.99. By comparison,the most cost-effective Credit pack on the US PlayStation store comes in at $19.99, though this will only net players 2 million Credits rather than 200 million. It doesn’t take a mathematician to see that US players are being charged more than 100 times more than their Japanese counterparts.
It is worth noting that this is a special promotion, with Japanese players technically paying for 80 million Credits and receiving 120 million for free. Even so,Gran Turismo 7players elsewhere in the world will no doubt be wondering why they too can’t benefit from such a deal. There’s also the fact that 80 million Credits for ¥2,200 still works out to be around 40 times cheaper than it is in the US.
Regional pricing on the PlayStation Storeis fairly common these days, with many players using accounts registered to under-developed countries in order to pick up games for only a fraction of their cost in the states. The thing is though, Japanese prices are typically more or less in line with those on the US version of the site, making this huge discrepancy a little puzzling.
Of course, it is important to note that nobody is forcing players to purchase microtransactions, even if certain elements ofGran Turismo 7appear to have been designed to be intentionally grindy. In that sense,Gran Turismo 7’s excessive microtransactionsserve as time-savers, something that’s becoming increasingly common in modern games. It’s largely a first for a big Sony PlayStation exclusive, however, and, potentially, a worrying sign of what’s to come.
Gran Turismo 7is available now on PS4 and PS5.
